URGENT ACTION NEEDED.

The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is requiring organisations in the global south receiving US funding to sign an “anti-prostitution” pledge in order to receive funds. This is outrageous, discriminatory and will create even more problems for AIDS programmes and people living with HIV and AIDS. PEPFAR has now become a meaningless and restrictive programme as added to this latest condition are other conditions such as funding abstinence only programmes and supporting anti-gay organisations in Uganda

President Bush today announced he would be asking the US Congress to agree $30billion over the next 5 years. However in the past the US has tied HIV/AIDS funding to abstinence only HIV programmes and in Uganda they have supported anti-gay organisations that prevent access to treatment by members of the LGBT community. In 2006 56% of PEPFAR (Presidents Emergency Plan for Aids Relief) prevention funding (20% of PEPFAR) went to “abstinence until marriage programmes” and 44% went to other programmes such as avoidance and reducing risk behaviour along with condom use BUT no monies went to any condom only promotion programmes.

Help to fight PEPFAR’s restrictions is needed particularly from organisations working with HIV/AIDS the GLOBAL SOUTH. Advocates are asking people and organisations to please sign on to this letter to US Congress recommending that the pledge be removed.

To sign on, write to pepfarletter at taumail dot com. If you would like to add a sentence about the ways the pledge has affected your work, please send that too!

To Congress Re: PEPFAR
A Letter from the Field by
January 31, 2008
Dear Member of the US Congress:

We are members of non-governmental and community-based organizations from throughout the developing world. We are writing out of concern about the so-called anti-prostitution pledge within the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the ways it affects our work. The pledge requires organizations receiving U.S. funding to sign a pledge “opposing prostitution.” This policy has undermined
the work of many of our organizations and we must protest it.
[Read more…]

Some argue that the 25-litre threshold for free basic water is too low. Supplies in some areas have been erratic, forcing households to collect water from far away. Moreover, government pricing policies have led to supply cutoffs for nonpayment in some areas, raising concerns about affordability. Progress in sanitation has been less impressive than in water. There are still 16 million people- one in three South Africans-without access to basic sanitation. The absence of a consensus on an acceptable basic level of sanitation, allied to problems in generating demand, has contributed to the failure.’ This is a damning indictment of post-apartheid water policy design and implementation mistakes.

It helps explain why SA witnessed nearly 6000 protests in a recent 12-month period (reported by the SA Police Services). South Africa’s water wars have become world famous, as citizens’ groups illegally reconnect pipes that have been cut off due to nonpayment, or destroy the hated pre-paid water meters, or dump excrement from the apartheid-era ‘bucket system’ of sanitation at the doors of their elected officials.

read more at pambazuka here

October is breast cancer month - the month to remember breast cancer, something I had forgotton. Not the cancer but the month.

There are a couple of post on Nigerian blogs (Bella Naija and the World According to Adure). It’s great that the awareness around breast and cervical cancer is increasing but I cant help but think of the millions of women who dont have access to basic information let alone mamograms and smears. Just one note and sorry to be scary BUT……..although self-examination is better than no examination - not all breast cancers are lumps that can be detected that way. In cases where the cancer is a mass rather than a lump you need an experienced breast nurse and or a mamogram to get a decent reading of what is happening in your body. So if you can afford one of these then great. If you live in Britain where there is the NHS, free mamograms are age related - you have to be 50 or over before you are selected. So you have two choices either pay or do what I did - make up a story and go to breast clinic - dont even bother with your GP. Alternatively you can wait for a mamovan to appear in your local neighbourhood.

Tags: Breast Cancer

Scribbles from the Den has two posts (from the New York Times) on the Death of Prudence which highlights the disregard for the poorest of the poor by both the West and the donor recipients countries - in this instance Cameroon.

Prudence, 24, was from a small village and already had three small children. As she was in labor to deliver her fourth, an untrained midwife didn’t realize she had a cervical blockage and sat on Prudence’s stomach to force the baby out — but instead her uterus ruptured and the fetus died.

Prudence’s family carried her to the hospital on a motorcycle, but once she was there the doctor, Pascal Pipi, demanded $100 for a Caesarian to remove the fetus. The fetus was decomposing inside her, and an infection was raging in her abdomen — but her family had total savings of only $20, so she lay down in the maternity ward and began to die.

The NYT also published a video of the last hours of Prudence life which I have not watched. Although one could say that showing such a video would have a stronger impact on people to act either as donors or activists in bringing about change, I still find the idea of producing such a film offensive and unnecessary.

Africa, Women, Health

This is part of a piece I wrote about a year ago and I just felt like saying it again because breast cancer makes me angry, pisses me off, makes me want to scream. It also makes me cry, makes me strong and makes me stubborn. Kitron and her partner are travelling the journey of pain that is breast cancer. The journey - it gets easier at some points but just when you think you are finally reaching the end you turn the corner only to find that the road hasnt ended instead there is a bloody great 10ft wall to climb. But it does end because we are humans and we survive. Keep the anger, keep the tears, keep being stubborn, keep fighting and keep loving - I think that is the answer to surviving.

This is what I think about breast cancer.

The truth of the matter is women do not want to see one breasted women because it brings them face to face with a possibility. Men do not want to see one breasted women because it is a sign of empowerment which openly challenges male privilege, power and patriarchy. The breast cancer industry does not want to see one breasted women as it compromises their millions of dollars in profits. (prosthesis, mastectomy bras, swimsuits and various cosmetic accessories cost double the price of regular ones). Politicians don’t want to see one breasted women because it reminds them and us that they have done very little to prevent cancer via legislation and regulation of industry and the environment. The medical profession does not want to see one breasted women as it is a reminder that research into causes of cancer has been manipulated and compromised by corporate greed on the one hand and lack of funds on the other and of course reconstruction is a big part of the plastic surgeons work.    The more of us that remain invisible to all of the above including each other the easier it is for the world to continue in its denial of the extent of breast cancer disease.

“She stood in defiance to societal rules that said that she should hide the fact that she had breast cancer.” Remembering Audrey Lorde