For Aïcha

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By Cheick Oumar Sissoko, Mali, based on an original idea by Dieudonné Ouedraogo, aged 16, from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

On a business trip away from home, Moctar gets very drunk and heads for his hotel room with Coumba, a sex worker. His friend Timothy puts a condom in Moctar's jacket pocket so that he can protect himself and his wife. The next morning, at breakfast, Timothy discovers the condom, still unopened, in Moctar's pocket. Moctar has forgotten everything that happened the night before….

• length: 4 minutes 12 seconds
• date: 2000
• shot in: Senegal
• currently available in: American Sign Language, Dioula, English, Fon, French, Hausa, Igbo, Italian (subtitles), Kinyarwanda, Kiswahili, Lingala, Mina, Mooré, Portuguese, Pulaar, Twi, Wolof, and Yoruba

Please click here to view and download photos from the shoot of the film For Aicha.

Topics for discussion
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Key topics for discussion:

• Watching out for your friends in a world with AIDS

• The close friendship between alcohol and HIV

• The HIV test: how long one must wait after possible infection

• Women's vulnerability in the face of HIV
  

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Discussion topic 1:
Watching out for your friends in a world with AIDS

IN THE FILM: In what ways does Timothy try to help his friend Moctar avoid taking risks with HIV?

• Timothy tries to discourage Moctar's infidelity.
• He gives Moctar a condom so that he'll protect himself and his wife.
• Timothy gives his friend advice about the HIV test and about the need to protect his wife in the meantime.
• He makes it clear to Moctar that he'll support him if his HIV test were to turn out to be positive.

IN REAL LIFE: Do you have good friends who take risks with regard to HIV? Is there anything you could say or do to help them avoid taking risks?

Discussion topic 2:
The close friendship between alcohol and HIV

IN THE FILM: What role does alcohol play in this story?

IN REAL LIFE: In real life, what is the relationship between alcohol and HIV?

• If people drink too much alcohol, their judgement can be seriously impaired, and they might become much more inclined to take risks relative to HIV than if they had not been drinking.

• Many sexual encounters develop from contacts made in places where alcohol is available.

• Alcohol can reduce inhibitions, possibly increasing the risk of violent behaviour such as rape.

• Alcohol abuse is bad for health in general. It's a particularly bad idea for people who live with HIV, as even moderate use of alcohol can interfere intensively with functions of the immune system, leaving the person more susceptible to infections.

• If a person is taking modern HIV medications, he or she must pay special attention to take the right medications at the right time. If he or she does not stick to the prescribed regimen, the effectiveness of the medicines might be seriously impaired, and it might be easier for strains of HIV resistant to existing medications to develop.
  

Discussion topic 3:
The HIV test: how long one must wait after possible infection

IN THE FILM: In the hotel the morning after, Moctar thinks that he is infected with HIV, but Timothy explains that his friend can't be sure. What exactly does Timothy say about the HIV test?

"Listen, it's not definite she was infected, or that you are. Only an HIV test in three months' time can determine that."

IN REAL LIFE: After possible infection, how long must a person wait before getting tested? Why the wait?

The only way a person can know for sure if he or she is living with HIV is to get tested for HIV.

Suppose a person has unprotected sex tonight with somebody who might be HIV-positive. Before getting tested for HIV, that person must wait 3 months.

Why the wait? Why shouldn't that person be tested immediately?

The answer is simple. The tests most commonly used to detect HIV infection are actually not looking for the virus in a person's body, but rather the antibodies produced by the body to fight HIV. Most people develop detectable antibodies within 3 months after infection.

If a person does not wait three months after possible infection to get a test, there is a chance that the test result will be negative for HIV antibodies, even if the person does indeed have the virus that causes AIDS in his or her body. That person might mistakenly believe that he or she is not living with HIV.

Discussion topic 4:
Women's vulnerability in the face of HIV

IN THE FILM: How would you describe Aïcha's situation at the end of the film?

IN REAL LIFE: In our society, what factors make women particularly vulnerable to becoming infected with HIV?

Women are particularly vulnerable to becoming infected with HIV because of a number of biological and socio-economic factors:

Biological vulnerability:

• Women are 2 to 4 times as likely as men to become infected through unprotected vaginal intercourse. Women are also more vulnerable to other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Women have a larger surface area of mucosa exposed to their partner's secretions during sexual intercourse. In addition, semen infected with HIV generally has a higher concentration of HIV than does a woman's sexual secretions.

• Younger women are at even greater biological risk, because the cervix is not yet physiological mature, and they have less vaginal secretions to serve as a barrier to HIV.

• Tearing and bleeding during intercourse, whether due to "rough sex", rape or prior genital mutilation, multiply the risk of HIV infection.

• An untreated sexually transmitted infection (STI) in either partner can increase the risk of HIV infection up to 10-fold. Between 50% and 80% of STIs in women go unrecognised because the signs are absent or hard to see. Furthermore, monogamous women might tend to believe that they are not at risk for STIs.

Social and economic vulnerability:

• Many young girls are never taught the basic facts about their own reproductive system and about HIV/AIDS. Girls' relatively limited access to school-based education further reduces their access to crucial knowledge.

• Girls are often taught to leave the initiative and decision-making regarding sex up to males.

• Women often find themselves in a situation of economic dependence on men, which can make it difficult or impossible to assert one's rights when it comes to reproductive health and HIV prevention.

• Schoolgirls are often forced to have sex with a teacher in return for a passing grade.

• Prostitution is another setting in which women have little power to protect themselves from HIV. For many women, prostitution is the alternative to dire economic poverty, the only apparent means to ensure their own survival and that of their children.

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(Idea for the facilitator: Ask two members of the group to play the roles of Moctar and Aïcha at the end of the film, and ask them to portray what might happen next. Will Moctar find the courage to talk to his wife? If so, what will he say, and how will she react?)