Courage and Hope

Courage and Hope gives voice to the real life experiences of 12 HIV-positive teachers, five of whom are women, from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania (both Mainland and Zanzibar) and Zambia. The teachers recount their experiences of discovering their HIV-positive status and how this has affected them in their families, their communities, and their professional lives. Their stories are documented by journalists, emphasizing the human dimension. The voices of these teachers suggest that a number of obstacles are commonly faced by teachers living with HIV. Paramount among them are stigma and discrimination, both within their families and communities as well as their workplaces and in society more generally. The difficulties of overcoming stigma and discrimination are further exacerbated by a failure to ensure confidentiality in the workplace. The voices of these teachers also suggest that these obstacles could be usefully addressed by: * Fully implementing existing national and institutional policies. * Increasing involvement of teachers living with HIV in setting policies and giving practical advice. * Providing universal access to voluntary counselling and testing, care and support. * Addressing HIV issues during teacher training activities to reduce stigma among teachers and to equip teachers with the skills to avoid infection and teach young people about HIV, including avoiding infection and focusing on stigma and discrimination reduction. Each teacher presents a unique story demonstrating a wide range of challenges as well as insights and successes and, individually as well as collectively, displaying extraordinary courage and hope.