Luck Mervil in Botswana

“Learn to love your life and the life of people around you”
By: Nadia Berger, Uniterra Communication Advisor, University of Botswana (Gaborone)

“Learn to love your life and the life of people around you.” This was Luck Mervil’s message to Batswana during his one week mission in Botswana. From March 6th to 13th, the CECI and Uniterra spokesperson met with Uniterra volunteers and visited partner organizations. While there he sang and played with HIV positive children at Baylor Clinic, talked with orphans from Stepping Stones International and with students and widows at the University of Botswana. There were many opportunity for Luck Mervil to learn more about the situation in the country, the challenges faced every day by organizations in the field and see how Uniterra’s development workers are contributing to those organizations.

According to the Botswana AIDS Impact Survey (BAIS III), Botswana’s HIV prevalence rate is 17.6 per cent. It is the second highest prevalence rate in the world, according to the United Nations. Botswana is known for having one of the best HIV and AIDS strategies, but s why are the numbers not going down?

One of the major challenges organizations have to deal with is the mentalities of the local culture. According to Mervil this situation needs to be addressed because that is where the solution to the pandemic can be found.

“On the surface the messages are being sent, the government is doing their job on the surface, but the numbers keep going up. We try to understand, and we realize that there are a lot of cultural issues and taboos. They need to go deeper into the core of the problem. I think the solution is in the problem. We need to talk to people and help them to find solutions that belongs to them”, says Luck Mervil.

Some cultural habits continue to fuel the spread of HIV among women. Females age 30-34 are the most at risk with a prevalence rate of nearly 50 per cent. But, women may have one of the keys to the solution as they have an important role to play by learning to assert their sexual rights. For example, women will not be able to talk to their partner to find out if they are having other partners.

“Women will have to find ways to be able to ask their man if they do have multiple partners or not because it’s their life they are risking. These people are going to have to learn to love their lives enough to take the risk and ask,” says Luck.

This situation is widespread among the younger generation born in a time of HIV, a generation whom have lost parents, brothers, sisters, teachers and good role models. They have been taught, they are well aware of all the risks, but they don’t always realize the consequences, because “it’s in their culture”, they will tell you. This young generation has been charged as the “Window of Hope” and that is the essence of Luck Mervil’s message. To the young orphans at Stepping Stones International, to members of drama group at YOHO, to students at University of Botswana, he told them to have faith and, to stand up and talk and encourage them to spread the message.

“Respect yourselves enough, and respect the others lives enough to protect them. And I am asking them to send the message all over the place and to learn to talk, to learn to say things because what I have seen here is quite a passive nation. Passivity in front of such a disaster as HIV and AIDS it’s catastrophic. We cannot just say it’s our culture. Culture is there to help your people. If culture is killing your people you have to change your culture.”

This change will not happen tomorrow. But to have identified one of the sources of the problem is already a big step.

The desire to change things is there, but there is still a lot to do collectively to make it happen. During his mission Luck Mervil realized that more than ever grassroots organizations need Canadian expertise.

“There is a lot more to do. Botswana is one of the countries that are dealing the best with the economical crisis. They are not in such a bad situation. But obviously we have to provide as much people as we can, especially for organizational tasks. They need logistics. That is where the greatest needs are. They need people to help with logistics.”

Canadian contribution is an important link in the fight against HIV and AIDS in Botswana. Canadian volunteers help to build the capacity of governmental and grassroots organizations to fight against the pandemic and in return they gain international expertise to be shared in their country. Luck Mervil is now one of them.

Photo by Nadia Berger et Luck Mervil