07/22/2004

A survey among pregnant women in 2000, when the land reform program was just starting, showed a HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of 53.9% among farming communities. The lack of reliable income and increased insecurity brought by the land reform program has increased the susceptibility of former farm workers to HIV/AIDS. Some of the former farm workers that Refugees International interviewed reported that many female farm workers were not paid "severance packages" when the farmers left and had to resort to many risky strategies to survive. Some had turned to prostitution and others had formed sexual alliances with farm foremen or new settlers in order to be guaranteed some sort of farm employment to feed their children. In addition, these women that RI interviewed said that the combination of transportation costs to nearby towns and the costs of condoms and birth control pills were too high for them to pay for. When faced with choosing between safe sex or feeding their families, they chose unsafe sex.