THE United States Agency for International Development (USaid) has granted $11,5-million (12,5-million euros) to Mozambique for an anti-HIV/Aids programme. The programme, dubbed the Development Corridor of Hope, will involve individuals and communities living along the Maputo Development Corridor — a key road and rail link between South Africa and Mozambique — in the distribution of information designed to combat Aids and encourage safe sexual practices. The southern provinces of Gaza and Inhambane, where large numbers of people are infected, will also be covered by the programme. Many Mozambican workers from Gaza and Inhambane moved to South Africa to work in the mines and are believed to have brought Aids back to their native provinces from the neighbouring country, where Aids is said to be the leading cause of death. Official estimates say that about 16 percent of Mozambique’s population of 17-million are HIV-positive, with 700 new infections occurring daily. – AFP