Health Minister Barbara Hogan on Wednesday urged Red Cross societies in Africa to cooperate to rid the continent of the ”burden” of diseases, poverty and armed conflicts.
”Africa is currently experiencing a heavy burden of diseases, poverty, climate change, malnutrition and a scourge of armed conflicts,” she said at the closing ceremony of the seventh Pan African Conference of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
”We must work together towards limiting the impacts of these challenges … which destabilise life,” she said in the speech, delivered on her behalf by a senior official in her ministry.
While opening the conference on Monday, she had urged Red Cross societies across the continent to find fresh strategies to battle Aids.
About 5,5-million people in South Africa have HIV, while four million children have been orphaned by the disease.
About 400 delegates from all 52 African Red Cross and Red Crescent societies attended the three-day conference. — Sapa-AFP