hiv/aids sessions at omaruru

Not to be flip but we had more of the same ol' chit chat about HIV/AIDS in Namibia, at this point it's all starting to get redundant. We've got sessions all day about risk factors affecting Namibians especially the increasingly feminine face of HIV infection in Africa. The most startling realization is that the number one risk factor for women is marriage -- men engage in unsafe sex outside of marriage and bring the virus home to their faithful partners.
Empowering women through the use of condoms is extremely difficult. For the most part, women are completely dependent on their husbands for food and money and thus cannot deny their husbands access to their bodies as women might do in America. Men use the excuse, "I don't eat chocolate with the wrapper on," and this quote epitomizes their objection to a disease that is alternatively seen as a women's issue or God's judgment.
The use of male and female condoms is unknown but presumed to be extremely low -- despite the fact that Namibia actually receives the most funding for HIV prevention per capita of any country in the world (according to the USAID representative that came to talk with us). Education is one thing but behavior change is still an unknown, I know that our message is important but I am unsure as to its efficacy at doing anything to alter social and economic realities that have existed for hundreds of years.