|
©2006 Daemon Baizan
 TORONTO (August 18, 2006) - "As the 16th international AIDS conference closes in Toronto today, we must commit ourselves to addressing the underlying causes of vulnerability to HIV," said Helene D. Gayle, president and CEO of CARE, the international poverty-fighting organization, and co-chair of the conference. "We must change the existing social paradigm if we are going to keep pace with the virus. Otherwise, all the scientific advances in the world will not be enough. Looking to the 2008 international AIDS conference in Mexico City, we have a clear responsibility to do the hard work ahead and fulfill our responsibilities to the 40 million people living with HIV and AIDS and the millions more who risk acquiring HIV every year."
Every year 4 million people contract HIV. It is projected that 60 million new infections will occur over the next decade. Prevention strategies already exist that could cut the number of new infections by at least 50 percent. However, less than one in five people currently at risk for HIV have access to those strategies. In addition to scaling up proven existing prevention techniques, it is critical to expand prevention options with new tools such as microbicides, diaphragms, oral preventive therapy, circumcision, herpes treatment and ultimately a vaccine. These measures are central to reducing the spread of HIV. However, neither these technologies nor anti-retroviral treatment can stop the spread of HIV and AIDS on their own. It is clear that we must go further and address the factors that increase risk to HIV, such as gender inequality and economic insecurity.
This means developing more HIV programs that address underlying social factors. In Zimbabwe, for instance, CARE uses savings-based microfinance and basic business management skills to reduce the economic insecurity of vulnerable groups, including orphans, youth, widows, sex workers and people living with HIV and AIDS. This program, called SIMBA, has shown that community-managed financial systems can facilitate credit for highly vulnerable people. This access to credit (on favorable and flexible terms) can protect assets, send children to school, and pay for medical expenses. These small loans bring a certain financial stability to the household, decrease the chances that family members will be forced to migrate to find work or engage in transactional sex, which places family members at higher risk for HIV.
SIMBA has also shown that peer groups can provide a much-needed social support system for marginalized people — and help instill the self-confidence to earn a living with dignity. In addition, women who are more economically independent can better negotiate when, how and with whom they have sex. These kinds of efforts are critical to prevent the spread of HIV.
"Prevention must be at the forefront of the battle against HIV and AIDS like never before. We must offer prevention methods that are relevant to the real needs of people at risk for HIV, especially women, who are increasingly the face of HIV and AIDS. We must strive for concrete solutions to social inequities and unequal power relationships. These solutions, together with new tools, will help empower communities to make a difference in the pandemic."
CARE fights poverty in more than 70 countries. The organization's first HIV and AIDS program began in 1987. CARE now has more than 150 programs in approximately 40 countries that address the causes and consequences of HIV and AIDS. These programs reach over seven million people. The CARE delegation at the conference includes nearly 70 staff from Africa, Asia, Canada, Europe and the United States with expertise in HIV and AIDS.
 You can help CARE fight AIDS. Donate here.
 TORONTO - The fight against AIDS cannot be won without reducing poverty, the humanitarian organization agency CARE said this week. CARE calls upon policymakers and practitioners meeting at the upcoming International AIDS Conference in Toronto to include food and income security — which are critical means of addressing poverty and the spread of the disease — in their HIV and AIDS strategies.
"Poverty exacerbates the pandemic, while the pandemic contributes to poverty and inequality. If we are going to succeed in fighting AIDS, something has to change," said CARE Canada's President A. John Watson. "Nutritious foods and a steady income are critical to the health of those living with HIV. If people stay healthy, they can continue working and contributing to their families and their communities. At the same time, if non-infected people are hungry and penniless, they often engage in risky behavior for day to day survival; and this contributes to the spread of AIDS."
CARE works with communities on prevention, treatment, care and support through 150 HIV and AIDS programmes in 40 countries. Communities are ravaged by the vicious cycle created when secure access to nutritious foods and a steady income is denied to people living with, affected by and vulnerable to HIV and AIDS.
Women and girls must be at the center of an effective response to HIV and AIDS. Issues related to gender are inextricably linked with food and income security and HIV and AIDS. By and large, it is women who are responsible for food production and preparation, and caring for families affected by AIDS, yet they have limited earning or negotiation power.
"Ignoring the critical role of women further exacerbates their vulnerability and weakens the fight against AIDS," said Dr. Helene Gayle, CARE USA president and International AIDS Society president and conference co-chair. CARE representatives from 16 countries are participating in the conference, sharing successes and outlining challenges in developing countries.
You can help provide medicine for children with AIDS. Donate here.
8:40 AM - Aug. 16, 2006 - {0} -
View more entries tagged with: Poverty, Aids, Children
 President Bush's ABC approach to AIDS promotes Abstinence, Being faithful, and correct and consistent use of Condoms. Restrictions passed by Congress require that at least one third of HIV prevention be spend on abstinence-until-marriage programs.
Tell that to Mpolokeng in South Africa:
" In 1984, she married her high school sweetheart. Her husband left to work as a miner in South Africa and was seldom home. He returned for good when he became too ill to work, and Mpolokeng took care of him. In 2005 her husband died, and Mpolokeng started to feel sick as well. She went to be tested and found out she was HIV-positive." [CARE]
Tell that to Gatrude in Uganda::
"Every day she remains in the sex trade is another day she puts herself at risk of contracting HIV. She knows the risk, but she has no other options to put food on the table for her children. 'It's not by choice I do this work,' Gatrude says. 'If I had an alternative, I would stop this work immediately'." [CARE]
Tell that to Fauster in Rwanda:
"Her husband died when she was six months pregnant; people told her he died from AIDS, but she didn't understand, and thought he had been poisoned. Before she gave birth, she went in for pre-natal care and tested positive for HIV." [CARE]
It's not too late to challenge the arbitrary restrictions that current policy places on U.S. funding for HIV prevention. CARE supports recent legislation introduced by Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, to strengthen HIV prevention efforts by providing greater flexibility to organizations like CARE that confront the AIDS pandemic every day. Help us build momentum for this important initiative by asking your senators to co-sponsor the HIV Prevention for Youth Act today.
|
RSS Blog Feed
