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Botswana has one of the
highest rates of HIV infection in the world: over 35%
of people are infected in a population of 1.75 million.
Although economically successful, Botswana has a high proportion
of its population living in poverty.
Despite increasing urbanisation the majority of the population
still lives in the rural areas and there is high mobility
whereby individuals and their families move within or outside
the country for work or to move between the cattle post, the
village home and the town.
In 2005 there were 380,000 adults and children living with
HIV. An estimated 120,000 children in Botswana have
lost at least one parent to the epidemic and life expectancy
at birth is now 40 years.
(Ref: WHO 2006 Report on the global AIDS epidemic)
There are high levels of sexual violence in Botswana (and
in Southern Africa as a whole) with teenage girls and younger
women particularly at risk.
Girls and women who have been sexually assaulted are at increased
risk of HIV infection through direct transmission and because
of the long-term effects of sexual violence on risk-taking
behaviour.
Contrary to conventional notions women are more likely to
be raped by an intimate partner, spouse or someone they know
than by a stranger. The abuse often continues over a relatively
long period of time.
Because women are often the first to test for HIV through
ante-natal services they are often blamed for bringing HIV
into the family or community and this blame can easily turn
to violence.
(Ref: “Facing the Future Together” Report of
the United Nations Secretary General’s Task Force on
Women, Girls and HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa).
Multiple bereavement, through the high incidence and death
rate from HIV and AIDS, is a devastating fact of life in Botswana.
Most families have been affected by at least one death and
this has economic as well as emotional consequences such as
poverty, despair and anxiety.
Another consequence is that surviving adults, usually women,
can be overburdened with the care of others while lacking
financial or emotional support.
The overall picture in Botswana in general and in Maun in
particular is one of a community in crisis composed of individuals
dealing with the daily devastating effects of trauma from
HIV diagnosis, living with HIV, the consequences of rape,
the overburden of care for others and the social isolation
from stigma that is often the result of HIV and rape.
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