Fran Blandy
AFP's deputy bureau chief for East Africa, based in Nairobi, Previously correspondent in Paris, Dakar and Johannesburg.
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/ 15 August 2006

Aids: Don’t patronise the poor, Clinton warns

Studies showing that people in the poorest African villages take their medicines at a ”stunningly” high percentage are evidence that the poor ”will live if you give them the tools to live”, former United States president Bill Clinton said in Toronto on Monday. Clinton and Microsoft head Bill Gates discussed Aids issues at the International Aids Conference.

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/ 14 August 2006

Empower women to fight Aids, says Gates

The power to prevent HIV should be put in the hands of women, who depend on men to use a condom and can’t always choose to abstain, Bill Gates told thousands of delegates to the International Aids Conference in Toronto on Sunday. ”We need tools that will allow women to protect themselves,” Gates said.

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/ 11 August 2006

‘Hungry people can’t eat Aids messages’

Good nutrition could be the only available life-prolonging alternative to people living with HIV/Aids in rural areas, a senior officer for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation said on Thursday. He said the South African Department of Health can ”do more and do better” when it comes to fighting HIV/Aids.

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/ 28 July 2006

Job creation must respect the environment

Creating jobs without damaging the environment was the only way to guarantee workers’ livelihoods, a conference in Johannesburg heard on Friday. About 80 trade union leaders from 22 African countries were meeting with environmentalists for a two-day conference to examine connections between poverty and environmental damage and how these affected workers.

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/ 18 May 2006

Strike could cost economy R2-billion

A nationwide strike on Thursday could have cost the economy over R2-billion and defeated the aims of striking unions, business and economists said. The strike would have had a negative impact on job creation and poverty alleviation, said chief operations officer at the Business Unity of South Africa, Vic van Vuuren.