During the 1990s and early 2000s, HIV/AIDS pummeled through southern Africa killing thousands. Although the epidemic has abated somewhat, the disease is still spreading through certain communities, including the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) population.
In Zimbabwe, where homosexuality is illegal and President Robert Mugabe has actively spoken out against the LGBTI community, health-care provider Caroline Maposphere works behind the scenes, trying to change the prevailing attitudes and laws without sparking a homophobic backlash like that in Uganda. Maposphere, who serves as a nurse, midwife, chaplain and gender advocate, will visit the Stanford campus this evening to discuss her efforts.
"She tells great stories about how you deal with the kind of social and community issues that lie around HIV prevention and gay and lesbian health issues in a very homophobic and resource-poor environment," said David Katzenstein, MD, a Stanford infectious disease specialist who met Maposphere in 1992 while working on the Zimbabwe AIDS Prevention Project.
Preventing the spread of HIV in Zimbabwe isn't as simple as handing out condoms or launching an education campaign, although those are key strategies, said Maposphere. The nation is poor, has few health-care facilities of any kind and LGBTI rights are non-existent. The traditional southern Africa culture view of homosexually, which was sometimes attributed to witchcraft, further complicates the issue.
"It's very difficult to reach out with services to groups that are not coming out in the open," Maposphere said. "We try to reach out and remove some of the barriers through discussion rather than being outright confrontational."
Maposphere often encounters LGBTI individuals who feel they have been shunned by God and have been excluded from their churches in the predominantly Christian nation. In an effort to offer spiritual guidance as well as health care, she earned a college degree in theology and hopes to explore the religious aspects of her work while at Stanford.
In addition, Maposphere is planning to connect with gay-rights activists here and learn effective methods for countering homophobia in her native country. "I'm very hopeful that things will change," she said.
The free discussion begins at 7:30 PM in the Vaden Education Center on the second floor of the health center on campus.
Previously: Remembering Kenyan statesman and Stanford medical school alumnus Njoroge Mungai, In poorest countries, increase in midwives could save lives of mothers and their babies, Sex work in Uganda: Risky business and In Uganda, offering support for those born with indeterminate sex
Photo by Remi Kaupp
