Three year-old Manyala is a healthy young Zambian girl. She is the first HIV negative child to be born to HIV positive parents who have been involved in VSO-RAISA’s Mazwini Project in Zambia. The project focuses on preventing mother-to-child transmission and is already delivering results as VSO marks World AIDS Day on 1 December this year.
At the moment, only 28 per cent of children born with HIV and AIDS in southern Africa have access to anti-retrovirals. Drawing on our vast experience working on over 200 projects across the region, we are working towards the World Health Organisation’s goal of ‘Getting to Zero’ which aims to achieve zero infection, zero discrimination and zero deaths from HIV and AIDS globally.
VSO-RAISA (Regional AIDS Initiative of Southern Africa) has had many successes over the years. We’ve placed large numbers of pregnant women on anti-retovirals, partnered with donors to fund income-generation projects and widely promoted HIV prevention and sexual health. We’ve used funding from the Dutch Embassy to support widows and women living with HIV and AIDS in Mozambique, Swaziland and Lesotho with better nutrition and household stipends; many of these women were the wives of miners who’ve lost their lives.
But a lot more still needs to happen. Research conducted by the World Health Organisation shows that only 37 per cent of people living with HIV and AIDS in southern Africa have access to, and are taking anti-retroviral drugs. HIV prevalence rates amongst young people aged between 20-24 years in southern Africa is very high and of huge concern. For example, the United Nations Population Fund has found that more than a third (38%) of females of this age in Swaziland are living with HIV while 12 percent of males of this same age in Swaziland are also living with HIV. These startling statistics highlight the urgent need to address the sexual and reproductive health and HIV prevention among the young people, especially around sexual and reproductive health initiatives targeting young women.
Whilst the core activity of VSO-RAISA focuses on rolling out effective HIV and AIDS programmes with local partners through volunteer placements, training, conferences and administering small grants, we strongly believe political commitment is what is really needed to ‘get us to zero.’ VSO has been engaging heavily with policy makers and parliamentarians in southern Africa, and more recently we’ve been raising our voice to improve conditions in prison. Research shows that HIV prevalence is ten times more in prison populations than anywhere else, so we’ve established the Southern Africa Network on Prisons (SANOP) to help coordinate civil society’s response to tackling HIV infection in prisons.
“Prison health is public health, we cannot stress this enough”, says Francois Rademeyer of the Pretoria-based Support for at Risk Populations in Southern Africa (SARPSA) initiative, a VSO-RAISA partner organisation. “People detained in prison only remain there for a period of time before they reintegrate back into society.” Francois believes the potential to engage with prisoners around the issue is huge: “Advocacy, education and new policies sensitive to the needs of prisoners could potentially save and extend the lives of millions,” he adds.
As we look to the future, VSO’s pioneering work on tackling HIV and AIDS in southern Africa will focus its programmes on sexual health for young people, the economic empowerment of women and girls, HIV prevention and tackling HIV and AIDS across borders.
All of this work, along with the policy changes we are calling for will ensure there are many more Manyalas to shout about in years to come.
VSO Regional AIDS Initiative of Southern Africa (RAISA) Director,
Bongai Mundeta
Read how VSO volunteer paediatrician Tamara Bugembe is tackling HIV stigma and improving care at Bamenda Regional Hospital, Cameroon.
