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Editor: Phil Jang > Telephone: 995-4443 > E-mail: pjang@tc.canwest.com
SARAH PETRESCU
spetrescu@tc.canwest.com
KIGALI, Rwanda
D
ozens of women
chatted while tod-
dlers played and
babies cried in the
waiting room at the
downtown Kigali health clinic
run by the U.S.-based Women’s
Equity to Access for Care and
Treatment, or WE-ACTx.
The bustling, cheery atmos-
phere of the clinic contrasts
with the grim reason it exists
— to bring treatment and dig-
nity to women raped and
infected with the HIV virus
during the country’s 1994 geno-
cide.
“We see about 100 patients
every day at this clinic,” said
Joseph Hakizimana, 29, the
organization’s country clinical
co-ordinator and one of its
founding employees. With three
clinics and two mobile units,
they serve almost 5,000, nearly
half of those receiving free,
life-saving, anti-retroviral med-
ication. “We can still do more,
especially in the rural areas
where women and men don’t
even know to get tested.”
Hakizimana is passionate
about community-driven action
in addressing HIV/AIDS in
Rwanda. He will be in Victoria
this week to speak about the
power of grassroots women’s
organizations in creating
access to care and treatment of
HIV/AIDS, a pandemic that
affects all of Africa.
“Because of a lack of doc- PHOTOS BY SARAH PETRESCU
tors, nurses, infrastructure and
the aid organizations who con-
centrate themselves in cities, Above: Friends Maria Bahizi, left,
many people are not being and Miriam Jean work on colour-
reached,” Hakizimana said. ful items for sale at the We-Actx
Hakizimana was a high clinic in Kigali. The work initia-
school student in Butare dur- tive is a project of the clinic that
ing the 1994 genocide, in which helps women dealing with HIV.
800,000 people were killed in
100 days, and 250,000 brutal
rapes occurred. The trauma Left: Joseph Hakizimana, the
and the aftermath moved him manager of the We-Actx clinic,
to study nursing at university has been working to help
and to volunteer to work with women with HIV since the Rwan-
his mother’s organization dan genocide in 1994. He will be
IMBABAZI, helping AIDS in Victoria April 23 to talk about
orphans and widows in the his work.
rural Cyangugu province, the
farthest from Kigali. KIGALI STORY
“I loved it. That was a huge
motivator for me,” said Hakiz- TOLD IN VICTORIA
imana. There are two opportunities on
His ensuing work with geno- Wednesday to hear Joseph
cide-survivor groups led him to Hakizimana’s talk, The Power of
become one of WE-ACTx’s first Women’s Grassroots Organizations in
employees in 2004. Creating Universal Access to Care and
The organization formed Treatment, about his work with the
after American journalist Kigali health clinic and HIV/AIDS in
Anne-Christine D’Adesky was Rwanda:
contacted by a group of Rwan- ■ at 10:30 a.m., in the David Strong
dan women who were raped
Building (Room C126) at the
and infected with HIV during
University of Victoria and
the genocide. They were dying
while the men who raped them ■ at 7:30 p.m., in Gibson Auditorium
were being treated in jail await- (Young 216) at Camosun College.
ing trial. Admission is by donation.
> See DIGNITY, Page D7
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MONITOR SUNDAY, APRIL 20, 2008 D7
Information overlords
RECOVERY IN RWANDA
The convergence of
computer culture and
high-tech surveillance
Cyber snooping
gives others increasing Just because you’re on a laptop in the privacy of your own home
access to your life doesn’t mean your web searches are private.
Searches might or might not be identifiable via the Internet proto-
col address attached to home computers, depending on the com-
KATHERINE DEDYNA puter, the Internet service provider and whether users have
Times Colonist installed encryption software, says UVic privacy expert Colin
C
redit-card purchases, business
Bennett.
calls monitored for quality Take note: “If you don’t clear your browsing history and your
assurance and closed-circuit cookie files, then third-party advertisers can find out where you’ve
TV in stores. Internet sales, been to.”
cellphone calls, BlackBerrys
Cookies store information, including a username, on the computer
with global positioning systems and
Google searches. They’re all part of the of a person using the Internet. Cookies allow a website to identify
surveillance society we increasingly users who have previously visited the site and to tailor content,
inhabit — one in which our movements, including advertising, to the user.
identity, transactions and interests can
be tracked.
We give out some info because we
want to: Think Facebook. But thanks to
the convergence of computer culture
with everything from security cameras
to ID cards, there’s a growing potential
for others to peek at our personal infor-
mation without our permission.
The capacity to manipulate, dissem-
inate and profile personal information
has escalated at an “extraordinary”
SARAH PETRESCU, TIMES COLONIST pace, says University of Victoria pri-
Josee Mukamusoni came to the We-Actx clinic after contracting vacy expert Colin Bennett.
HIV when she was raped during the Rwandan genocide. She now It’s all very complex, which is why
works at the clinic. for the next seven years Bennett, four
graduate students he’ll hire and
researchers from four other universi-
Dignity rises
ties will take part in a $2.5-million
research project called The New Trans-
parency: Surveillance and Social Sort- He points out that some monitoring THE IMPACT OF CHANGE
ing, headquartered at Queen’s is needed to make our complex global
University in Kingston. society work now that we no longer rely UVic political scientist Colin
horror in Rwanda
ing and so camera feeds can be down- time of the call are all tracked. easier to conceal.
loaded to the Internet — it’s all coming “We’re going to be trying to figure
together.”
Which means that personal informa-
tion — connected to an individual by
out exactly what happens when you
[make] routine transactions in everyday
life,” he says, with researchers looking
2rityThe “obsession with secu-
rity” stoked by the secu-
industry.
> From Page D1 FACING AIDS name or other identifier such as a social at where the information goes, who has
RECOVERY IN RWANDA
Letters extend
ties that bind
How a friendship between a Rwandan genocide survivor and Victoria woman DEBRA BRASH, TIMES COLONIST
helped them each cope with HIV and become community leaders Peggy Frank holds a photo of young Rwandan Patrick Kalisa, the
son of her friend and fellow HIV activist Emerithe Nakabonye.
SARAH PETRESCU
Times Colonist
KIGALI, Rwanda
E
merithe Nakabonye
smiled proudly as she
came into the living
room holding a remnant
of a rusty sign bearing the
faded word “Legumes.” It is the
only piece of her husband’s art
she owns. It is the one scrap
she was able to rescue after
Interahamwe militia-men
dragged the young commercial
painter into the road and killed
him during the 1994 Rwanda
genocide. They pillaged the
house he built and left
Nakabonye to spend months
hiding their four children in the
plantain groves that filled the
area before it became a Kigali
ghetto.
“Life was so easy before. We
were happy,” Nakabonye, 43,
said as she served a generous
lunch spread in honour of the
visiting reporter — matoke
(fried plantains), goat stew, rice
and isombe (a traditional dish
of pureed cassava leaves and
spinach). Her nephew Kenneth
Mudenge, 24, translated from
Kinyarwanda. “Now they’ve
nicknamed this area after the
AIDS ward at the hospital
because there is so much HIV
here.”
Nakabonye moved her fam-
ily back to their home after the
genocide but the pain from that
period persists. She was repeat-
edly raped by a neighbour who
infected her with HIV, as were
many women in the nieghbour-
hood. She relives the atrocities
she experienced and witnessed
every Sunday during Gacaca
court, the community justice
meetings set up to expedite the
trials of thousands of accused
clogging local jails.
Entire neighbourhoods are
required to attend and testify SARAH PETRESCU, TIMES COLONIST
about the murders and rapes Emerithe Nakabonye shares a smile with her nephew, Kenneth Mudenge, outside her home in Rwanda. Nakabonye, who works at the We-Actx clinic in Kigali and
that took place, often at the runs UMAHUZA, a support group for people with AIDS, has carried on a long-running correspondence with Oak Bay resident Peggy Frank, who started a non-profit
hands of their neighbours, agency called Positively Africa.
friends and even family mem-
bers. sad time to be in the AIDS UMAHUZA,” Frank said. “We
“Gacaca is good but the movement. People were dying had this amazing connection
problem is when you have to all around.” because of the parallels our
see someone who killed your Advancements in medica- lives took.”
relatives live next door,” tion and a move to Saltspring Every penny Positively
Nakabonye said, looking at Island helped Frank get back Africa raises goes to the
three of her grown children — to health. It was there that she African development projects
Eric, 23, Patrick 18, and Sonia, met her first husband David it supports, including more
14 — who came to listen in. “It Rayment, whose portrait hangs than $150,000 for projects in
is very difficult.” on her wall. Rwanda, Kenya and Zimbabwe,
Nakabonye’s friendship with “When we met I was so ter- among other places.
a Victoria woman is what she rified to tell him I was HIV-pos- They also support
credits as the source of her itive,” said Frank. “But he said Nakabonye’s HIV-positive com-
hope and inspiration to go on. the most beautiful thing: ‘I have munity group UMAHUZA, buy-
“Because of Peg and Posi- two choices. I can walk away ing items such as a telephone
tively Africa I did not feel des- and never get to know you or I and grinding mill to help gen-
perate anymore,” Nakabonye can be with you for however erate income.
said, referring to Peggy Frank long we have.’ ” I attended an UMAHUZA
and her Victoria non-profit Rayment never contracted meeting while I was visiting
society Positively Africa, which HIV but his words were tragi- Nakabonye in Rwanda. About
supports HIV-positive groups cally prophetic: He died in a 60 members of the group hud-
in several African communi- crane accident in Ganges har- dled in a mud-floor shack next
ties. bour in 1997. to a local pastor’s house. Before
The two women are working “I remember looking at the I could be introduced, several
on a book about their own HIV- stars that night and feeling people started to make
positive stories and the friend- complete loss but still a sense demands.
ship that has led them to that life goes on,” said Frank. “Where is the money for
become advocates in their Frank’s life moved on with houses Positively Africa prom-
respective communities. her work helping others. It was ised us?” one woman asked.
Frank was introduced to through fundraising for devel- “We need motorcycles to get
Nakabonye through a pen-pal opment projects in Africa that around,” a man piped in.
program at a retreat with the she met her current husband, “What about food? Why can’t
Positive Women’s Network in realtor Peter Bardon (who we get money for food?” said
2002. knew and admired Rayment). another.
“We were told there were Their fundraisers include In a country where aid work-
HIV-positive women in Rwanda everything from art auctions ers drive brand-new white
who wanted to write with us,” to Africa-themed nights of SUVs and base themselves out
said Frank, 54, at her Oak Bay entertainment. of mansions built by wealthy
home last week. “My letter “We were fundraising for expatriates, it is understand-
went to Emerithe and, when I the Village of Hope [in able that the group would asso-
got one back, it was so moving Rwanda] and it felt really ciate any white person wanting
to make that connection.” good,” said Frank, an artist. to help with infinite funds and
Frank was a 32-year-old This was around the time resources to do so.
graduate student doing field Frank and Nakabonye started “It’s hard for me to hear that
research in Zimbabwe when writing to each other. because I want to help … and
she contracted HIV from one “At the time, I had isolated we will,” said Frank. While Pos-
night of unprotected sex. It was myself from any bad news to itively Africa does have one
1987, a time when AIDS was help me get better,” said Frank. part-time employee to help
considered a death sentence “So I really didn’t know much Frank and a board, it takes up
and Frank was the only woman about the genocide until I met most of her time and personal
among mostly gay men in what Emerithe.” income. Frank’s goal is find a DEBRA BRASH, TIMES COLONIST
support groups there were in Frank and Bardon went to donor or sponsor to hire some- Peggy Frank goes over some of the letters in her Oak Bay home she has received from Rwandan
Vancouver. Rwanda in 2005, where they one full-time, allowing her to HIV activist Emerithe Nakabonye. Despite barriers of distance and language, the two women have
“I thought, ‘That’s it; it’s met Nakabonye and were intro- take more of a support role. struck up a fast friendship.
over.’ I wouldn’t have a life, a duced to the WE-ACTx clinic “Right now I feel like the
degree, no family or be able to and Hakizimana. Nakabonye biggest crisis for Positively tant work but it takes money Sarah Petrescu travelled to Rwanda and Mozambique as a winner
work in development,” said was a client and now works Africa is me because I’m about and commitment.” of the Jack Webster Foundation for Journalism Seeing the World
Frank. The virus did advance there part-time. to crash,” said Frank. “We’re a To find out more about Pos- through New Eyes Fellowship, a partnership with the Canadian
to full-blown AIDS over the “When I met Emerithe, we small group that catches the itively Africa, call Peggy Frank International Development Agency for emerging journalists to
next few years, forcing Frank had just started Positively projects and people who fall and Peter Bardon at 893-7064. report from developing countries.
to quit her job. “It was a very Africa and she was starting through the cracks. It is impor- spetrescu@tc.canwest.com