Greetings to brothers and sisters in the mountainous district, Makete, who on one hand are working tireless to till the land through out the year and on the other hand fighting a pandemic HIV/AIDS, which not only has harvested life of many among our beloved brethrens but have left the majority sufferers.

 

To day, again a talk in our letter will base on a tour by the head of state his honourable president Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete to Makete district. Some people will be offended and they will say ‘look he is bringing in politics’, I will honestly be happy to answer YES! I talk politics. Do you know why? It is because every thing in Makete is politics.

 

When some one is talking about treatment in this district one should understand that the speaker mean politics, even inside the church they are politicizing, we saw how the election for the bishop last year was politicized. People had been going around day and night to campaign to ensure so and so elected for the post of the bishop.

 

Therefore, the trip of the president is very important to people who are hailing in Makete because what the president would have said in Makete would had great impact to the life of Maketeans. The president as any other top government official he could not finish his speech without mentioning the problem of HIV/AIDS in the district.

 

The district is among of the highly affected district. One would wonder, why should the president avoid discussing HIV/AIDS as it is obvious well known to many of us that, the diseases is the issue of concern to every one in the district.

 

Some of us have been very much troubled with unproportional relationships between the talk and the results from the ground. There have been a lot of positive statement yet the situation instead of improving to betterment it is reverting to square one, worse and worse.

 

Honourable Edward Lowassa former prime minister when addressing a public meeting in Bulongwa wanted to know why the trend is not changing to betterment. The people attending his meeting tried to ponder the question. They come out with some answers basing on the economic situation and social integrations of the Maketeans.

 

To my opinion there is more than what we can get from these peasants in the mountains. There are more than the so called socially and economical reasons. Inheritance of widows whether being an existing culture or perishing traditional and people from Makete going to work in the Tea plantation in Mufindi are not the only reasons for being not able to reduce the infection rate even dream of combating it.

 

Corruption is never mentioned in whatever case when asked at any meeting. Is it true that corruption do not contribute to that? During that meeting with the former Prime Minister, PIUMA stood up and mentioned corruption being a leading factor. The listeners opened their eyes very wide they could not believe, I was there, and I was surprised why should this reason puzzle the audience?

 

I came to realise that the answers we always hear from the villagers and every body in Makete when a question of why HIV/AIDS prevalence high in Makete are taught answers. The answers people give are not from their own finding. People of Makete are been taught to think and respond like that in many seminars conducted by corrupt leaders in Makete.

 

Government officials who for many years have been chasing for donor money to conduct ineffective seminars and workshops had never told their participants that they (the government officials) are one of the major factors in the spread of HIV/AIDS.

 

These greedy people have been the cause of the raising of the HIV barometer in Makete as they had never been accountable for the money they have been getting from different sources. I wonder some times even money from the very strict organisation and international funds like the Global Funds have gone amiss in the hands of these talented serpents.

 

Although there are some pending court cases for some few governmental officials that are accused to have been involved in the embezzlement of funds intended for HIV/AIDS, yet the trend of not being transparent  and unaccountable has grown deep roots in the working spirit of the civil servants in Makete District.

 

PIUMA leaders last week visited the district medical officer with an intention of asking the DMO to share with them the program and budget for heath department from the district of which HIV/AIDS falls in.

 

Surprisingly the DMO refused and could not offer any kind of cooperation. With such kind of civil servants officers who are not even ready to share the district plan and budget how could we move forward? And one should wonder the intention of the district Medical officer.

 

This kind of situation have been in Makete not only in the government office but in many cadres, the church for resistance, of which by virtue of being lead by people of cloth it have also fallen in the bottomless hole of unaccountability and serious embezzlement of donor funds. The church was supposed to show a rainbow of different colour pattern in terms of accountability and transparency, yet they have been the most awful pillar stones.

 

Members of Parliament some time in the year 2005 have collected more than 50 Millions in the names of helping PLHA and orphans in Makete. However asking the people in Makete you will be surprised, they never heard of a single cent from this money.

 

The Honourable minister of health blessing the lock out of a well working clinic for people living with HIV and banning to put in use a proved working technology in the world to help the people of Makete, such acts what should we call them?.

 

There have been uncountable number of registered and unregistered NGO in Makete; all behave the same. When it comes to money, there have been strong opaque and unaccountability regarding with funds.

 

In analyzing the situation very carefully and critically, one would obvious come to this conclusion, this is the first truth, bitter, as it may seem, that we have to acknowledge before we can start any programme designed to change the status quo. Maketeans under this leadership (whether from the church or government) have failed to change the situation for one main reason ‘corruption’ and abuse of human right.

 

People of Makete been reduced to an obliging shell to benefit those in power; they look with awe to the church, local district and ministry of health power structures and accept what they regard as the ‘inevitable answers’

 

I would think of a solution for kind of a problem is to let people living with HIV/AIDS part in the struggle against the pandemic. Steve Biko the South African freedom fighter would borrow me his words to express the need and the importance of bringing in the PLHWA in the battle against HIV.

 

The first step therefore is to make People Living with HIV/AIDS come to themselves; to pump back life into their empty shell; to infuse them with pride and dignity, to remind them of their complicity in crime of allowing themselves to be misused and therefore letting evil reign supreme in his country of birth. 

 

Until then,

 

Jackson Mbogela

Nidekile!

 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 at 9:42 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.