Sidaction Maroc 2005

[LalaMimi]

Initially, I was quite skeptical about this event - but after watching it for an hour, I thought it was a very good for raising awareness about AIDS in Maroc - about trying to gain acceptance against the terrible social stigma, associated with the AIDS sufferers.. and also, preventing the illness from spreading. They have estimated that between 16,000 - 20,000 Moroccans, have contracted AIDS and the majority of those live in Agadir, where almost 20% of population there have AIDS.

There were some really heart wrenching stories from people - such as the woman who had married a man (an arranged marriage).. he became ill and died in hospital. His death was discovered as being from an AIDS related illness - the woman and her children were tested for AIDS and the tests proved to be positive. Since, they have to live a crap and secretive existence.. she had even kept the illness a secret from her own children, until she was once put in a situation where she had to scream it at them "anta-feek-SIDA" (You've got AIDS), cos' they were refusing the take the medication for it... She also mentioned the difficulties her teenage children had facing with the major aspects of life, such as getting married - awful stuff...

I think the message for prevention needed to be hammered in a bit more, the whole thing was done with far too much sensitivity - er.. like the clip that featured a fountain pen when it comes to life, death and AIDS there should not be so much heshma. People really need to be fully aware of the facts and then act upon that information.

The whole thing was frightening to watch and I really, really hope that as many Moroccans as possible will take on board what this campaign is really about.