As the international community commemorate the twentieth anniversary of World AIDS Day, there is a country which today is left dwindling behind watching every day as it comes and only hoping against every hope that food and possibly a cure will be found. What is more traumatising is the fact that even if this cure is available chances of having the medication in their hands is very slim if not zero.
The theme of this year’s World Aids Day is ‘Lead – Empower – Deliver’. This is theme is quite far from being realised by Zimbabwe. The never ending political circus of the country only serves to unleash what history might describe as mass genocide on ordinary Zimbabweans. The country stands with no distinguished leader thereby diminishing any hope of the fulfilling the commitment of the theme, that is, access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010.
It is quite saddening to note that this year the event is being marked by the significant rise in the number of AIDs related deaths. Medical institutions like hospitals and clinics have been closed down thereby erasing any hopes of saving more lives. Worse, the calamity faced by HIV positive patients is the critical shortage of ARVs as a result of the government’s abuse of the donations it has received from the US government.
In 2006 Rudo* a friend who is HIV positive and currently in Zimbabwe was on the brink of death before her life was revived by the successful taking of ARVs. Today her life is once again being placed in jeopardy by the non availability of these precious tablets. Talking to her on the phone she pleadingly asked me if I could by any chance send her some ARVs. Goodness me I only wish I could send them to her, and not only her but a million other people who are in her predicament. A predicament that they are facing, of not being able to celebrate life – but to face imminent death. Her position is worsened by the lack of basic human needs like having clean water in your house. Sewage water from the toilets flowing down her door step. Another positive friend has just died and everyone says it is cholera but Rudo tells me otherwise. Her friend did not have ARVs. The last time she had them was four months ago and ever since then her condition has deteriorated. She dares not to speak about it publicly, she was even cautious as to the choice of words she used in our phone conversation.
What I discerned in her voice was a pleading tone, pleading for someone to intervene lest she losses her life. Knowing that somewhere out there in the world other lives are being given a chance to life, being treated of the same ailment. As we end our conversation I only can pray for her to hold on - hope is her only option.
In this years campaign I implore the whole world to look at the crisis in my country Zimbabwe. I would appeal to the international governments such as the UK to grant asylum to Zimbabweans in their countries. I appeal to the government of United Kingdom to seek ways of alleviating this situation in Zimbabwe by allowing the vast number of asylum seekers to work so they may support their loved ones at home . The leadership of Zimbabwe has failed the people of Zimbabwe but still the international community can help by supporting Zimbabweans abroad rather than dumping them in rooms with no work or deporting them back to South Africa or Zimbabwe.
Around 70 couples have been matched up in the last few weeks, Bauchi state authorities told the BBC.
Authorities in the state say they are trying to stop HIV spreading and battle the “isolation and stigma” of the disease.
I wouldn’t argue against battling the “isolation and stigma” attached to HIV but this is not the way and I find it hard to believe that there is no coercion involved. The medical information around the transmission of the virus between positive couples is complex and constantly changing so it is really impossible to say accurately that having unprotected sex between committed couples is safe. On the contrary it gives a sense of being safe and I wonder if there is a split whether couples not practicing safe sex would then suddenly decide to use a condom. There are real complex issues around the “drug cocktails” such as resistance, side effects and the need to change drugs from time to time plus the implications for getting pregnant for both mother and baby. The more I think about this the worse it seems as it leads both the couples and everyone else thinking everything is OK when in fact it is not - it is deceitful on the part of Bauchi State to lead couples into believing this is to their benefit and is an appropriate HIV prevention policy.
TAKE ACTION!
Completely Abolish U.S. HIV Travel Ban: Please write your Representative now!
Dear Friend,
Recently we celebrated the passage into law of H.R. 5501, the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008 (PL 110-293), which reauthorized the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to a tune of $48 billion over the next five years. In passing this legislation Congress lifted the 1987 ban on non-U.S. citizens living with HIV/AIDS from entering the United States, whether as visitors or immigrants. Africa Action had long campaigned against this shameful ban that did nothing to fight HIV in the U.S. but only reflected deplorable ignorance at the highest level of U.S. policy makers on how HIV is transmitted. In fact with this ban on, HIV/AIDS in the U.S. ballooned from being a localized problem to being the national crisis it is today.
Not only was the ban a terrible public health policy, it also seriously violated the human rights and dignity of people living with HIV/AIDS globally. It is because of this ban that no major international HIV/AIDS conference has ever been held in the U.S. Congress’s decision to lift this ban constitutes a major victory on the part of advocates and activists campaigning against HIV/AIDS internationally.
However the struggle is still on as HIV still appears on the list of “communicable diseases of public health significance” that automatically restricts entry into the United States. Please join Africa Action Board member and Congresswoman Barbara Lee in urging Congressional representatives to co-sign a letter urging the White House to completely abolish the discriminatory travel ban.
Write your Representative now asking them to co-sign the Lee/Waxman/Berman letter to remove HIV from the list of diseases that automatically bar entry to the United States
It is with relief and sadness that I have decided to allow the International Carnival of Pozitivities to come to an end with our next and final edition in June of 2008. I have made many wonderful friends in the past two years and have been fortunate to learn the life-stories of some amazing people and their efforts to end the stigma of HIV/AIDS around the world. I am truly grateful to the contributors and hosts who have blessed my life with their kindness and encouragement. I hope that you will continue to blog about HIV/AIDS and keep alive the spirit of the ICP. I am very proud of our efforts and the outcome that you see on this site today. I will leave the ICP homepage available for people to access in the future, but there will be no further editions after June, 2008.
As always, I wish you the peace that I wish for myself.
Ron Hudson
Thanks to Ron for bringing us the Carnival over the past two years and I wish him peace and safe journey through his life.
I owe my visitors an explanation. I lost a huge part of my life this month. I have not been writing anything of my own for some time now and am just reaching a point where I can tell you why.
My mom had a stroke between Thanksgiving Day and the first week of December of last year.
you spread your arms to shade
the damage done by the sitter’s sons
i could not understand those boys
beating stick against the defenseless palms
but i could forget with my feet
small enough on your back
kicking off the day long worry over
Slimconomy asks why rapid HIV testing is failing in Canada
It’s been several years now since rapid HIV tests entered the market with FDA approval; first OraSure, then MedMira, then Trinity and BioRad and now Inverness. Yet we still haven’t seen the growth in use (and subsequent sales for the manufacturers) as we should by now.
Nata Village goes from strength to strength and here the village elders are honoured.
At the handing over ceremony in Maposa, all the village elders were asked to stand and everyone recognized them. This gentleman pictured above was one of the eldest members of the village so he was asked to share the history of Maposa.
The Aids Pandemic travels to Mwandi, Zambia and reports on HIV transmission
The incidence of HIV in the village is around 30-40% and the percentage of HIV positive people is larger within the Mission Hospital patient population according to interviews with medical officers on the hospital staff.
blabbeando reports on the passing of HIV/AIDS immigration activist Richard Sandman
A sweet low-key kinda guy who truly helped hundreds of HIV positive and LGBT immigrants gain political asylum in the United States, Richard was truly an unsung hero. He was somewhat comfortable with the Spanish language which surprised me a bit until I found out his family was from Mexico. Still, as always, he would underplay just how much Spanish he knew and was self-depreciating about his language abilities.
A mutual friend tells me he was so dedicated to his work that few people truly got to know him. By all accounts, though, many seemed to love the guy and recognize his unselfishness in dedicating his life’s work to the issue of immigration.
Black Aids comments on the lack of government funding for HIV/AIDs and the conditions imposed by the US
The United States has promised money for the AIDS pandemic that the United Nations has called the world’s worst health crisis. But the United States won’t deliver any money unless the country, the program, the people or the recipients of the U.S. aid subscribe to the insane policy of “abstinence only!”
Evolution of Jeremiah shares a letter he received from a gay positive man who lives in Miami.
The person you are has no meaning to them unless you have something “they” want. I am no pretty boy nor a gym bunny, I am just an average Joe who happens to be gay. I learned and personally experienced the ” self -discrimination” and “self-destruction” the gay “community” is self inflicting. There is no community, there are only “clubs or cliques………The gay community needs to grow up first and leave high school behind.”
Aids-Write comments on the lack of information around Hepatitis - May 19th was “World Hepatitis Awareness Day”
In the United States, the statistics are staggering. There are an estimated 6 million people with the hepatitis B or C virus. Most Americans living with hepatitis C are unaware of their infection. Chronic viral hepatitis is the leading cause of liver cancer, now among the top 10 killers of Americans over the age of 25. In addition, around 30 percent of people living with HIV are co-infected with hepatitis C, and end-stage liver disease is now a leading cause of death for people with HIV/AIDS.
Aurora-Rayne who is part of a drug study, gives an update on her drug treatment and the happenings and the love in her life.
i love so much that we laugh together. she is the world in my eyes and i see the love reflect in hers. sighhhh. oh and did i mention my baby took third in the national arm wrestling competition? oh yeah! she says it was years ago but hell ill take that. im going to try and get a picture or two up of her so that you can all see the magical wonderful person i have described here so you can see she is after all truly human and not some imaginary goddess i have conjured…lol. i am happy, i am blissful, i am soo completly content.
In my Pozitive Speaking presentation which I have shared with hundreds, or more, I admit I was infected even before we had the name of H.I.V. and when asked who Infected me I reply “I did, because even in those days when we didn’t know much about this dis-ease I was the one playing with my life my injecting drugs. I knew of other risks but no matter the knowledge at that time - I did this to myself”.
NotPerfectAtAll comments on her experience and the impact of religion on her life
I was busy with living, with learning to socialize, with spending time with men platonically, more often than not, with learning an art of flirting that didn’t lead to being taken there and there, with seeing humans - often with shadows, often threatening, but human nonetheless.
NOTE: June is the month that we’re launching our campaign to promote HIV/ AIDS awareness and the National Christian Film Tour. After our film tour releases the first four videos on the front page of the Omega Vision Studios website, we will start accepting submissions for consideration from film makers (who have produced inspirational, faith-based, true story and socially-conscious films and documentaries like Bill Duke’s Faces of HIV”) to add to our distribution network/chain.
Degree Com on a distance learning programme for chronically ill students
A distance education degree offers excellent opportunities for these students. They do not have to leave the comfort of their own homes to walk into a hostile classroom and take an exam. If they are hospitalized or not feeling well, the flexibility provided by on line degree programs allows them to catch up on coursework when they feel better. Furthermore, students aren’t visibly reminded of their “differences.” They are more able to interact with peers and professors naturally and without inhibitions, fears of cruel comments, or uncivil behavior.
The government’s AIDS policy is superficial. It cannot really be implemented. There is a saying in the countryside. The village tells lies to the township government; the township tells lies to the county government; the county tells lies to the state council; the state council issues a document; the document is read by all levels of the government. After they finish reading it, they go into a restaurant, and the document is never put into practice.
today i am sharing the newsletter i have been working on with the SIN tribe. it’s our second edition, and i think the guys have done quite an admirable job. there are so many people who work on this and it is really a feeling of accomplishment to have it done. now, i can’t wait for the next one.
On 2 May 2008, Kihumuro Apuuli, Director General of the Uganda AIDS Commission, stated that “gays are one of the drivers of HIV in Uganda, but because of meagre resources we cannot direct our programmes at them at this time.” The SMUG activists staged a peaceful protest at the HIV Implementers meeting to protest the Minister’s statements and gross neglect on the part of the Ugandan government in responding to a growing HIV epidemic among the country’s LGBT community.
