IRIN HIV/AIDS Weekly - 306
Africa
20 October 2006


NEWS:

WEST AFRICA: Child deaths from HIV/AIDS to keep growing
SOUTH AFRICA: Faith makes a difference in AIDS care
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Emergency plan to counter deadly TB stain
LESOTHO: 'Expert' patients lighten load for clinic staff
ETHIOPIA: Poverty forcing girls into risky sex work
ZIMBABWE: Another ARV shortage looms
NIGERIA: 'Nollywood' joins fight against HIV
KENYA: Farm project helps AIDS orphans get food, income
ZIMBABWE: Wanted - HIV-positive celebs to speak out
ZIMBABWE: Disabled children embattled by education policy
GHANA: Increase in HIV/AIDS treatment and care centres


EVENTS/RESOURCES

1. New book: AIDS, poverty, and hunger: challenges and responses 2. 
Conference: 27th African Health Sciences Congress, 3-7 December 2006, 
South Africa

VACANCIES

1. Program Director, International HIV/AIDS Alliance, South Sudan




NEWS

WEST AFRICA: Child deaths from HIV/AIDS to keep growing

Almost 99 percent of mothers with the HIV virus are not getting the 
drugs to stop them infecting their unborn babies, sparking a cycle of 
neglect that is affecting more than 4.2 million children in West and 
Central Africa alone.

Just 1.3 percent of pregnant women in West and Central Africa who are 
infected with the HIV/AIDS virus have access to the antiretroviral (ARV) 
drugs that can stop them infecting their babies, the UN children's 
agency, UNICEF, said on Wednesday.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSReport.ASP?ReportID=6474


SOUTH AFRICA: Faith makes a difference in AIDS care

When Rev. John Thomas brought churchgoers together to serve people 
living with HIV/AIDS seven years ago, donations came from individuals. 
Their work created a buzz, and by 2001 donations were pouring in from 
congregations around the world. But few orthodox donor agencies took 
note, reflecting an ambivalence - and sometimes scepticism - towards 
faith-based organisations.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSReport.ASP?ReportID=6475


SOUTHERN AFRICA: Emergency plan to counter deadly TB stain

Cases of extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) are being 
diagnosed throughout South Africa and could be going undetected in other 
parts of the region.

This emerged at a two-day workshop convened in Pretoria this week at the 
urgent request of the South African Health Department, attended by 
experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO), and health ministers 
and scientists from the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSReport.ASP?ReportID=6470


LESOTHO: 'Expert' patients lighten load for clinic staff

Seated at a table recording blood samples in a tiny, overflowing waiting 
room at Phoholong HIV/AIDS Clinic, about 40km from Maseru, the capital, 
Miriam Phoofolo could be mistaken for a nurse, but she is in fact a 
patient.

How to provide care and treatment to the estimated one in four adults 
living with HIV in Lesotho, in the context of a severe health-worker 
shortage, demands creative solutions. An approach being piloted by the 
Clinton Foundation's HIV/AIDS Initiative is to train HIV-positive 
patients like Phoofolo to assist overworked doctors, nurses and 
pharmacists.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSReport.ASP?ReportID=6471


ETHIOPIA: Poverty forcing girls into risky sex work

The nightclubs of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, reveal a thriving 
sex industry, in which thousands of skimpily dressed young women trade 
sexual favours for cash to survive, putting them at risk of contracting 
HIV and spreading the disease.

Extreme poverty has forced many girls into the sex trade. Helen Chane 
(not her real name), a grade 10 student aged 17, became a commercial sex 
worker after her parents died from AIDS-related illnesses about a year 
ago.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSReport.ASP?ReportID=6472


ZIMBABWE: Another ARV shortage looms

The government has been forced to hold off putting more HIV-positive 
people on its treatment programme, amid reports that anti-AIDS drug 
supplies could run out by December.

"Our problem is that, currently, we cannot put more people on the 
programme, but we have enough drugs for those already on the ARV 
[antiretroviral] programme," health minister Dr David Parirenyatwa told 
IRIN PlusNews.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSReport.ASP?ReportID=6473


NIGERIA: 'Nollywood' joins fight against HIV

Actors and filmmakers from 'Nollywood' - as Nigeria's film industry is 
colloquially known - have come out in support of the fight against 
HIV/AIDS.

'Cinema for AIDS', a week-long event in Abuja, the capital, was backed 
by the National and State Action Committees on AIDS and the Ministry of 
Health, and featured film showings and workshop sessions to highlight 
the role motion pictures can play in combating the spread of HIV/AIDS.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSReport.ASP?ReportID=6468


KENYA: Farm project helps AIDS orphans get food, income

A UN project is helping to sustain farming know-how and other life 
skills among Kenyan children orphaned by AIDS.

The Junior Farmer Field and Life Schools project (JFFLS), which has been 
running for two years, teaches basic farming techniques and social 
health, including family planning, alcohol abuse and gender equality, to 
120 orphans at four primary schools in the village of Odhuro in the 
district of Bondo in western Kenya's Nyanza province.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSReport.ASP?ReportID=6466


ZIMBABWE: Wanted - HIV-positive celebs to speak out

Too few public figures in Zimbabwe are coming forward to be tested for 
HIV, so widespread stigma and discrimination are driving the epidemic 
underground, says a leading HIV/AIDS activist.

Tendayi Westerhof, executive director of Public Personalities against 
AIDS (PPAAT), said prominent people were doing a "disservice" to the 
fight against the epidemic by failing to disclose their HIV status.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSReport.ASP?ReportID=6467


GHANA: Increase in HIV/AIDS treatment and care centres

Forty-five-year-old butcher Amadu* eagerly looks forward to his first 
visit to the Tamale Government hospital's new HIV/AIDS treatment and 
care centre in northern Ghana.

This time, he will not have to travel hundreds of kilometers south to 
get his life-enhancing antiretroviral drugs.

Last year, the only option for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in 
northern Ghana was to travel south to the Okomfo Anokye Government 
Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana's second largest city.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSReport.ASP?ReportID=6465




EVENTS/RESOURCES

1. AIDS, poverty, and hunger: challenges and responses
Author(s): Gillespie, S. (ed)
Produced by: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), 2006

This book is based on the International Conference on HIV/AIDS and Food 
and Nutrition Security: From Evidence to Action, in Durban, South 
Africa, in April 2005. It reviews emerging knowledge on the interactions 
between AIDS and hunger and what this implies for poverty, food and 
nutrition-relevant policy and programmes. The book is organised around 
three main themes: interactions, local responses and policies, 
programmes and interventions.

The editor argues that an HIV lens, not a filter, needs to be employed 
in order to see the interactions and overlapping set of problems between 
HIV and AIDS, food insecurity and malnutrition. Moreover, greater 
emphasis needs to be placed on learning from, supporting and enabling 
community-driven responses and innovations.

Available online at: http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC15299


2. Conference: 27th African Health Sciences Congress, 3-7 December 2006, 
Durban, South Africa

The theme of the conference will be 'Strengthening resource capacity and 
transfer of adequate technology for an integrated development in 
Africa'. Its aims include promoting research relevant to the diseases 
found in and particular to Africa; identifying and evaluating old and 
existing technologies for healthcare in Africa; and strengthening the 
international lobbying of governments on certain African health issues.

Topics to be covered include: avian flu; health systems and policy; HIV, 
AIDS and opportunistic diseases; malaria and insecticides; neglected 
diseases and orphan medicines; non-communicable diseases; quality 
management; and reproduction and maternal health.

For more information, go to: http://www.mrc.ac.za/conference/ahsc/




VACANCIES

1. Programme Director, International HIV/AIDS Alliance, South Sudan

The Alliance is setting up a Programme Office in Juba, South Sudan. The 
programme will be working on supporting South Sudanese NGOs, 
community-based organisations, faith-based organisations and people 
living with HIV/AIDS, primarily in the Equatoria States of South Sudan, 
in their work on HIV prevention, care and support. It will focus on 
supporting emerging groups by providing organisational and institutional 
strengthening, and technical capacity development.


Responsibilies:

- Develop and implement strategic and operational plans ensuring that 
the Alliance fulfils its obligations to donors in South Sudan

- Build and maintain effective and positive relationships with national 
and international NGOs, government agencies, donors and other key groups

- Play an important role in the future change process of transforming 
the South Sudan Programme Office into an autonomous national 
organisation


Qualifications:

- Relevant post-graduate degree in social sciences, public health or 
development

- Extensive experience as a senior manager for a community development 
NGO in South Sudan

- Proven knowledge and understanding of HIV/AIDS in Sudan

- Fluent in English and any of the Sudanese local languages

- Demonstrable experience of donor liaison, successful fundraising, and 
proposal development, with proven leadership skills in advocacy on 
HIV/AIDS issues at national and provincial levels

- Senior strategic and programmatic management skills, including 
managing budgets, staff and other resources at a country level


Application deadline: 3 November

To apply, send your CV and a covering letter (both in English) to: 
recruitment@aidsalliance.org. For more details go to: 
http://www.aidsalliance.org/sw40484.asp


IRIN-SA
Tel: +27 11 895-1900
Fax: +27 11 784-6759
Email: IRIN-SA@irin.org.za


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