This article is reproduced with kind permission from the African HIV Policy Network where it first appeared in their Summer 2005 newsletter

POSITIVE FOCUS : George Rwamakuba - AGI

By Shirin Aguiar

George Rwamakuba is a very difficult man to reach. When I eventually tracked him down one day, I found out why. On this particular day he was running around helping 38 people, nine of whom were HIV-positive Ugandan women who were being threatened with deportation, were under detention and had no legal help.

George is outreach co-ordinator for Africans Getting Involved (AGI), a group formed to help Africans “infected with and affected by HIV.” The emphasis is on Africans, says George, because “a lot of lobbying done in the past has seldom involved Africans.”

AGI sets out to change all that, following an opportunity at a conference last year where Africans got together and started to take action to address the issues. The diversity within the group represents long-term survivors, newly-diagnosed and those involved at different levels in HIV as service users, workers, volunteers, supporters and advocates.

George: “We all had things in common: a concern over the hopelessness and destitution resulting from the ever-changing laws around immigration and asylum. There were also serious concerns in relation to people who were testing HIV- positive and being denied access to treatments.”

He feels strongly about the refugees and asylumseekers he seeks to help and warns that failure to do so will aggravate the situation: “We are fighting for their rights to services like free medication because we believe that HIV should be considered like any other clinical disease like TB. Therefore we say people should not be deported or denied services, whether failed asylum-seekers, refugees
or visitors. They should not be deported. If an asylum application has failed and you deny them medication they will go underground. They will infect more people than they would if they were not underground. The public are going to be affected more in this way.”

Over the years, negative media coverage and the ever-changing legislation relating to immigrants and asylum-seekers have impacted seriously on the health and well-being of affected Africans. AGI wants an end to deportations within and outside
the UK and an end to detention and refusing access to NHS treatment. The group also protests against the promotion of testing for HIV amongst African communities without guaranteeing treatment.

A big factor in most discussions is migration, in particular the deportation of Africans with HIV who are receiving treatment in this country and are repatriated to certain death from AIDS in countries where access to anti-retrovirals is not available to ordinary people.

AGI, which was formed at the Changing Tomorrow Conference in September 2004, is a voluntary organisation. Logistical support is provided by the UK Coalition of people living with HIV and AIDS.

AGI was consulted on the draft London HIV Strategy. The content of the final strategy included their contributions, published by the London Specialised Commissioning Group in February.

AGI’s activities have included attending the English Speaking Union debate on compulsory HIV testing of all immigrants and making presentations to the
Oxford Students Union Stop AIDS Campaign and the Shaping Tomorrow conference organised by the Terrence Higgins Trust and George House Trust
in Manchester. AGI members also attended the retrial of Mohammed Dica, a Somali asylum-seeker convicted of “biological” grievous bodily harm.

In March, group members received a briefing on legal issues after the Court of Appeal judgment in the case of Feston Konzani, whose conviction for “reckless” HIV transmission was upheld.

To join AGI, please contact George Rwamakuba or Edith Kaggwa on (020) 7564 2180.