HIV/Aids Africa

SA summit for
African education policy makers
Top African policy makers in education, as well as
vice-chancellors from countries all over Africa, will be attending the inaugural
annual conference of the African Council for Distance Education, to be hosted by
the University of South Africa from 9 to 12 August.South African President Thabo
Mbeki is expected to deliver the opening address at the three-day conference
under the theme: ?Mobilisation of African Leadership: Policies, Strategies and
Partnerships?.The President of the African Union, Dr Alpha Oumar Konare, will
also deliver an address at the opening.International leaders in education will
be chairing sessions and delivering addresses. These include Koichura Matsuura,
director general of Unesco, Sir John Daniel, president of the Commonwealth of
Learning, Prof Nyameko Barney Pityana, chairperson of the ACDE and
Vice-Chancellor of the University of South Africa, the Minister of Education of
South Africa, ministers of education of several African countries and the
secretary general of the Association of African Universities.
There will be panel presentations on the following
subjects:
HIV/Aids
Governance and civil society
Teacher education, training and human resource
development
Capacity building for open and distance education

Economic development and entrepreneurship
Mobilisation of African leadership
Delegates will be representing all regions of the
African continent, from east to west and south to north.

African summit focuses on food safety
Food-borne diseases are a serious
threat to people in Africa, especially Africans already weakened from
devastating conditions such as malaria and HIV/AIDS, two UN agencies warned this
week at the first-ever Regional Food Safety Conference for Africa.Some 200 food
safety officials and experts from 50 countries are attending a four-day
conference held under the auspices of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO).The meeting of food experts is
expected to agree on ways and means to strengthen existing food safety systems
to ensure safer food for better health and agricultural trade
opportunities. “Many African countries do not have adequate food security,
resulting in a situation where at least 60 percent of the food supply is
imported to supplement local production,” according to a report prepared for the
Food Safety Conference. Because there is not effective food safety regime in
place in most countries of the region, the safety of imported food cannot always
be assured, adding to the risk of widespread food contamination. Improved food
safety would help to reduce the 2000 deaths estimated to occur every day in
Africa from food and waterborne diseases.Addressing the globalisation of
agricultural trade and the increasing threat of ill-health from contaminated
food, the report calls on “governments, the private sector, consumers and others
to work in a concerted manner in this shared responsibility of assuring food
safety from farm to fork.”

Katjira Football Club
members have embarked on a cleaning operation at Epupa Falls to raise donations
for participation in the Youth HIV/Aids Soccer tournament to be held at
Okongwati 1 to 3 July. According to the community living in the area, they say
that, like ?in many other small settlements all over Namibia, there is no
rubbish dumpsite at Epupa Falls. This has resulted in an environmental
disaster?. The clean-up operation was organised by the people from the village
themselves.

Stand up Africa
and redefine your future
While Africa has seemingly gained the political
kingdom, it remains the ?sick man of the world?, said Prime Minister Nahas
Angula on the occasion of the Africa Child Day which was celebrated on 16 June.
Angula said poverty, civil strife, HIV/AIDS devastation, under-development and
famine remain the hallmark of African conditions.?In my view, the struggle for
African dignity remains an unfinished business. Africa cannot continue to be the
laggard of the international community. Africa must rise. Africa must stand up
to be counted?, cried Angula.The start toward all this should be the ?retooling,
repositioning and revitalising of the African state to be a catalyst for
development. He said the African state should ?play two over-arching roles? –
that of ?service delivery and social transformation?.Angula said in its role as
an agent of service delivery, the state should ensure good governance, law and
order, provision of public good, welfarist redistribution and infrastructure
development, an instrument of transformation and a dynamic transformation that
intervenes and supports endogenous entrepreneurial development.The Prime
Minister used South Korea and Taiwan as examples of states that where able to
carry out relatively massive interventions in institutional structures and thus
achieve a dynamic social transformation in their economies.He said the two
countries initiated rapid and far-reaching land reforms before the take-off of
their economies.?All agricultural land above a low ceiling was compulsorily
acquired by the state at a price much below the market price and re-distributed
to tenants at low prices. The transfer of natural resources, including land, to
emerging endogenous capitalists is one way in which a dynamic social
transformational state could intervene in favour of growth and development?.He
added that it is his ?contention that the African state should build up its
transformation capacities in order to push the economy into a capitalist
transition through institutional engineering?.

The findings of a study on human genomes from the San and Bantu genetic pools
in southern African will play a key role in understanding human genetic
variation and its effects on human health, scientists say. Four tribal leaders
who are at least 80 years of age were chosen from the San community, while
Archbishop Desmond Tutu represented the Bantu community for purposes of the
study.According to Professor Stephan Schuster from Pennsylvania State University
in the United States, pharmaceuticals are currently only manufactured for and
tested on Europeans and are expected to work for the rest. The findings of the
study, ?Southern African Genome Sequencing project? shows that southern African
people have completely different genes to that of Europeans, Asians and even
West Africans, said Schuster.The study identified 1.3 million genetic variants
that scientists did not observe previously. The study further reveals ?striking?
levels of genetic differences amongst individual participants.?On average, there
are more genetic differences between two Bushmen in our study than between a
European and an Asian. To know how genes affect health, we need to see the full
range of human genetic variation and southern Africa is the best place to look,?
said Webb Miller, professor of biology and computer science at Pennsylvania
State University.The study used three new sequencing technologies, which deliver
DNA sequences with unprecedented economy and speed.A nearly life-long medical
history accompanies each of the participants? genomes resulting in the
identification of genetic differences that may have contributed to particular
health conditions.The researchers expect that these genomes will enable more
accurate identification of diseases caused by rare genetic variants in southern
Africans and in people across the world.Archbishop Tutu said the study has been
especially beneficial to him as it found that genetically, he cannot pass on any
diseases to his children or grand children. ?I survived prostate cancer and was
worried that someone in my family will also get it, but the study found that we
do not have that problem where I can pass a disease on. It?s very good news for
my family and I,? he said.Africans are expected to benefit from the study as
they have often been poorly-represented in pharmaceutical trails and suffer from
population-based differences in the effectiveness of drugs, such as
anti-retroviral treatment for HIV/AIDS, according to the researchers.The
research was led by Pennsylvania State University and involved other
institutions including the Children?s Cancer Institute in Australia, the
University of New South Wales, the University of Washington and the Human Genome
Sequencing Center at Baylor College of Medicine, among
others.

MEDIA RELEASE
Red Cross Societies from the Southern African
Region meet this weekend in Johannesburg, South Africa, to discuss various
humanitarian issues of concern to the organization, its beneficiaries and other
stakeholders.Razia Essack-Kauaria, the Secretary General of the Namibia Red
Cross Society, is one the facilitators at the three-day meeting from 19 ? 21
March, in her capacity as member of the governing board of the International
Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.Essack-Kauaria says it
was imperative that national Red Cross societies in the region play a prominent
role in catering for the increasing number of orphans and vulnerable children
(OVC) due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. She added that ? ? the Red Cross, being the
largest humanitarian organization in the world, has to reflect at its capacity
to cope with major disasters such as the Tsunami should it hit this part of the
world. We have to organise ourselves in such a way that we can indeed play our
auxiliary role to our governments in meeting the needs of those who may be made
vulnerable to large scale disasters?.Under the Algiers Plan of Action, the main
topics for discussion will be: the role that the Southern African region played
in responding to the Tsunami disaster, the rehabilitation phase after the
Tsunami disaster in East Africa and South East Asia, the disaster management
capacity of the region and other issues affecting the region, such as HIV and
AIDS and orphans and vulnerable children;

Aimed at uplifting and improving the quality of
life for AIDS orphans in Namibia, the Christina Swart-Opperman (CSO) Aids Orphan
Foundation Trust organised a gala dinner and auction to raise funds on
Wednesday, 27 April.?Children orphaned by Aids need assistance to cope
effectively with their circumstances. We can contribute towards this by
endeavouring to make their surroundings as stable and as nurturing as possible,?
said Dr Christina Swart-Opperman, the founder of the Trust.The evening included
a fundraising auction and the items sold well.According Dr Swart-Opperman, the
trust has a number of specific objectives went it comes to uplifting and
improving orphans? quality of life. It involves participating specifically in
programmes dealing with education, care and feeding schemes, prevention and
psycho-social support.International Cricket Council (ICC) president Ehsan Mani,
one of the guest speakers, said that ?from raising awareness of its causes and
reducing the stigma that is still attached to the illness in many parts of the
world, to raising money on nights like tonight, there are many ways we can
help?.Deputy Prime Minister Dr Libertina Amadhila said that HIV/AIDS was an
epidemic that had reached alarming proportions with numerous negative side
effects in the social, economic and development spheres. She said that in
Sub-Saharan Africa alone there were 34 million orphans, of which 11 million were
directly orphaned by AIDS.?Eight out of every 10 children in the world whose
parents have succumbed to AIDS live in Sub-Saharan Africa today?, Dr Amadhila
said.

Prime Minister Nahas
Angula told a conference of Commonwealth education ministers held in Malaysia
this week that the current global crisis will affect the education sector as
well.?For instance, global markets are in turmoil; the trading system has been
destabilized; the export markets of some commodities are dysfunctional,? he
saidAngula said further that while the world is faced with environmental
challenges, droughts and floods are posing serious problems to food security.?In
addition, there are global health challenges. For example, communicable diseases
such as HIV/AIDS, TB, Malaria, HINI and others are threatening global travel and
public health. Furthermore, there are political conflicts and terrorism which
pose physical insecurity to people and nations,? he said.Angula said these
uncertainties should in particular signal to the Commonwealth that the education
sector is faced with ever evolving global challenges. ?It is imperative,
therefore, that this Conference should aim beyond the current global challenges
to set new goals and targets for Commonwealth cooperation,? he said.Angula said
the majority of the beneficiaries of formal education are the youth. He said the
current youth are living in times of uncertainty. ?Their hopes and aspirations;
their fears and apprehensions; and their opportunities and possibilities are to
a certain extent prescribed by the current global circumstances,? he said.He
said the youth in schools are faced with the daunting challenges of completion;
under-achievement; and underperformance. Poverty, gender parity, unfavourable
conditions in schools; long distances from home to school; cultural patterns and
practices, or economic conditions may influence retention rates, Angula
said.?Commonwealth governments can promote retention by building schools within
reasonable distances, creating better conditions of, and conducive environment
for learning, and mobilizing communities to value and participate in education,?
he said.

The Maiteko Cultural Group is a Tswana traditional
group that performs at various functions, and it featured on Tuesday, 10 May, at
the City of Windhoek head office. Standing in the back from the left are
Mechtild Masaka, Heinrich Gabohumise, Harold Moshosho (chairperson), In the
second row (from left) are Florencia Moshosho, Sheila Bacela, Brigitt Moshosho,
Patricia Sechele, Anna Pelaelo, Theresia Sechele and Genovieve Sechele. Lying on
the ground are Gerold Moshoso and Wilfried Dirks.
Tswana cultural group, entertains and educates
The Maiteko Cultural Group is a Tswana traditional
group that believes in promoting its own culture in an entertaining manner. The
group performs at various functions, and one of its aims is to develop culture
and unity amongst all Namibians.They also aim to make Tswana youngsters aware of
their past, culture and to enrich their cultural knowledge. The group was
initiated with the intention of keeping the youth off the streets and to make
them aware of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.The group became well-known after performing
at the Ministry of Basic Education, Sport and Culture?s regional cultural
festival that was held in the Karas Region in 1996. The Maiteko Cultural Group
has also been to Paris to perform and to represent Namibia at the folk festival
held in Saints, France.

There is a perception in the business community that HIV/AIDS is a problem that the government and NGOs can better address, recent research has revealed.The research has shown that even though HIV/AIDS is perceived as a threat to business operations, there is reluctance on the part of the companies to address HIV/AIDS issues.The findings are based on an HIV/AIDS assessment study in the private sector conducted by Ms Hopolang Phororo and Ms Grace Mohamed of the Namibia Economic Policy and Research Unit (NEPRU). The Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) commissioned the study.Phororo and Mohamed said in their findings that the impact of HIV/AIDS on companies should be researched to show the private sector that the pandemic will hit them hard. The two researchers recommended educating and sensitising companies on the fact that condom distribution is part of a holistic programme and not an end in itself in the fight against AIDS. According to the NEPRU research, HIV/AIDS will result in a severe increase in medical care, as well as training and recruitment. The revenues of companies will also be negatively affected due to increased absenteeism, time spent on training and an increase labour turnover with less productivity.The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has said the Namibian work force will be 22% lower than would have been without the AIDS crisis.The study was conducted in seven towns in which 261 questionnaires were given and also included interviews with the ministries of labour, trade and industry, mines and energy, fisheries and natural resources, agriculture, water and rural development and the Indigenous People?s Business Council. The majority of the companies interviewed were general dealers, food sellers and bottle stores. With the exception of Windhoek, companies in other regional towns employed between 1 and 10 employees.According to Phororo and Mohamed, the research shows that more than half of the companies in all the regional towns perceived HIV/AIDS as a threat to their operations. The companies that did not see HIV/AIDS as a threat to their operations indicated that their workers were well informed, were responsible and did not engage in relationships. Some companies said none of their employees were infected. The majority (78%) of the companies interviewed in Windhoek had HIV/AIDS programmes, whereas only between 25% and 44% in the regional towns had programmes.One reason put forward by companies for not having AIDS programmes is that the disease?s implications are common knowledge with the assumption that workers are well informed about the dangers of the disease. With the exception of Katima Mulilo, only 7 to 28% of the companies interviewed indicated that they had spent money on HIV/AIDS programmes. The majority of the companies indicated that they did not spend money on HIV/AIDS programmes. The majority of the companies, which did not spend money on AIDS, attributed this to the size of their companies and also because they get condoms and posters free of charge. With the exception of companies in Windhoek and Walvis Bay, about 70% of the companies mentioned that HIV/AIDS would affect their future plans.