burundian gays fight hiv and sti’s

By Abeli Zahabu (BTM French Reporter)

BURUNDI – November 12, 2007: Even though Burundian laws are silent on homosexuality, organisations in that country such as Association pour le Respect et les Droits des Homosexuels’ (ARDHO) – a gay rights organisation formed in 2003 – have organised themselves in order to create awareness about, to advocate for and to protect gay rights.

ARDHO has been working since 2003 for the recognition of the rights and the respect of sexual minorities in that country. As a pressure group, it works mainly with NGOs fighting against HIV/ Aids.

Georges Kanuma, President of ARDHO, thinks that it is impossible for anti HIV/ Aids organisations to fight the disease when they do not talk openly about sexuality and still exclude homosexuality from their programmes. 

Describing where the organisation comes from, Kanuma says that it has not been easy.  “It was not until April [this year] that I was invited by the Conseil National de lutte contre le SIDA (CNLS) – a national council fighting against Aids in Burundi – to attend a conference. I was asked to make a presentation about the role that the gay community could play in the fight against HIV/ Aids and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI’s) in Burundi.”

For ARDHO, this conference was a golden opportunity to demonstrate to delegates, mainly youth’s organisations from Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, working in the fight against AIDS, that gay people have a role to play in the fight against this pandemic.

“It was the first time that a gay person opened up so publicly about his homosexuality and raised awareness to delegates that homosexuals are most vulnerable to HIV and Aids, and therefore they should be included in programmes that aim at fighting the disease”, Kanuma said.

While the conference was considered to be a big step in the fight against Aids in Burundi – particularly  within the gay community – and  raised awareness about the importance of close working relationship between gay people and non-governmental organisations, ARDHO on the another hand believes a lot still needs to be done to produce results and behaviour change in the society.

A thick cloud of taboo still hangs over Burundian society regarding homosexuality. “After the conference, no one wanted to talk about homosexuality. Only the Association National pour le Soutien des Seropositifs (ANSS) –a Burundian organisation supporting people suffering from Aids – offered  to work with sexual minorities to tackle the taboo around homosexuality in relation to AIDS”, said Kanuma.

Despite evolving in a hostile and homophobic environment, ARDHO has managed to create contacts and to be proactive.

“We were invited to attend a meeting in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso in October 2007. Its theme was MSM people have to collaborate with NGO’s fighting HIV/Aids where we shared our experiences with other participants from different parts of Africa.”

The Ouagadougou meeting bore fruits as ARDHO became recognised by HIV/Aids NGO’s. Kanuma was subsequently invited to attend a meeting with CNLS to talk about the association’s activities and its plans for the future.   

At that meeting, he invited other organisations working in the fight against Aids to join forces with the ANSS in order to prevent the spread of the disease in the gay community.

“We requested the CNLS to include the gay community in their future projects of fighting against Aids”, Kanuma said.

ARDHO is currently organising a conference which will include local and international NGO’s fighting against Aids themed ‘Homosexuality and HIV/Aids’.