Courage and Hope : Stories from Teachers Living with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa

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, 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. When one teacher discovered she was HIV-positive, she lost everything -- her husband, her children, and her home. Now she is receiving treatment, has returned to teaching, and has re-established her home with her children. Another teacher lost her husband to AIDS and then lost her home. She is now living positively, working to overcome stigma among students and teaching staff. 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, within their families and communities, as well as in their workplaces and society in general. The difficulties of overcoming these perceptions are complicated by a lack of confidentiality in medical facilities and the workplace. The DVD suplied with the book is a documentary film produced in 2008 in which teachers tell their own stories in their own words. Whether presented via video or print, the story of each teacher demonstrates a wide range of challenges as well as insights and successes, while also suggesting ways to more effectively address these challenges.