As
gun fire rages around the capital of News (Updated April
10, 2011)
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06 Apr 2011
Source: member // Sarah
Wheeler
As
gun fire rages around the capital of
“The situation is very
serious. Our programmes are suspended because of the violence. We are very
worried that although some HIV treatment is available, supplies will run out in
the next 2-3 weeks unless new supplies of medicines are able to be got into the
country.
“Our office has had to
close because of the fighting; we are unable to access money from the banks as
they too have been shut and we can’t get the programme funds so money is
running out.
“We know what needs to
be done and can respond quicker than international NGOs once the violence
subsides but unless we can get more ARVs into the country we are going to see
people dying, which will add unnecessary misery to this humanitarian crisis.”
Despite the circumstances,
Alliance Cote
“The national
organisations and local community groups know best the people’s needs and we
can respond but too often we get ignored as the violence stops and
well-intentioned foreign NGOs pour into the country. I have seen it before when
working in
“Where the international
community and NGOs can play a vital role is in supporting us to find ways to
help us access the funds we need from the banks, get the treatment into the
country and provide a safe space in which to get our programmes up and running
again,” said Dr Dougrou.
“We must suspend the
politics here and provide healthcare to the people in need or we face a worsened
humanitarian crisis and all the gains made in the fight against AIDS are likely
to be lost.”
04 Apr 2011
"It is time to take a
hard look at where we stand today, but looking from where we have come from 30
years ago in the fight against HIV/AIDS, the world has made tremendous
progress", he said.
"We are moving
towards an HIV-free generation, albeit slowly, but to realize this, a lot more -
like increased investment in the fight against HIV, and doing away with
prohibitive laws that impede the fight against the disease - needs to be
done," he said.
The report - Uniting for
Universal Access: towards zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero
AIDS-related deaths - noted that the global rate of new HIV infections was
declining, access to HIV treatment had increased, and there had been significant
progress in reducing mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
By the end of 2010, six
million people in low- and middle-income countries were on treatment (up from
5.2 million in 2009), prevention of mother-to-child transmission services
reached 50 percent coverage worldwide, and 33 countries - 22 in sub-Saharan
Africa - recorded a 25 percent decline in new HIV infections.
"Prevention of
mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) presents the best opportunity for the world
to realize an HIV-free generation, and more efforts must be put towards
realizing this [goal],” said Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of UNAIDS.
Rebecca Auma, a Kenyan
HIV-positive mother who gave birth to HIV-free triplets three years ago, said
there was lack of such services, especially in rural areas.
"While I am here
today to tell my story of giving birth to HIV free triplets… many mothers…
have no access to the services I got. I was lucky, and world leaders must keep
their pledges to provide funding for critical services such as PMTCT," Auma
said.
Recommendations included
revitalizing the push towards universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and
care, making HIV programmes cost-effective, efficient and sustainable, promoting
the health, dignity and rights of women and girls, and ensuring accountability.
The report cited weak
national infrastructures, shortfalls in funding, and discrimination against
vulnerable groups as major challenges.
"We will not meet our
targets unless these bottlenecks are dealt with… We must increase funding to
HIV programmes, and continue to fight discrimination against certain groups such
as commercial sex workers," Ki-moon noted.
The report, which will be
discussed at the UN High Level Meeting in
ko/kn/he
Parents
juggle medication regimens, fears — and deciding who to tell
Ignorance and bias related
to HIV haven't vanished in the
At forums and over the Internet, parents who have adopted HIV-positive kids are
offering advice and encouragement to those who might follow suit. In ebruary,
Bethany Christian Services — the largest
"We didn't feel we could ethically place these kids without some really
solid education for these families," said Sara Ruiter,
One of the most difficult challenges, for many families, is deciding whom they
will tell about the adoptive child's HIV status. Health care providers must be
informed — otherwise, under federal and state confidentiality laws, it's
entirely optional whether parents notify school officials, neighbors, or anyone
else.
As a result, families' approaches vary widely — some are totally open while
others, fearful of stigma, guard the information so tightly that even the child
may be kept in the dark for many years.
"Once your child's status is disclosed, you cannot 'take it back,' so
careful
consideration and thought should be given to this important issue,"
For Tim and Annette Franklin, of Bridport, Vt., the decision to be open about
their adopted daughter Gedeleine's HIV status was intended to make clear it's
nothing to be ashamed of.
"We were concerned that by being overly secretive, we would be contributing
to the stigma," said Tim Franklin, a Congregational minister.
"Inevitably, in families where there are secrets, the secrets end up being
destructive," he said. "We felt it's going to come out, and we want to
control the way it happens, rather than it coming out in a bad way."
Gedeleine, who will turn 4 in May, was living in a Haitian orphanage when the
catastrophic earthquake struck there on Jan. 12, 2010. Already in the adoption
pipeline, she was airlifted to
of other children, then taken to her new home in rural
There have been moments where Gedeleine balked at taking the twice-daily dose of
three HIV medicines. But her parents, who have four biological children ranging
in age from 8 to 19, say the adoption has been a heartwarming success overall,
to the extent that they are now completing arrangements to adopt an HIV-positive
boy from Ethiopia.
The arrival of 13-year-old Epherem will speed up the timetable for the
"We'll have to find out what he knows about sexuality, what he knows about
his disease, what values he's been exposed to," Tim Franklin said.
"One of the things we'll try to help him understand is that he has a
responsibility to other people."
Like the
"We did not have to tell anyone," the Vander Zwaags write. "But
we believe God has given us this opportunity to educate others about the
precious children like Luisa (and adults too) that are living with HIV and AIDS
and
help raise awareness and truth instead of ignorance and fear."
Luisa joins a household bustling with the Vander Zwaags' four biological sons,
aged 5 to 13, and daughter Anaya, almost 4, who was adopted from
The boys were briefed in
stages about their new baby sister -- first being told she had a blood disorder,
then getting the full story that she had HIV. There were specific instructions
about precautions to take if Luisa bled from an open cut, but the overall
message was one of reassurance that the disease can't be spread through casual
contact.
Ryan Vander Zwaag, the youth pastor at a Baptist church, said he and his wife
had talked about adoption ever since they married right out of high school. The
more they learned about the vast numbers of HIV-positive orphans, the more
interested they became in bringing one into their family.
Fears about exposing their own family to health risks and prejudice gradually
faded as they read articles, attended a conference, and spoke with other parents
who had undertaken HIV adoptions.
"It's not that
hard," said Stacy Vander Zwaag. "And there are so many kids who would
die without it."
Luisa was in that category, her parents said. A doctor told them she would
almost certainly have died soon had she stayed in the Colombian foster home
where she was placed as an infant.
"She was removed from her parents because of medical neglect," Ryan
Vander Zwaag said. "It was nothing she did. It was choices her mother and
father made that got her infected with HIV."
The Vander Zwaags have been home schooling their four sons, but theyhope to
place Anaya and Luisa in a nearby Spanish immersion school so the girls can be
fluent in the language of their homelands.
So
far, they say, friends, neighbors and church members have been overwhelmingly
supportive of the news about Luisa, but they know complications might await in
the future.
"As she goes through her teens and her dating years, there are going to be
questions, and a lot of tears over it," her father said. "She'll have
to find that right guy to walk with her through life. That will be challenging.
She can live a full life, she can have kids, by being careful, taking the
medicine."
There are no firm figures on the number of HIV-positive adoptions in the
Throughout most of the AIDS epidemic, only a relative handful of HIV-positive
foreign children came to the
In January 2010, that restriction ended — enabling children with HIV to enter
as easily as other adoptive children.
"That change helped drastically," said Erin Henderson of
"Our plan initially was to keep that private — just share it with family
embers,"
When they first heard they were getting HIV-positive siblings, the other
children were all 11 or younger — and
"If they'd been older, it might have been more of an issue," she said.
"They didn't know much about it, and we were very matter-of-fact."
There's no consensus that
early and full disclosure is best.
Dr. Jane Aronson, a
children adopted from abroad, argues that HIV-positive children have a right to
keep their status private until they're old enough to have a say regarding who
is informed.
"Some parents have made a decision to define their children's identity now
— it's more about them than about the kids," Aronson said. "That
could be very
challenging when the children grow up. They didn't have a choice."
Margaret Fleming, the
advice is that disclosure "is totally at the discretion of the
parents," Fleming personally opted for openness.
Her three first-graders "already know they're HIV-positive," she said.
"I am completely open with them, our neighbors, their schools."
At the local elementary school, teachers and staff responded supportively,
Fleming said, with the principal easing the concerns of one parent who called to
complain.
At a summer camp, however, the director was angry when he learned after-the-fact
that one of the HIV-positive children was attending, even though Fleming had
mentioned that on the application form.
From a very early age, Fleming's three children with HIV learned they had a
chronic health problem that required taking unpleasant-tasting medicine.
Initially, she told them their blood "is not strong" — now they, as
well as their siblings, know the problem is HIV, and the older ones help
administer the medicine when Fleming isn't home.
"They are great ambassadors," Fleming said of her three HIV-positive
children. "They've dispelled a lot of myths."
Chief among the myths, she said, are misconceptions on how HIV is ransmitted and
fears that HIV-positive children risk not reaching adulthood.