IRIN HIV/AIDS Weekly - 150
Africa
10 October 2003


NEWS:

RWANDA: Focus on genocide widows dying of HIV/AIDS
NIGER: Traditional chiefs agree to spread HIV/AIDS messages
NAMIBIA: NGO begins basic food distributions in ongoing drought
SWAZILAND: Conference offers solutions to impact of AIDS on education
Aid focus shifts to mitigate impact of HIV/AIDS
DRC: Police, military resolve to tackle HIV/AIDS
TANZANIA: US donates $1.5m to UNICEF for refugee work

LINKS

1. Keeping a Child Alive
2. Health Information and Libraries in Africa
3. Horizons Research Project
4. Hope for African Children Initiative
5. Botswana online awareness campaign

CONFERENCES/EVENTS/RESEARCH RESOURCES

1. MTV Staying Alive Campaign Competition
2. AIDS Policy Analysis Project
3. Uganda Health Information Network
4. Nutrition and HIV discussion forum

NEWS

RWANDA: Focus on genocide widows dying of HIV/AIDS

Mediatrice Ilibagiza, 38, is a widow and mother of three who, like
thousands other Rwandan women, lost her husband during Rwanda's 1994
genocide.

She was also among the hundreds of women who were raped by Hutu
militiamen, known as the Interahamwe, and soldiers of the old army, the
Forces armees rwandaises, leaving her infected with HIV/AIDS.

Tutsi women were the main targets of the militia assault that used AIDS as
a genocidal weapon, according to Hiraly Mukamazimpaka, the national
coordinator of Avega Aghozo.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=2597

NIGER: Traditional chiefs agree to spread HIV/AIDS messages

The 30 traditional chiefs, dressed in bright-coloured gowns or "boubous"
and turbans that covered all but their noses and eyes, came to the
northern Niger town of In Gall, over 1,000 km from the capital, Niamey, to
attend a festival.

As the festivities inched towards the climax, the chiefs set aside time
for a seminar on HIV/AIDS presented by a female doctor, Hama Bilkisa. They
took notes and watched the slide presentation on the hard facts of the
disease in the local Tamachek language.

The seminar was organised by the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, to raise
awareness of HIV/AIDS among the chiefs, on the occasion of the Cure Salee
or "Salt Cure" festival -  an annual celebration for the nomadic tribes of
northern Niger.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=2601

NAMIBIA: NGO begins basic food distributions in ongoing drought

Catholic AIDS Action is to begin distributing rations of fortified E-Pap
and maize meal to people affected by HIV/AIDS and orphans and vulnerable
children (OVC) in Namibia, the group told PlusNews on Tuesday.

Martin Zee Albert, logistics coordinator with Catholic AIDS Action, told
PlusNews a donation from the US-based Catholic Relief Services (CRS) had
made the intervention possible.

Albert told PlusNews that the Catholic AIDS Action intervention would
specifically target "people registered with our organisation, OVCs, as
well as volunteers" working for the NGO.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=2596

SWAZILAND: Conference offers solutions to impact of AIDS on education

At the end of a week-long conference in Swaziland, African educators and
US representatives called for further cooperation between the private and
public sectors in the fight against HIV/AIDS in schools.

"We are analysing what works, and stressing innovation and proven
successes over formulae," Behuel Ndlovu, director of secondary schools for
the Swaziland Ministry of Education, told PlusNews.

"For AIDS mitigation to be achieved through improved education in Africa,
partnerships have to be forged between Western and African nations,
between the public and private sectors, and between civil society and
governments," said Colette Cowey, an expert on global development issues.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=2592

Aid focus shifts to mitigate impact of HIV/AIDS

The impact of HIV/AIDS on Swaziland's agricultural production has forced
aid agencies to adjust their programming in a bid to mitigate the effects
on food security.

"Food shortages in Swaziland are compounded by the country's high HIV/AIDS
adult prevalence rate, and it is therefore essential that the special
nutritional needs of vulnerable people are met," said Angela Van Rynbach,
World Food Programme (WFP) Country Representative.

"I think it's clear to everybody by now that you can't separate food from
AIDS," added Sarah Laughton, WFP Emergency Coordinator in Swaziland.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=2607

DRC: Police, military resolve to tackle HIV/AIDS

Committees to lead the fight against HIV/AIDS have been created in the
national army and police force of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
(DRC) following a seminar to inform officers on the pandemic, a government
official told PlusNews last week.

The seminar on HIV/AIDS was held at the end of September at the Binza
Ozone Military Centre in the capital, Kinshasa. It was geared towards
members of the military and police, owing to their living and work
conditions, which often contribute to sexually promiscuous behaviour.

"Military and police authorities came to understand the threat of
HIV/AIDS, and resolved to immediately join the fight," military physician
Col Kabanda told PlusNews.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=2589

TANZANIA: US donates $1.5m to UNICEF for refugee work

The US government has given the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) a $1.5 million
grant for humanitarian work in Tanzania, the US Embassy in Dar es Salaam
announced on Thursday.

UNICEF will spend the money on programmes in refugee camps in western
Tanzania, where an estimated 400,000 people - who have fled conflicts in
neighbouring Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo - are living.

In a statement, the US Embassy said $1 million would be spent on HIV/AIDS
prevention and treatment, and the remaining $500,000 to support refugee
education.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=2602


LINKS

1. Keep A Child Alive is a campaign dedicated to providing medication to
children and families with HIV/AIDS. Keep A Child Alive offers visitors to
its website an opportunity to sponsor this treatment - and save a life -
for less than a dollar a day.
http://www.keepachildalive.org/

2. The Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA)
is a point of contact where a wide range of health professionals meet. The
target audience is health care and biomedical librarians, documentalists,
journalists and others involved in the management and dissemination of
medical and health-related information.
http://www.ahila.org

3. Horizons is a global research project designed to identify components
of effective HIV/AIDS programmes and policies, test potential solutions to
problems in prevention, care, support and service delivery.
http://www.popcouncil.org/horizons/horizons.html

4. The Hope for African Children Initiative is a community-based,
pan-African effort created to address the challenges faced by children who
have been orphaned by the AIDS pandemic in Africa, and those whose parents
are sick or dying of AIDS-related illnesses.
http://www.hopeforafricanchildren.org/

5. AIDS.Edumela is a website aimed at providing information on the
HIV/AIDS situation in Botswana and other parts of Southern Africa. Their
page "About Condoms" contains user contributions about the use of condoms
and other issues related to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Botswana.
http://www.AIDS.edumela.com


CONFERENCES/EVENTS/RESEARCH RESOURCES

1. MTV, the world's largest television network, and OneWorld
International, last week announced a global competition in the run-up to
World AIDS Day 2003 and the launch of the annual Staying Alive award. The
competition will enable young people from around the world to produce and
submit original audio or video public service announcements (PSA) that
convey the messages of MTV's HIV/AIDS awareness campaign, Staying Alive.
To enter the competition visit www.staying-alive.org, or
www.oneworld.net/radio/aids and www.oneworld.net/tv

2. The Country AIDS Policy Analysis Project (CAPAP) is managed by the AIDS
Policy Research Centre at the University of California, San Francisco. The
project arose from the need for analysis of the epidemiology of HIV/AIDS,
in tandem with analyses of political economy, sociobehavioral context,
impact, and responses at household, sectoral and macro levels. CAPAP
develops and disseminates comprehensive and readily accessible analyses of
HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda,
Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Each analysis is linked to national strategic plans for HIV/AIDS
prevention, care and support. Analyses also include a detailed map and
comparative table of 70 key HIV/AIDS and socio-economic indicators.
http://ari.ucsf.edu/ARI/policy/countries.htm

3. Uganda Chartered HealthNet and SATELLIFE, in collaboration with
Makerere University Medical School and Connectivity Africa of IDRC, will
soon be launching the pilot for the Uganda Health Information Network.

The pilot project, to be implemented by HealthNet in Uganda, will connect
two districts and enable the exchange of news, articles, and surveillance
data back and forth, creating an information exchange system. The network
will support continuing medical education, data collection for planning
and resource allocation, research and surveillance, and will eventually
provide individual users with access to their own email.

The pilot, network and content are being developed in collaboration with
health workers, educators, NGOs and district and national health
organisations in Uganda.

For more information about the pilot project: http://www.healthnet.org

4. ProNut-HIV, a new electronic forum, aims to share up-to-date
information, knowledge and experience on nutrition and HIV/AIDS. The
purpose of the discussion is to enhance positive living through proper
nutrition, care and support, by promoting constructive dialogue between
people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), front-line workers, researchers,
HIV/AIDS specialists and policymakers.

The forum intends to focus primarily on the nutrition, care and support of
mothers and children, but may later include other groups such as adults
(men and women) and the elderly.

To subscribe or unsubscribe, write to: majordomo@usa.healthnet.org In the
body of the message type: subscribe pronut-hiv OR unsubscribe pronut-hiv.
To send a message to ProNut-HIV, write to: pronut-hiv@usa.healthnet.org

For more information and archives: http://www.pronutrition.org


IRIN-SA
Tel: +27 11 880-4633
Fax: +27 11 447-5472
Email: IRIN-SA@irin.org.za

[This Item is Delivered to the "PlusNews" HIV/AIDS Service of the UN's
IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the
views of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions,
or to change your keywords, contact e-mail: Plusnews@irinnews.org or Web:
http://www.irinnews.org/aidsfp.asp . If you re-print, copy, archive or
re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by
commercial sites requires written IRIN permission.]

Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2003


distributed by
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International                  web: www.cidi.org
    Disaster Information             listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
HIV-AIDS Weekly Issue                 www.cidi.org/humanitarian/hivaids