Tag Archives: hiv and aids

Great generation in Uganda: Kitovu Life Teen gets acre of land for fight against climate change and HIV

Moses at Kitovu Life Teen Youth Ministry, in Uganda writes:

Last month I blogged about the young people I work with taking CAFOD’s campaign Don’t drop the ball on climate change, back to grass roots as they planted school gardens with vegetables that survive drought.

You may remember that their efforts caught the attention of our community chairman who invited me to a meeting to discuss their campaign. I promised to let you know how it went.

Get involved. Get the low-down on our latest campaigns here >> Continue reading

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World AIDS Day 1 December: Getting to Zero

CAFOD supports a number of partners working on livelihoods initiatives with people living with and affected by HIV and AIDS. We are now in an era of effective HIV treatment, where many of those living with HIV are well, able and wanting to work where they had previously been too sick to do so. CAFOD promotes a holistic response to HIV that goes beyond the health care needs of those living with HIV to support people in all aspects of their lives.

The theme for World AIDS Day this year is, “Getting to Zero” – Zero New HIV Infections, Zero Discrimination and Zero AIDS Related Deaths. Addressing the livelihoods outcomes of those living with HIV contributes significantly to all of these goals.

The Institute of Education and Health (IES) in Peru is one partner that runs this type of programme. IES has been working on sexual health issues since 1990, educating young people, advising hospitals and health centres and encouraging local government to implement HIV prevention programmes. In 2008 IES began a new project in Lima to provide a more integral response for young people living with HIV and AIDS by helping them to set up income generating projects. Over forty young people living with HIV and AIDS have benefited so far from training and one-to-one sessions to help them to develop businesses and manage them as successfully as possible.

Bar-owner, Carlos, 37

Carlos, 37 is living with HIV, but after a course from one of CAFOD’s partners the disease no longer consumes him

Carlos, 37, is just one of the people that IES’s project supportshas helped. With support from IES and CAFOD, he has been able to open a bar which seems to be going from strength to strength:

“Thanks to the course my business took shape and the training I received helped me to register my business formally. I have a tax number, I give receipts and I carry a paying-in and withdrawals book. I do not like to run up debts – I prefer to use what I already have, and so I have been using the money that I have saved.

Carlos' Bar

“The bar makes me feel useful and that I can support my family by myself “

Now I want to improve the bar’s roof so that it looks better and is more secure. When I started my business there was no competition, there are now several bars and clubs in the area – now I can say that I compete with other businesses and feel good because I know that I do it well.

What I make is not just for me, I share it with my family, my mum and my son.

I have been receiving the (anti-retroviral) treatment for almost 8 years and when I am working, I feel good, as I feel that I have a purpose in life and a reason to keep going.

I have started networking – my friends with HIV and I spread the word about our businesses with each other online and visit each other. The course makes people like us, with HIV, feel better, makes us realise that we have a right to improve our position, and the disease no longer consumes us …”

…”

World AIDS Day is 1 December>>

Find more about our work on HIV and AIDS>>

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Sudan: A Kingdom story

Sudan childrenI’ve been working with our partners in south Sudan for many years. In particular, an HIV and AIDS project around the towns of Yei and Tamburo-Yambio.

Many people have died in both these places over the 20 years of war between the north and the south of Sudan. The number of people living with HIV and AIDS has substantially increased, particularly among women and children. Many men were killed during the war or fled over the border into Uganda or Kenya. 

Ten years ago, our initial contribution to HIV work in these areas was to try to address the hunger and lack of basic medicines for the opportunistic infections – both very evident among those living with AIDS. Continue reading

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International AIDS Conference, Vienna: making human rights a must

Jane Lennon, CAFOD’s HIV knowledge and Network Coordinator has just returned from the International AIDS conference in Vienna. She updates us on her journey.

Dr Maria Nannyonga and CAFOD's Ann Smith catch up by CAFOD's poster display

Given the amount of information packed in, the three days I spent at the International AIDS conference in Vienna somehow seemed longer.  With around 20,000 attendees from all corners of the world and all walks of life, and the number of workshops, presentations and discussions, there was more than enough to take in. The conference was a full-on mix of information, presentations and updates on how we can best support people and communities in the fight against HIV and AIDS. 

For me, one highlight was meeting colleagues from some of CAFOD’s partner organisations.  I was greeted one lunchtime by Dr Maria Nannyonga, programme Director of Nsmabya Home Care programme in Uganda, which provides over 4000 people with ARV drugs.  She’s been working there for over 20 years and is an experienced AIDS conference attendee, so I grabbed the chance to pick her brains about what she found most useful at this conference. 

She was very interested in the new World Health Organisation guidelines for HIV and AIDS treatment, which recommend that starting treatment at an earlier stage of disease progression is more effective. But this is a challenge for Dr Nannyonga: her programme already has a long waiting list for the drugs.

I also met Sr Gaudiosa and Fr Victor Musendeki, CAFOD’s partners in Zimbabwe.  Sr Gaudiosa was excited about this unique opportunity to learn about HIV and AIDS work in other regions.  She’d been hearing about programmes in Central Europe to motivate and empower young people, and hoped to take back what she learned to the programmes she works on in Zimbabwe.  Fr Victor felt there had been a friendlier attitude towards church institutions and groups here than at previous AIDS conferences which is hopefully a sign of faith and non-faith groups working together more to find the best solutions.

March and rally through the main streets of Vienna.

The challenge now will be how best to share the wealth of information from the conference with staff and partners.  But as a reminder of how important that is, there was an evening march and rally through central Vienna.  The conference theme was ‘human rights’, and the slogan ‘Rights Here, Right Now’ could be heard echoing round the square in front of the Royal Palace.  The city of Vienna had really supported the conference and huge red ribbons could be seen on government and other buildings along the route of the march. 

People living with and affected by HIV and AIDS gave moving and inspiring speeches,  calling on governments to provide more funding to ensure human rights are upheld, especially for the poorest and most marginalised.  This sentiment is at the heart of CAFOD’s work, especially as many people our partners support come from such a background. The night ended with singer Annie Lennox pledging her support for the fight against HIV and AIDS and performing some of her songs.

Sadly, UK media coverage of the conference was generally low.  This is worrying if it reflects a general lack of interest in the UK.  We must keep raising awareness and support for HIV and AIDS work.  Otherwise, the Millennium Development Goals will not be met in many countries, and ‘Rights Here, Right Now’ will remain an aspiration rather than a reality.

Find out more about CAFOD’s work on HIV and AIDS, and take action today to help us raise awareness >>

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Uganda: HIV services still elude so many

As we entered the house, I was surprised the room would fit a bed- it seemed so small. The room was pitch black, but I could just make out the figure lying there; the Ugandan gentleman we had come to visit.

He was looking frail and, after discussions with his wife, it transpired she believed he would soon die. She was planning to take him back to his village where people often go to die or bury their dead.

Nurse Josephine carefully examined him, and spoke with him and his wife. He was HIV-positive and his symptoms suggested the virus had progressed to a stage where he now needed to be put on antiretrovirals (ARVs).

Travelling with us was Margaret, an HIV counsellor. She sat with the gentleman’s wife in the back of our car, and discussed with her the consequences of taking him back to his village. In his village there would be no medical support and limited contact with the family’s children who live in Uganda’s capital city Kampala.

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