The new year has begun with a small but significant contribution to the fight against Aids, which is devastating Sub-Saharan Africa.
A $2,15-million grant has been made by Japan to help Zimbabwe and Swaziland prevent the disease from spreading amongst their youth.
The money, which will be channelled through the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef), is to be split between the two Southern African countries.
In Zimbabwe, the grant will be used to help prolong the lives of children living with HIV/Aids. It will also be used to hold seminars to increase awareness of the disease among young people, according to a statement from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs this week.
Swaziland, where a third of the population is infected with HIV, will use its portion of the funds for a project to prevent HIV transmission from mothers to infants.
Nearly 30 million of the 42 million people infected with HIV worldwide are in Africa, and many of these are young people who face a bleak future.
If current trends continue, half a million African youths aged 15 to 24 will die from Aids-related illnesses by the year 2005. That is the view of Pathfinder International, a Nairobi-based non-governmental organisation which deals with reproductive health issues. The group made this claim in a report called “Adolescent Reproductive Health in Africa: Paths into the Next Century”.
“Without intervention, experts predict that over 85 million people will be infected worldwide by 2010, with a loss of human life to Aids totalling 100 million by 2020,” warned Randal L. Tobias, Global Aids Coordinator for the United States, in a document made available to IPS.
During 2002 alone, three million people died from Aids complications, leaving behind anguished loved ones, abandoned children and ravaged communities worldwide. At the same time five million people became infected, Tobias said.
The U.S. official is leading a five-year, $15-billion initiative for providing treatment to at least two million HIV-positive people. The programme also acknowledges the importance of focussing on children: it will assist an estimated 11 million children orphaned by Aids in Sub-Saharan Africa.
These children risk losing the support of extended families, something that affects their health and school attendance amongst other things.
Girls are more affected by the pandemic than boys because the burden of caring for sick relatives falls disproportionately on them. “Often girls are kept at home to clean and cook. Some become family heads and drop out of school when their parents die of Aids,” said Aliyah Allie of the Children’s Media Communication Unit in South Africa.
As long as the disease continues to ravage Africa, children will be orphaned. According to Unicef, Nigeria currently has 995 000 Aids orphans, followed by Ethiopia with 989 000, the Democratic Republic of Congo with 927 000 and Kenya with 892 000. The statistics for Uganda are also alarming (884 000 orphans), while Tanzania has 815 000, Zimbabwe 782 000, South Africa 662 000 and Zambia 557 000 orphans.
The UN children’s agency, in conjunction with governments in Sub-Saharan Africa, is playing a leading role in helping children affected by Aids.
In Botswana, which has one of the highest HIV/Aids adult prevalence rates in the world, the government is developing and implementing gender-sensitive HIV prevention strategies. These include training school teachers on how to run gender-sensitive clubs for making young people aware of Aids. There are also plans to prepare girls and boys aged 6 to 12 to be peer facilitators in such clubs.
In Uganda, Straight Talk, a monthly newspaper for adolescents that addresses sexuality, feelings and values, is distributed to schools, churches and community-based organisations. The paper is mailed to over 3 000 addresses inside and outside Uganda, almost half of which are secondary schools.
In Namibia, students aged 14 to 21 are being prepared to educate their peers on ways to protect themselves from pregnancy, HIV infection, abuse and rape.
Simon Ndlovu, a painter and community activist in Johannesburg, says “My reading is that money alone is not enough to combat the spread of HIV/Aids.”
“We need to promote the culture of debate to enable youths to exchange ideas and find a solution to the HIV/Aids pandemic”.
“Without it,” he told IPS this week, “the African youth are doomed.” — IPS