Growing Children with Strong Legs: HIV Prevention and Family Planning in Rural Papua New Guinea
Alison Dundon, Australian National University
This paper explores the policy and practice of ‘family planning’ in Balimo, Western Province, Papua New Guinea and its significance for this rural community’s understanding of HIV and AIDS as well as the formulation of a national HIV prevention program focused almost exclusively on the use and promotion of condoms. Sexuality and the bearing of children within marriage are an enduring concern for the Gogodala and were long before these became part of the Balimo Health Centre’s Family Planning program. Referred to as sege aei sosola leladaemina – ‘growing children’s legs strong’, this is a common practice in Gogodala villages that, particularly in the past, ensured space between the births of children in families. This paper suggests the slippage between sege aei sosola leladaemina and the national policy on Family Planning is not only considerable but is the basis of much confusion and anxiety in Balimo and surrounding villages about how to combat the spread of HIV. I argue that policies and practices of family planning, whether local or national, play a central role in the development of the AIDS epidemic in rural PNG and that this must be recognised when formulating effective preventative platforms for HIV.
