News (Updated August
14, 2011)
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11 Aug 2011 16:27
Source: Content partner //
IRIN
MATSAPHA, 11 August 2011 -
A new government study has found that more than half of workers in Swaziland�s
garment industry are living with HIV, and officials are realizing that the
once-hailed promise of manufacturing employment has become a financial and
medical nightmare for tens of thousands of Swazi women.
�HIV prevalence among
factory workers is 50.3 percent,� said Nhlanhla Nhlabatsi, an
epidemiologist with the Ministry of Health. Nhlabatsi presented the data last
week as preliminary findings for Swaziland�s first Behaviour Sentinel
Surveillance Report to be released in its entirety later in the year.
About 30,000 Swazis,
mostly women, are employed in garment factories financed by Taiwanese investors
and operated by managers from mainland
The survey also found that
most factory workers were well informed about HIV/AIDS, and 90 percent of
workers interviewed were aware of the female condom and other methods of
preventing HIV.
Government officials will
now begin investigating the gap between knowledge of HIV/AIDS prevention and
workers� susceptibility to HIV. The prevalence rate for textile industry
employees is significantly higher than the 26 percent rate among sexually active
adult Swazis.
�Women comprise the
largest number of workers at the garment industry plants. They work long hours
at wages so low some of them are known to turn to prostitution to support
themselves and their families,� said Alicia Simelane, an HIV testing and
counselling officer at the Matsapha Industrial Estate, where Swaziland�s
industry is concentrated outside the commercial hub of Manzini.
The link between �sweatshop�
wages and the risk of HIV has been known for years, but the statistical impact
of the risk is only becoming apparent now.
The garment factories
began renting government-built factory shells in the late 1990s and early 2000s
to take advantage of Swaziland�s trade agreement with the
According to the US
Department of Commerce, the value of
A strengthening of the
local currency - the Lilangeni, which is pegged to the South African rand -
combined with the global economic slowdown, resulted in a steep decline in
orders. Factories, some of which were built at government expense and rented at
very low cost to encourage businesses to set up in the country, have closed.
Poor conditions
Matsapha-based garment
factories contacted by IRIN/PlusNews would not comment on the record, but
indicated that they complied with health and safety standards.
�The activity that
causes AIDS is not done at the workplace. We are not responsible for the private
lives of our employees,� said the manager of one firm.
AIDS activists
acknowledged that the factories had cooperated with HIV prevention campaigns,
allowing NGOs to interact with the workers and distribute educational material
at factories.
Although most of the
workers knew how to prevent HIV, their circumstances did not allow them to
practise this. Wages for part-time workers can be as low as $56 a month, and
rarely top $223 a month for factory-floor workers.
�My dates do not like
to use condoms, so I cannot make them,� said Thabsile Dlamini, a
28-year-old mother of two. She describes her relationships with men as informal,
and says she accepts money and gifts from them.
�It helps me buy food
for the little ones. They are old enough to enter school. They need to have
their fees paid.�
Another worker who is
married would not give her name for fear her husband would learn of her
activities, although he provides no financial support for her and their two-year
old daughter.
�Men come to Matsapha
and find commercial prostitutes. But some prefer the working women because we
are seen as �clean�. I have gone out with some men because I had to
eat. I have gone for counselling. I have taken the HIV test. I am HIV negative
now, but they told me it is only a matter of time before I become infected if I
have [unprotected] sex. But I know this without anyone telling me,� she
told IRIN/PlusNews.
11 Aug 2011 09:42
Source: Content partner //
IRIN
"For the fourth
consecutive year, access to female condoms has increased dramatically, reaching
a record number of 50 million... in 2009," the report states.
The female condom is a
17cm-long polyurethane sheath with a flexible ring at each end. It provides
about the same protection from sexually transmitted infections - including HIV -
and unwanted pregnancy as the male condom, but unlike the male condom, can be
used with oil- and water-based lubricants without the risk of breakage.
The organization credits
successful partnerships between governments and technical agencies for helping
to increase access to female condoms. In 2005, UNFPA launched the Female Condom
Initiative in 24 countries to ensure that female condom programming was integral
to national AIDS policies and reproductive health programmes.
Creative approaches
"In a number of
countries, governments... are applying highly creative approaches to educating
the public about condoms and to overcoming the stigma and taboos sometimes
associated with them," the report's authors said. "In the process,
they are discovering that the female condom is a tool for women's empowerment,
enabling women and adolescent girls to take the initiative to protect their own
and their partners' health."
In Zimbabwe, billboards,
radio spots and TV adverts helped boost female condom distribution by the public
sector from about 400,000 in 2005 to more than two million in 2008, while the
sales of female condoms went up from 900,000 in 2005 to more than three million
in 2008.
Programmers in
"Often the
hairdresser will work from a chair in her back yard. Such improvised salons stay
open at all hours, so women can have their hair done � and discuss personal
matters � in privacy," the authors reported.
UNFPA's partner,
Population Services International (PSI), provides day-long training workshops
around the country for the 2,000 hairdressers and 70 barbers who act as sales
representatives for the female condom. PSI also employs 20 female condom
promoters who distribute the condoms to hairdressers and barbers and spread the
word about the training.
This approach was also
used successfully in
In
In
Although not recommended
for anal sex by the UN World Health Organization, some health authorities [
http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=5465 ] have opted to
market it for use by MSM. In a 2002
Lagging behind the male
condom
Despite these gains, the
female condom still lags behind the male condom in popularity; according to
UNFPA, more than 10 billion male condoms are used every year globally.
In
"We do not have
reliable data on acceptability but we know that among sex workers there is a
high demand," said Peter Cherutich, head of HIV prevention at the National
AIDS and Sexually transmitted infections Control Programme. "Overall, the
demand is low mainly due to general unavailability and [lack of] information.
"It is still more
expensive [than the male condom] and we are yet to be confident that it is as
widely popular as the male condom," he added. "Except for female sex
workers and highly empowered women, most other women do not have the capacity to
demand safe sex... the majority of women depend on their sexual partners to
protect them."
The UNFPA report noted
that female condoms can cost as much as US$1 each while male condoms are often
distributed free of charge. In pharmacies in
Challenges
"In 2009, only one
female condom was available for every 36 women worldwide," the report
states.
One of the major
complaints women had about the original FC1 female condom was that it was noisy
[ http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=72690 ] during sex. The newer FC2
female condom is quieter [ http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=87526 ]
and less expensive to produce but many women still feel it is more complicated
than the male condom.
"We are trying to
popularize it among sex workers, but they say if you have five or 10 customers
in one night, the male condom is more convenient - with the female condom, it
takes time to put on, then it has to warm up to your body temperature and the
guy knows it's there," said Macklean Kyomya, executive director of the
Ugandan NGO, Women's Organization Network for Human Rights Advocacy, which
represents sex workers.
Lillian Mwamba, who lives
in
"I have used a female
condom on certain occasions but my partner and I prefer the male one because
they are easy to come by and you can walk into any shop, even a kiosk, and get
it; female condoms are very rare and expensive," she told IRIN/PlusNews.
"But on the occasions I have used it, I can't say it was bad - it gives me
as a woman some control."
Ignorance persists
Conversations with other
Nairobians reveal that ignorance about the female condom is still widespread.
"From the demonstrations I have seen, the female condom is inserted inside
and your penis too goes inside. Now I am thinking to myself, what if I push it
deeper inside and the woman gets hurt?" said Paul Mayaka. "And where
do you get it even if you wanted your woman to have it?"
Mayaka added that he
couldn't "trust my life with something that is washed like a cloth",
referring to the practice of washing the female condom for reuse, which is not
recommended by the UN World Health Organization.
NASCOP's Cherutich said
the Kenyan government would need to market the female condom in new ways to
increase use. "We have not placed the female condom as a family planning
tool, which if we had, would make FC less stigmatizing since family planning is
now an accepted concept within family settings," he said.
Wed, Aug 10 2011
By Ray Sanchez
The required classes, the
first mandated sex education in nearly two decades, will be taught to children
as young as 11 years old and tackle such topics as the proper use of condoms and
ways to resist unwelcome sexual advances.
Public schools will be
required to teach a semester of sex education to sixth or seventh grade classes
and again to ninth and tenth graders, Chancellor Dennis Walcott said in a letter
announcing the plans.
The move is part of an
effort by the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg to improve the lives of
black and Latino students who are disproportionately undereducated and
unemployed, and far more likely to have unplanned pregnancies, according to city
officials.
Research by the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention has shown that 41 percent of
"We must be committed
to ensuring that both middle school and high school students are exposed to this
valuable information so they can learn to keep themselves safe before, and when,
they decide to have sex," Walcott said.
Opposition from
conservative groups and some school board members defeated a city mandate
approved in the 1980s for a sex-education curriculum.
Separately, in 1987,
"While many of our
schools have already voluntarily taken steps to include sex education in their
curriculum, some have not, leaving us with an uneven system that I believe does
not serve our students well," Walcott said.
Walcott said parents can
choose to take their children out of classes on birth-control methods if they
want.
The New York Civil
Liberties Union praised the plans, saying in a statement: "There is a
consensus among public health experts and the public that age-appropriate,
medically accurate comprehensive sex education is essential for providing teens
with the tools to become healthy adults."
1.
Brief description of the emergency
During July and early
August 2011 reports were received of a worsening drought-caused hunger situation
in the South Eastern area of
Critically affected are
those people who are HIV[1] positive and have TB[2] and are on Anti
Retroviral Treatment (ART) and TB medication. Taking these medications on an
empty stomach produces serious side effects that has reduced patients to eating
leaves and cow dung or stopping treatment altogether. IRIN, a humanitarian news
and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs reports that “The Swaziland National Network of People Living with
HIV/AIDS (SWANNEPHA) confirmed that some of its members were consuming cow
dung... It has come to this; the food insecurity most Swazis are experiencing
has come up against the world’s highest HIV prevalence rate"[3].
Interruptions of ART and TB medication can be fatal. Likelihood of infecting
other household members with TB is increased dramatically.
Food distributions by
WFP[4] have been ongoing for several years to cover the food deficit. In 2009
WFP reduced its help to a small supply to neighbourhood care points catering for
vulnerable children. Initially the government took over food distribution to the
rest of the vulnerable population. This too has now ceased as the government has
run out of money. Many families have reached the end of their traditional
survival mechanism which comprise of remittances, wild vegetables, selling
assets, community support among others.
This now leaves many
vulnerable people very hungry. LDS has an ongoing evaluation in the area and
verified the urgent need to get food to those on medication. Urgent applications
to government for help have been unsuccessful so far.
2.
Impact
Inadequate food supply has
many ill effects. Some people have started to exchange sex for money or
food, this practice increases the HIV prevalence rate which is already high.
Many families are skipping meals as a means of coping. Other families miss meals
for a whole day.
Hunger is a huge problem
for those taking medication for TB and Antiretroviral Treatment for AIDS. Both
these medications have severe side effects when taken on an empty stomach. These
are so severe that patients are reduced to eating leaves and even cow dung, or
even worse stopping taking medication. “We have resorted to eating rubbish for
purposes of taking our ARVs because they must be consumed after a meal”
reports Plus News of IRIN OCHA[5]. The BBC of 27 July 2011also reports that
“The drugs do not work on an empty stomach, so patients have to use the dung -
mixed with water - instead of food, the activists say”[6] For the HIV positive
a break in treatment accelerates the terminal phases of the illness whereas a
break in TB treatment increases the prevalence of multi drug resistance TB
strains.
3.
National and international response
The government is broke
and has no funds to meet the crisis. Very small quantities of food are being
distributed through the members of parliament and this has caused a lot of
problems in the communities politicizing distribution. Most of the
affected people are left out or get very small quantities of food. WFP has
stocks in country but is only giving food to Neighbourhood Care Points (NCPs).
Other NGOs are trying to source food and funds for other areas.
There are some small
stocks of food in government warehouses but has no means to distribute them. LWF
through LDS is part of a food security consortium lobbying to get some of this
food from warehouses to the most needy but this is taking too long for the worst
affected.
4.
ACT Alliance response
LWF through LDS had some
funds to assist “Home Based Care” to the terminally ill. We have used these
to make initial purchases of high protein porridge (Morvite) and managed to eke
out scarce transport to deliver. These resources are now exhausted.
The National Disaster
Management Authority has requested the NGOs to assist them in counting the food
in government warehouses so that they may know how much more is needed. The
process is complicated and will take time and the affected people may be dying
by then. We know that government is broke and we are not sure that this will
develop into effective action in the forseeable future.
5.
Planned activities
LWF through LDS plans to
purchase a two months supply of food supplements (sufficient for one meal per
day) for the people who are on medication and to make two distributions. During
this time they would conduct a detailed assessment and will prepare longer term
plans. They should by then be in a better position to know how much if anything
will come from negotiations with government and World Food Programme (WFP).
They want the people to immediately continue to take the medication whilst they
look for a longer term solution. The ideal would be two meals per day but one
meal would be sufficient to avert disaster.
This response will
serve 1,200 people who are HIV or TB positive and receiving Anti Retroviral or
TB treatment and who are unable to source regular meals due to the ongoing
drought and lack of food distribution. It will give those 5 kg of “Morvite”,
an energy nutritional supplement each month for two consecutive months. LWF will
submit a Rapid Response Fund request to respond to this crisis.
Any funding indication or
pledge should be communicated to Jean-Daniel Birmele, ACT Chief Finance Officer
(Jean_Daniel.Birmele@actalliance.org).