Community mobilisation and HIV activism in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT

Community mobilisation and activism is thought to encourage HIV testing and treatment and assist patient recovery. This article draws on interviews conducted with 60 people living with, and affected by HIV, in four marginalised areas of Harare, Zimbabwe. The lenses of civil society and social movements are used to analyse how people living with HIV draw on, and construct, systems of support based on the ways in which their communities know and understand the epidemic. I consider how neighbourhoods negotiate and assert community and individual needs in relation to HIV and how such systems can develop into community networks and wider coalitions. The article concludes by positing that, by interrogating official responses to the epidemic, HIV-related activism and social movements can help to domesticate formal commitments to international health protocols and compliance, particularly in terms of the intent, as well as the participatory rhetoric, of health based rights.

KEYWORDS:

• Antiretroviral therapy
• community mobilisation
• HIV
• qualitative research
• Zimbabwe Social Forum

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Note on contributor

Stephen O’Brien is a conjoint lecturer in the School of Humanities and Social Science at The University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, where he teaches health sociology. His main research interest is the lived experience of HIV. He also teaches Social Policy in the Bachelor of Community Services TAFE NSW Higher Education. He can be contacted at: [email protected].

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.