Aid for Africa » Health

Human Rights and HIV/AIDS in Sub Saharan Africa

brose — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 21:10:35 +0000

“Rights here, right now,” the theme of the 18th International AIDS Conference kicking off in Vienna, Austria, today, champions the role of human rights in the fight against HIV/AIDS. In Sub Saharan Africa, where more than 22 million people—including 12 million women and nearly 2 million children—live with HIV/AIDS, nowhere is the need greater for supporting human rights, particularly for women and children. But global economic conditions are hampering AIDS treatment and the expansion of HIV prevention efforts around the world, particularly in Sub Saharan Africa. More people die from AIDS in Sub Saharan Africa than anywhere else—72 percent of all deaths from AIDS in 2008. Let us hope that as the conference delegates share research, proposals, and plans this week, the poor and most vulnerable of Sub Saharan Africa will be in their sights.

Aid for Africa members confront the realities of HIV/AIDS everyday as they work with their African partners throughout Sub Saharan Africa. On World AIDS Day 2009, Aid for Africa highlighted some of the work of its members that are increasing access to services, providing effective treatment, and preserving human dignity. It seems appropriate to highlight this again with a few additions.

Health Alliance International works in partnership with ministries of health to build their health systems, including HIV/AIDS testing and treatment projects in Mozambique, where antiretroviral therapy has increased from just 4,000 in 2004 to 80,000 today. African Solutions to African Problems supports community-based programs and women’s networks to help them better deliver life-affirming care for orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Partners in Health has proved that AIDS can be treated in a poverty setting through its effective model of community-based care now being used in Rwanda, Lesotho, and Malawi. African Child Care Association provides HIV/AIDS prevention training to teens in Cameroon. mothers2mothers is helping some 50,000 women a month prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS throughout Africa. AID Village Clinics helps educate, prevent, and treat the Maasai of western Kenya affected by HIV/AIDS. Firelight Foundation supports and advocates for children orphaned or affected by HIV/AIDS. Children of Uganda cares for AIDS orphans and other disadvantaged children in Uganda with the goal of helping them become healthy and productive members of society. South Africa Partners creates partnerships between organizations in the United States and South Africa for HIV/AIDS support groups. Foundation for Hospices in Sub Saharan Africa supports African organizations that provide home-based hospice and palliative care to those who are dying of HIV/AIDS. World Hope International provides HIV/AIDS prevention and orphan care. African Services Committee provides HIV testing, prevention, and AIDS support in urban and rural Ethiopia.

PBS Turns a Much-Needed Spotlight on Maternal Health Risks in the Wake of the Haiti Earthquake

laramony — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:20:00 +0000

It isn’t surprising that a team from the PBS newsmagazine NOW turned to Ann Starrs, president and cofounder of Family Care International, when it wanted to better understand why women in Haiti have the highest rate of death in childbirth in the Western Hemisphere and what some 63,000 pregnant Haitian women now face in the aftermath of the earthquake. For more than two decades, Aid-for-Africa-member Family Care International has been working in Africa and Latin America to make pregnancy and childbirth safer for women and girls. There are not many nonprofit organizations around the world that place maternal health at the center of their mission. Family Care International was one of the first and remains one of the few.

Having a child in Sub Saharan Africa is risky business. According to UNICEF, 1 in 16 women in the region die during pregnancy or in childbirth. In Haiti, before the earthquake, the rate was 1 in 44 women. In the United States it is 1 in 4,800 women. Family Care International works on the ground with local groups to focus attention on maternal deaths, forge consensus around proven strategies, accelerate action, and save women’s lives. It is encouraging that the PBS Emmy-winning show has chosen to focus on this issue in the context of Haiti’s crisis. We hope that spotlight draws broader attention to this crisis in African countries such as Kenya, Mali and Burkina Faso, as well.

Alternatives to Orphanages Bring Hope to Africa’s Vulnerable Children

laramony — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:22:05 +0000

The United Nations estimates that more than 55 million African children have lost one parent and that almost 15 million of them have lost a parent to AIDS. Orphanages are often seen as a solution for these orphaned and vulnerable children. In a recent article in the New York Times, Celia Dugger suggests an alternative. Most often these children end up living with extended family members, many who are struggling to care for their own children. Pilot efforts underway in Malawi to support families that are caring for orphans have potential. Another approach not mentioned by Dugger shows promise in South Africa. A British and U.S. charity, African Solutions to African Problems, supports local women’s organizations that run community day-care centers for orphaned and vulnerable children. Children arrive at the centers each morning, and local women running the centers ensure that they receive nutritious food, healthcare, schooling, and psychological support. The women receive training in gardening, child care, and management–whatever it takes. The result: healthy and happy children and sustainable community institutions run by local women–a win-win. In some of the poorest rural areas of South Africa today, some 600 women care for 9,000 children in these centers, and the number is growing.

For Aid for Africa Members, Every Day is World AIDS Day

laramony — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:10:26 +0000

Two-thirds of the people in the world living with HIV and AIDS are in Sub Saharan Africa. In its 2009 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, UNAIDS found that more than 22 million people in the region have HIV/AIDS. In 2008, 1.4 million people in the region died of AIDS and almost 2 million became infected with HIV. Compounding the high rates of disease in many areas are inadequate health care systems–poor countries have few health centers, hospitals or health care workers, and so struggle to provide critical care and treatment.

The numbers can be overwhelming, and yet valuable progress is being made in increasing access to HIV and AIDS services. The theme of this, the 21st World AIDS Day, is Universal Access and Human Rights. While most Aid for Africa charities confront the realities of HIV/AIDS everyday as they work with their African partners throughout the continent, we would like to call attention to a few that are even more specifically focused on increasing access to services, providing effective treatment options and preserving human dignity, a vital component of combating the spread of the epidemic.

Health Alliance International works in partnership with ministries of health to build their health systems, including HIV/AIDS testing and treatment projects in Mozambique, where antiretroviral therapy has increased from just 4,000 in 2004 to 80,000 today. African Solutions to African Problems supports community-based programs and women’s networks to help them better deliver life-affirming care for orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Partners in Health has proved that AIDS can be treated in a poverty setting through its effective model of community-based care now being used in Rwanda, Lesotho, and Malawi. African Child Care Association provides HIV/AIDS prevention training to teens in Cameroon. Mothers2mothers is helping some 50,000 women a month prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS throughout Africa. AID Village Clinics helps educate, prevent, and treat the Maasai of western Kenya affected by HIV/AIDS. Firelight Foundation supports and advocates for children orphaned or affected by HIV/AIDS. Children of Uganda cares for AIDS orphans and other disadvantaged children in Uganda with the goal of helping them become healthy and productive members of society. South Africa Partners creates partnerships between organizations in the United States and South Africa for HIV/AIDS support groups. Foundation for Hospices in Sub Saharan Africa supports African organizations that provide home-based hospice and palliative care to those who are dying of HIV/AIDS. World Hope International provides HIV/AIDS prevention and orphan care.

On World AIDS day, we applaud all who are supporting efforts to prevent the spread of HIV and treat and care for those living with HIV and AIDS.

Strengthening Women’s Healthcare to Stem Rising Preterm Births

omnistudio — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:42:42 +0000

A new study by the March of Dimes with the World Health Organization finds that globally each year almost 13 million babies are born prematurely—one of every ten newborns. Four million of these preterm babies die in their first month of life. And those who do not die face lives of impairment. In Africa, the rate of premature birth is the highest in the world—almost 12 percent. This translates into four million babies. The study suggests that in African and other poor countries, malnutrition, malaria, anemia, and poor prenatal care are the reasons for such high rates, and it calls for more research to fill gaps in the data of this growing global problem. Prenatal care for women in Africa is a major focus of a number of our members, including Family Care International, which works to make pregnancy and childbirth safer in East and West Africa through improved maternal health services, the John Dau Foundation, whose medical clinic in Duk, Sudan, provided the first prenatal care ever to women in the southern Sudan, and Health Alliance International, which is helping the governments of Mozambique and Cote d’Iviore develop primary health care systems that include a focus on pregnant women. The March of Dimes study calls for investing in existing maternal and newborn programs to make them stronger while at the same time seeking new thinking and innovative approaches. Nowhere is the need greater than in Africa.