Guest guest Posted November 3, 2006 Report Share Posted November 3, 2006 AFRICA: IRIN PlusNews Weekly Issue 308, 3 November 2006 NEWS and FEATURES SOUTHERN AFRICA: Red Cross launches biggest ever AIDS appeal ZAMBIA: Getting street kids to stay on the straight and narrow NAMIBIA: Reaching targets despite great obstacles ETHIOPIA: Eritrean refugees desperate for HIV services SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE: HIV positive mothers reject formula feeding SENEGAL: Sexually active street children increasingly vulnerable to HIV SOUTH AFRICA: Govt/NGO meeting spurs hope for more effective AIDS action SOUTH AFRICA: Slow anti-AIDS care being felt in KwaZulu-Natal MALAWI: Show us the money, says UN AIDS envoy KENYA: HIV exacerbates malnutrition among infants in drought-prone Turkana RESOURCE: 1. TB drug report: Analysis of the current drug pipeline VACANCIES: 1. Open Society Institute - Public Health Programme - Law And Health Initiative NEWS and FEATURES: SOUTHERN AFRICA: Red Cross launches biggest ever AIDS appeal The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies launched an appeal on Wednesday to massively expand its anti-AIDS programme in Southern Africa over the next five years. Speaking in Johannesburg, the Federation's new Special Representative for HIV and AIDS, Dr. Mukesh Kapila, urged international donor communities to move beyond rhetoric in meeting the needs of affected populations. The Federation is appealing for US$300 million to implement the expansion of its AIDS programme in the region. More details: http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=6511 ZAMBIA: Getting street kids to stay on the straight and narrow Dressed in baggy trousers, caps and colourful T-shirts, the toughened teens of the " Back to School Project " were scared. The boys, all between the ages of 14 and 18, live on the streets of Zambia's capital, Lusaka, where they play, fight, gamble and do what they can to earn a little money for food and drink, sometimes raking in enough to help support their families. Each of the boys was to be tested for HIV that day. " I am not going! " yelled one of the younger boys. " I am going to hide and then I won't have to go " , he said, pouting and folding his arms over his thin chest. But with a little cajoling and backslapping from some of the braver boys, they all eventually piled into a sweltering van for a 20-minute, cross-town ride to the clinic. More details: http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=6512 NAMIBIA: Reaching targets despite great obstacles Tucked away in the maze of corridors of Katutura Hospital, in a historically black township of Namibia's capital, Windhoek, is the recently renovated modern Communicable Disease Clinic. This HIV/AIDS facility treats 8,500 adults and 660 children, and is viewed as the country's " centre of excellence " , according to the hospital's head of internal medicine, Dr Ishmael Katjitae, who also sits on the country's ARV rollout technical advisory committee. However, the ARV clinic is not an accurate reflection of what was happening in the rest of the country. Most of Namibia's health facilities serve rural areas and are not as well staffed and equipped, said Dr Angelo Madjarov, who had been working in Oshakati, in the north of the country. Patients attending the clinic don't consider themselves any better off. A few kilometres away, in another part of Katutura, a support group run by AIDS Care Trust, a local nongovernmental organisation (NGO), is holding its Wednesday meeting. Most of the members access treatment at the hospital. Inevitably, with 64 percent of people accessing ARVs nationally being women, the group is largely made up of unemployed women and many have brought their children. Martha Aluene, 34, who has appointed herself the group's spokeswoman, says week in and week out the dominant themes of their discussions are transport and food. " The hospital is too far, and what can we do but walk - we don't have money for [public] transport and we don't have income to buy food. More details: http://www.plusnews.org/aidsreport.asp?reportid=6504 ETHIOPIA: Eritrean refugees desperate for HIV services Every evening as the sun sets over the hills of northern Ethiopia, young couples can be seen strolling past the coffee shops and pool halls of Shimelba refugee camp. An estimated 10,000 refugees live in Shimelba. The camp resembles a mini-Asmara - a slice of life from Eritrea's capital city, recreated in rural Ethiopia by Eritreans fleeing an authoritarian government and lengthy military service. The refugees are predominantly young and urban; many are former soldiers and all are living together in an atmosphere of stifling boredom - perfect conditions for the spread of HIV. Yet no one knows how widespread the virus has become as no testing is available in the camp. More details: http://www.plusnews.org/aidsreport.asp?reportid=6516 SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE: HIV positive mothers reject formula feeding Poverty and a cultural preference for breastfeeding are driving the spread of HIV from mothers to their babies in Sao Tome and Principe. The HIV rate among pregnant women on the tiny West African islands tripled from 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent between 2001 and 2005. " The number of cases is growing every year, " said Bonfim, the UN children's fund health project officer. " We were hoping that with increased support, the rate would either stagnate or reduce. So it's clear that something isn't working. " More details: http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=6509 SENEGAL: Sexually active street children increasingly vulnerable to HIV Many of the thousands of children that wander the busy streets of Dakar, the capital of Senegal, are sexually active but few have any knowledge about the risks of HIV. " One sees eight-year-old children who already have several male and female partners who are older than they are, " said Adjiratou Sow Diallo Diouf, author of a 2005 study on the impact of HIV/AIDS on Dakar's estimated 6,000 street children. The 30 children, aged between 8 and 17, Diouf questioned for the study revealed sexual relations that were both homosexual and heterosexual and rarely protected, leaving them highly vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases including HIV. More details: http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=6510 SOUTH AFRICA: Govt/NGO meeting spurs hope for more effective AIDS action A spirit of greater openness and unity between government and civil society has emerged from a two-day AIDS congress, signalling a possible end to damaging divisions in South Africa's HIV/AIDS response. Reinforcing a number of moves by the South African government in recent months aimed at improving its strained relationship with AIDS activists, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka urged delegates to partner with government in the fight against AIDS. More details: http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=6506 SOUTH AFRICA: Slow anti-AIDS care being felt in KwaZulu-Natal For many HIV-positive people in South Africa's Embo area, southwest of the port city of Durban, accessing treatment at public health facilities is as difficult as navigating the steep and muddy paths between their homes. Pausing briefly to catch his breath up the hill to a patient's house, Leonard Gcabashe, a local pastor and community caregiver, recalled the many times he had tumbled down the paths while carrying people who were too sick to walk. " My van only goes as far as the paved roads will allow, and then I go the rest of the way by foot, sometimes for distances of 1.5km. It doesn't seem like much, but when you carry a grown man or woman on your back, it can be very tricky, " he told IRIN/PlusNews. More details: http://www.plusnews.org/aidsreport.asp?reportid=6507 MALAWI: Show us the money, says UN AIDS envoy A visiting UN envoy has accused the world's wealthiest countries of failing Malawi, which is struggling to care for more than two million orphans and vulnerable children. " Where is the money? At the G8 summit in Gleneagles in July 2005, rich nations promised to double financial aid to Africa, an extra US$25 billion by 2010. The Malawi government is struggling to support its people because there is no money, " complained , the UN secretary-general's special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. More details: http://www.plusnews.org/aidsreport.asp?reportid=6508 KENYA: HIV exacerbates malnutrition among infants in drought-prone Turkana A high incidence of HIV has worsened the condition of hungry children in drought-prone Turkana region, in northern Kenya. Over the past month, seven of the 10 children admitted to a nutritional rehabilitation centre at the hospital in Lodwar, Turkana's largest town, were found to be HIV positive. Turkana has a high HIV prevalence rate of 11.4 percent, almost double the national rate of 6.7 percent estimated by UNAIDS. More details: http://www.plusnews.org/aidsreport.asp?reportid=6514 RESOURCE: 1. Relying on the standard World Health Organisation (WHO) TB strategies in the face of extensively drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB) was dangerous, the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned this week. According to MSF, to respond to the XDR-TB outbreak, WHO will need to get newer drugs to patients as soon as possible by ensuring accelerated development of new drugs already in clinical trials. Existing TB drugs and diagnostics are not adequate to combat the disease, and a new analysis released by MSF at the 37th Union World Conference on Lung Health held this week in Paris, shows that none of the TB drugs currently in development, however promising, will be able to drastically improve TB treatment in the near future. To access the report: http://www.accessmed-msf.org/documents/TBPipeline.pdf VACANCIES: 1. Open Society Institute - Public Health Programme - Law And Health Initiative POSITION AVAILABLE: Programme Officer, East Africa (Nairobi-Based) DEADLINE: 10 November 2006 START DATE: January 2007 or sooner RESPONSIBILITIES: The Programme Officer, East Africa will work with the Law and Health Initiative (LAHI) of the Open Society Institute Public Health Programme (PHP) and the Open Society Initiative for East Africa (OSIEA) in Nairobi to advance law- and human rights-based responses to HIV and AIDS and public health in the region. Responsibilities will be both grant-related and operational, and will include: - Strategy Development: Identify opportunities for LAHI to expand its work on HIV-related legal services throughout East Africa. This may include exploratory missions in the region, attending conferences and donor meetings, strategy development, evaluation of existing projects, and leveraging funding from additional sources. - Policy Analysis: Author reports and advocacy documents on issues of human rights, livelihoods, and HIV in the region. - Advocacy: Conduct advocacy on behalf of grantees and sub-grantees with government and donor agencies. - Grant management: Help to oversee the work of a portfolio of LAHI grantees and sub-grantees providing HIV-related legal services in Kenya. REQUIREMENTS: - Advanced degree in public health, law or social sciences related to international development. - At least five years of experience in advocacy related to HIV and AIDS, at least three of which in Kenya or other countries in East Africa. - Demonstrated knowledge of and commitment to human rights approaches to combating HIV and AIDS. - Experience working on HIV/AIDS-related programming, grants management, programme design, monitoring and evaluation with grassroots organisations in East Africa. - Excellent oral and written communications skills in English. Kiswahili strongly desired. - Demonstrated skills in public speaking, presentations, research, writing, and editing for publication, as well as communications and media work. - Strong organizational and management skills with attention to detail. - Ability to listen and communicate clearly and effectively with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds. - Ability to work effectively both independently without detailed daily supervision and as a member of a team, on a wide range of tasks. - Ability to distil programme experience into compelling advocacy messages for governments and international institutions. - Willingness to travel both within the East African region and internationally. - Knowledge of the following issues highly desired: gender and development; public health best practice, livelihood programming, micro-credit, micro-finance and vocational training programmes; children's rights; PLHA rights, rights of the elderly; and rights of sex workers. To apply, please send a resume, cover letter, and salary history to: lawandhealth@... or: Open Society Institute ATTN: Sai Jahann 400 West 59th St. New York, NY USA 10019 Fax: +1 (646) 557-2550 [ENDS] This is non-reply e-mail. Please do not hesitate to contact us at Mail@.... IRIN-SA Tel: +27 11 895-1900 Fax: +27 11 784-6759 Email: IRIN-SA@... Principal donors: IRIN is generously supported by Australia, Canada, Denmark, ECHO, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. For more information, go to: http://www.IRINnews.org/donors [This item comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. All IRIN material may be reposted or reprinted free-of-charge; refer to the copyright page (Http://www.irinnews.org/copyright ) for conditions of use. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.] To make changes to or cancel your subscription visit: http://www.Plusnews.org/subscriptions/AIDSsubslogin.asp Subscriber: AIDS treatments Keyword: Africa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 3, 2006 Report Share Posted November 3, 2006 AFRICA: IRIN PlusNews Weekly Issue 308, 3 November 2006 NEWS and FEATURES SOUTHERN AFRICA: Red Cross launches biggest ever AIDS appeal ZAMBIA: Getting street kids to stay on the straight and narrow NAMIBIA: Reaching targets despite great obstacles ETHIOPIA: Eritrean refugees desperate for HIV services SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE: HIV positive mothers reject formula feeding SENEGAL: Sexually active street children increasingly vulnerable to HIV SOUTH AFRICA: Govt/NGO meeting spurs hope for more effective AIDS action SOUTH AFRICA: Slow anti-AIDS care being felt in KwaZulu-Natal MALAWI: Show us the money, says UN AIDS envoy KENYA: HIV exacerbates malnutrition among infants in drought-prone Turkana RESOURCE: 1. TB drug report: Analysis of the current drug pipeline VACANCIES: 1. Open Society Institute - Public Health Programme - Law And Health Initiative NEWS and FEATURES: SOUTHERN AFRICA: Red Cross launches biggest ever AIDS appeal The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies launched an appeal on Wednesday to massively expand its anti-AIDS programme in Southern Africa over the next five years. Speaking in Johannesburg, the Federation's new Special Representative for HIV and AIDS, Dr. Mukesh Kapila, urged international donor communities to move beyond rhetoric in meeting the needs of affected populations. The Federation is appealing for US$300 million to implement the expansion of its AIDS programme in the region. More details: http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=6511 ZAMBIA: Getting street kids to stay on the straight and narrow Dressed in baggy trousers, caps and colourful T-shirts, the toughened teens of the " Back to School Project " were scared. The boys, all between the ages of 14 and 18, live on the streets of Zambia's capital, Lusaka, where they play, fight, gamble and do what they can to earn a little money for food and drink, sometimes raking in enough to help support their families. Each of the boys was to be tested for HIV that day. " I am not going! " yelled one of the younger boys. " I am going to hide and then I won't have to go " , he said, pouting and folding his arms over his thin chest. But with a little cajoling and backslapping from some of the braver boys, they all eventually piled into a sweltering van for a 20-minute, cross-town ride to the clinic. More details: http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=6512 NAMIBIA: Reaching targets despite great obstacles Tucked away in the maze of corridors of Katutura Hospital, in a historically black township of Namibia's capital, Windhoek, is the recently renovated modern Communicable Disease Clinic. This HIV/AIDS facility treats 8,500 adults and 660 children, and is viewed as the country's " centre of excellence " , according to the hospital's head of internal medicine, Dr Ishmael Katjitae, who also sits on the country's ARV rollout technical advisory committee. However, the ARV clinic is not an accurate reflection of what was happening in the rest of the country. Most of Namibia's health facilities serve rural areas and are not as well staffed and equipped, said Dr Angelo Madjarov, who had been working in Oshakati, in the north of the country. Patients attending the clinic don't consider themselves any better off. A few kilometres away, in another part of Katutura, a support group run by AIDS Care Trust, a local nongovernmental organisation (NGO), is holding its Wednesday meeting. Most of the members access treatment at the hospital. Inevitably, with 64 percent of people accessing ARVs nationally being women, the group is largely made up of unemployed women and many have brought their children. Martha Aluene, 34, who has appointed herself the group's spokeswoman, says week in and week out the dominant themes of their discussions are transport and food. " The hospital is too far, and what can we do but walk - we don't have money for [public] transport and we don't have income to buy food. More details: http://www.plusnews.org/aidsreport.asp?reportid=6504 ETHIOPIA: Eritrean refugees desperate for HIV services Every evening as the sun sets over the hills of northern Ethiopia, young couples can be seen strolling past the coffee shops and pool halls of Shimelba refugee camp. An estimated 10,000 refugees live in Shimelba. The camp resembles a mini-Asmara - a slice of life from Eritrea's capital city, recreated in rural Ethiopia by Eritreans fleeing an authoritarian government and lengthy military service. The refugees are predominantly young and urban; many are former soldiers and all are living together in an atmosphere of stifling boredom - perfect conditions for the spread of HIV. Yet no one knows how widespread the virus has become as no testing is available in the camp. More details: http://www.plusnews.org/aidsreport.asp?reportid=6516 SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE: HIV positive mothers reject formula feeding Poverty and a cultural preference for breastfeeding are driving the spread of HIV from mothers to their babies in Sao Tome and Principe. The HIV rate among pregnant women on the tiny West African islands tripled from 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent between 2001 and 2005. " The number of cases is growing every year, " said Bonfim, the UN children's fund health project officer. " We were hoping that with increased support, the rate would either stagnate or reduce. So it's clear that something isn't working. " More details: http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=6509 SENEGAL: Sexually active street children increasingly vulnerable to HIV Many of the thousands of children that wander the busy streets of Dakar, the capital of Senegal, are sexually active but few have any knowledge about the risks of HIV. " One sees eight-year-old children who already have several male and female partners who are older than they are, " said Adjiratou Sow Diallo Diouf, author of a 2005 study on the impact of HIV/AIDS on Dakar's estimated 6,000 street children. The 30 children, aged between 8 and 17, Diouf questioned for the study revealed sexual relations that were both homosexual and heterosexual and rarely protected, leaving them highly vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases including HIV. More details: http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=6510 SOUTH AFRICA: Govt/NGO meeting spurs hope for more effective AIDS action A spirit of greater openness and unity between government and civil society has emerged from a two-day AIDS congress, signalling a possible end to damaging divisions in South Africa's HIV/AIDS response. Reinforcing a number of moves by the South African government in recent months aimed at improving its strained relationship with AIDS activists, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka urged delegates to partner with government in the fight against AIDS. More details: http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=6506 SOUTH AFRICA: Slow anti-AIDS care being felt in KwaZulu-Natal For many HIV-positive people in South Africa's Embo area, southwest of the port city of Durban, accessing treatment at public health facilities is as difficult as navigating the steep and muddy paths between their homes. Pausing briefly to catch his breath up the hill to a patient's house, Leonard Gcabashe, a local pastor and community caregiver, recalled the many times he had tumbled down the paths while carrying people who were too sick to walk. " My van only goes as far as the paved roads will allow, and then I go the rest of the way by foot, sometimes for distances of 1.5km. It doesn't seem like much, but when you carry a grown man or woman on your back, it can be very tricky, " he told IRIN/PlusNews. More details: http://www.plusnews.org/aidsreport.asp?reportid=6507 MALAWI: Show us the money, says UN AIDS envoy A visiting UN envoy has accused the world's wealthiest countries of failing Malawi, which is struggling to care for more than two million orphans and vulnerable children. " Where is the money? At the G8 summit in Gleneagles in July 2005, rich nations promised to double financial aid to Africa, an extra US$25 billion by 2010. The Malawi government is struggling to support its people because there is no money, " complained , the UN secretary-general's special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. More details: http://www.plusnews.org/aidsreport.asp?reportid=6508 KENYA: HIV exacerbates malnutrition among infants in drought-prone Turkana A high incidence of HIV has worsened the condition of hungry children in drought-prone Turkana region, in northern Kenya. Over the past month, seven of the 10 children admitted to a nutritional rehabilitation centre at the hospital in Lodwar, Turkana's largest town, were found to be HIV positive. Turkana has a high HIV prevalence rate of 11.4 percent, almost double the national rate of 6.7 percent estimated by UNAIDS. More details: http://www.plusnews.org/aidsreport.asp?reportid=6514 RESOURCE: 1. Relying on the standard World Health Organisation (WHO) TB strategies in the face of extensively drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB) was dangerous, the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned this week. According to MSF, to respond to the XDR-TB outbreak, WHO will need to get newer drugs to patients as soon as possible by ensuring accelerated development of new drugs already in clinical trials. Existing TB drugs and diagnostics are not adequate to combat the disease, and a new analysis released by MSF at the 37th Union World Conference on Lung Health held this week in Paris, shows that none of the TB drugs currently in development, however promising, will be able to drastically improve TB treatment in the near future. To access the report: http://www.accessmed-msf.org/documents/TBPipeline.pdf VACANCIES: 1. Open Society Institute - Public Health Programme - Law And Health Initiative POSITION AVAILABLE: Programme Officer, East Africa (Nairobi-Based) DEADLINE: 10 November 2006 START DATE: January 2007 or sooner RESPONSIBILITIES: The Programme Officer, East Africa will work with the Law and Health Initiative (LAHI) of the Open Society Institute Public Health Programme (PHP) and the Open Society Initiative for East Africa (OSIEA) in Nairobi to advance law- and human rights-based responses to HIV and AIDS and public health in the region. Responsibilities will be both grant-related and operational, and will include: - Strategy Development: Identify opportunities for LAHI to expand its work on HIV-related legal services throughout East Africa. This may include exploratory missions in the region, attending conferences and donor meetings, strategy development, evaluation of existing projects, and leveraging funding from additional sources. - Policy Analysis: Author reports and advocacy documents on issues of human rights, livelihoods, and HIV in the region. - Advocacy: Conduct advocacy on behalf of grantees and sub-grantees with government and donor agencies. - Grant management: Help to oversee the work of a portfolio of LAHI grantees and sub-grantees providing HIV-related legal services in Kenya. REQUIREMENTS: - Advanced degree in public health, law or social sciences related to international development. - At least five years of experience in advocacy related to HIV and AIDS, at least three of which in Kenya or other countries in East Africa. - Demonstrated knowledge of and commitment to human rights approaches to combating HIV and AIDS. - Experience working on HIV/AIDS-related programming, grants management, programme design, monitoring and evaluation with grassroots organisations in East Africa. - Excellent oral and written communications skills in English. Kiswahili strongly desired. - Demonstrated skills in public speaking, presentations, research, writing, and editing for publication, as well as communications and media work. - Strong organizational and management skills with attention to detail. - Ability to listen and communicate clearly and effectively with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds. - Ability to work effectively both independently without detailed daily supervision and as a member of a team, on a wide range of tasks. - Ability to distil programme experience into compelling advocacy messages for governments and international institutions. - Willingness to travel both within the East African region and internationally. - Knowledge of the following issues highly desired: gender and development; public health best practice, livelihood programming, micro-credit, micro-finance and vocational training programmes; children's rights; PLHA rights, rights of the elderly; and rights of sex workers. To apply, please send a resume, cover letter, and salary history to: lawandhealth@... or: Open Society Institute ATTN: Sai Jahann 400 West 59th St. New York, NY USA 10019 Fax: +1 (646) 557-2550 [ENDS] This is non-reply e-mail. Please do not hesitate to contact us at Mail@.... IRIN-SA Tel: +27 11 895-1900 Fax: +27 11 784-6759 Email: IRIN-SA@... Principal donors: IRIN is generously supported by Australia, Canada, Denmark, ECHO, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. For more information, go to: http://www.IRINnews.org/donors [This item comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. All IRIN material may be reposted or reprinted free-of-charge; refer to the copyright page (Http://www.irinnews.org/copyright ) for conditions of use. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.] To make changes to or cancel your subscription visit: http://www.Plusnews.org/subscriptions/AIDSsubslogin.asp Subscriber: AIDS treatments Keyword: Africa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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