BULLETIN ÉLECTRONIQUE DE LA PLATE-FORME SUISSE «VIH/SIDA ET COOPÉRATION INTERNATIONALE» avril 2008

Lors de la Conférence 2008 d’aidsfocus.ch «Aids and Livelihood», le constat a été sans appel: en l’absence d’un renforcement des droits des femmes et des enfants, les objectifs en matière de réduction de la pauvreté dans le monde ne seront pas atteints!

Tant il est vrai que, la plupart du temps, ce sont les femmes qui prennent la responsabilité d’assurer l’alimentation des enfants, qui cultivent les champs pour couvrir les besoins quotidiens, et qui transmettent aux enfants les connaissances élémentaires sur les travaux des champs. Et le fait qu’elles soient bien souvent privées de leurs droits, par exemple de l’accès à leurs propres terres, entraîne de graves conséquences pour l’ensemble du continent africain. Les coutumes qui dénient tout droit de propriété aux femmes et aux enfants provoquent une aggravation catastrophique de la pauvreté, encore accentuée par la crise du VIH/sida. Les femmes dont le mari est mort du sida sont fréquemment rendues responsables de ce décès par leur belle-famille et chassées de la maison en guise de «punition», alors qu’elles sont déjà bien souvent victimes d’une situation où elles ont été rendues séropositives par ce même mari, qui les violentait. Restent alors sur le pavé, en marge de la société, des êtres pauvres, malades et désespérés, difficilement en mesure de faire valoir leurs droits.

Mais, par chance, il y a aussi les autres femmes, celles qui ont la force de ne plus se laisser faire, qui s’insurgent et luttent pour leurs droits, à l’instar des deux représentantes d’organisations kényane et ougandaise des droits des femmes présentes lors de la Conférence 2008; elles militent depuis des années contre les violations des droits humains à l’encontre des femmes et des enfants, et elles ont déjà remporté de petites victoires sur des questions de droits successoraux. L’«empowerment» (émancipation) est pour elles le maître mot: les femmes doivent être amenées à prendre conscience de leur propre valeur, être informées de leurs droits et, à travers l’appui de réseaux, mises en position de lutter elles-mêmes pour les respecter ces droits. Elles réclament en outre des mesures accélérées pour développer et faire valoir leurs droits fonciers et leurs droits de propriété, car il s’agit là d’un levier essentiel au renforcement de leur statut. Même si elles ont déjà quelques succès à leur actif, il leur reste un long chemin à parcourir!

Cette édition d’aidsfocus.nouvelles comporte une documentation sur la Conférence 2008.

Martina Staenke Collaboratrice aidsfocus.ch

Südafrika | terre des hommes schweiz

Jugendliche, die selbst Opfer von Gewalt sind oder den Verlust von Angehörigen durch HIV/ Aids verarbeiten müssen, entwickeln auf diesem Weg der Bewältigung traumatischer Erfahrungen ein besonderes Einfühlungsvermögen für Gleichaltrige, denen Ähnliches widerfährt. Ihre Wahrnehmung für das oft Unaussprechbare ist geschärft und meist sind sie es dann, die als erste auf Missbrauchsfälle aufmerksam werden, Initiativen ergreifen und bei lokalen Organisationen Unterstützung suchen. Das sind Fähigkeiten, die oft unerkannt und ungenutzt bleiben.

Häufig ist dies auch in Organisationen der Fall, die durchaus erkannt haben, wie wichtig der Einbezug Jugendlicher ist, um wirksame Projekte gegen Armut und Ausgrenzung, gegen Gewalt oder HIV/Aids durchzuführen. Meist bleibt es aber bei einer Krisenintervention, einer punktuellen Hilfe oder einem Kurztraining in Trauma-Bewältigung, Einkommensförderung oder HIV/Aids-Prävention. Die Jugendlichen erfahren jedoch in der Umsetzung dessen, was sie gelernt haben, nicht die nötige Unterstützung und Stärkung ihres Selbstvertrauens.

Stärken stärken Hier setzt das neue Programm von terre des hommes schweiz mit lösungsorientierten Methoden an. Es konzentriert sich auf das, was Jugendliche tun können und bereits tun, wenn sie sich in ihrer Gemeinde um Waisenkinder kümmern, mit Gleichaltrigen über HIV/Aids-Prävention sprechen oder mit den Schulen in ihrer Gemeinde in Südafrika eine Kundgebung von Kindern für mehr Respekt organisieren.

http://www.aidsfocus.ch

The conferences on “AIDS and livelihoods. Securing property and inheritance rights” looked at the complex inter-relationships of HIV/AIDS, poverty and securing livelihoods in the countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. The papers of the conference will be published in the reader, the Bulletin of Medicus Mundi Switzerland No 109. Additional papers with stories, experiences, discussions and reflections on the issue will complement the picture.

http://www.aidsfocus.ch

aidsfocus.ch soutient la lettre de la Déclaration de Berne au gouvernement suisse concernant les licences obligatoires en Thailande. Les pays en développement devraient prévoir, dans leur législation, l’utilisation des dispositions relatives aux licences obligatoires, conformément à l’Accord sur les ADPIC, en tant que moyen de faciliter l’accès à des médicaments meilleur marché par l’importation ou la production locale. La Suisse « doit respecter le droit de la Thaïlande à octroyer des licences obligatoires pour la santé publique de sa population en usant de toute la marge de manoeuvre que lui donne l’Accord sur les ADPIC. Cela implique de cesser les pressions pour dissuader la Thaïlande d’accorder des licences obligatoires. »

http://www.aidsfocus.ch

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) began providing antiretroviral therapy (ART) in 2000 and has today reached over 80,000 people in more than 30 countries. However, efforts to further increase access to treatment and maintain and improve quality of care are coming up against a wall due to the severe shortage of health workers. This is contributing to unnecessary illness and death.

The impact of the human resource crisis is witnessed by MSF across southern Africa, the epicentre of the AIDS pandemic. Further progress will not be possible unless certain national and international barriers are overcome.

http://www.msf.ch

Fussball ist ein Millionengeschäft. Diese EM soll zeigen, dass es nicht (nur) so sein muss: Kickoff2008 unterstützt das TearFund Aidsprojekt für Jugendliche in Malawi. Der ehemalige Schweizer Nati-Goalie Jörg Stiel stellt sich hinter das soziale Anliegen von Kickoff2008: „Während wir uns hier teilweise mit belanglosen Kleinigkeiten beschäftigen, kämpft man dort ums nackte Überleben.“

http://www.tearfund.ch

Das Dossier vereint Informationen zur Verbreitung und Ansätze zur Bekämpfung von Aids. Schwerpunkte des Schweizerischen Roten Kreuzes: Aufklären über Ursachen; Vorbeugen durch Präservative; Blutqualität, Pflegen von Menschen mit Aids und Fördern der Akzeptanz. Mit Beispielen aus Afrika und Asien.

http://www.aidsfocus.ch

This report from Kindernothilfe takes a close look at community based approaches, self-help groups and their ability to alleviate the burden of HIV/AIDS affected families and children.

The study on two Ugandan community based development projects demonstrates the importance of enabling people to manage their own affairs in their respective localities. In compliance with the Ugandan Government’s endeavour for decentralisation and the devolution of decision-making powers to local communities the approach of African Evangelistic Enterprise (AEE) contributes successfully to alleviate poverty in the rural settings of Uganda. Even after a relatively short period of only two to three years substantial positive changes are visible in the villages.

http://www.aidsfocus.ch

Alex Matter könnte mit dem, was er tut, rundum zufrieden sein. Aber eines will er noch erreichen: Afrikas armen Aidskranken nachhaltig helfen. Mit der Esperanza Medicines Foundation ist er auf dem Weg dazu. 2004 gründete er zusammen mit Rainer von Mielecki, damals noch bei der Syngenta, die Esperanza Medicines Foundation. Die Basler Stiftung sollte nach Wegen forschen, wie man vor allem der armen Bevölkerung Afrikas helfen könnte, sich gegen das Aidsvirus zu wappnen, Infektionen zu vermeiden oder zu behandeln.

http://www.esperanzamedicines.org

London, 8 April 2008 - About 175 members of Parliament in the United Kingdom have signed a motion that calls on the Department for International Development (DFID) to place women at the center of its HIV/AIDS strategies worldwide, the Herald Express reports. The motion, part of the "Women Matter" campaign run by the group VSO, also calls on DFID to influence other international agencies to focus on the impact of HIV/AIDS on women.

http://www.kaisernetwork.org

Cape Town, 22 April 2008 - Health experts have warned of a possible increase of cervical cancer among HIV-positive women if nothing is done to prevent the Human Papilloma Virus, which causes this form of cancer.

According to Prof. Denny the solution to the problem lies in vaccination. “I think it’s going to be very important to vaccinate HIV-positive people. And, particularly, kids who acquire it through maternal-to-child transmission prior to their own sexual exposure,” she said.

http://www.health-e.org.za

KAMPALA, 8 April 2008 - Throughout his childhood, Gordon Turibamwe, 20, was sickly, suffering from frequent bouts of malaria and chest infections, but his father only told him he was HIV-positive when he was aged 16, something Gordon says caused him serious trauma.

"I was so shocked and so angry with my dad for a long time," he told IRIN/PlusNews. "I immediately thought I was going to die, I had very little hope."

http://www.plusnews.org

PLoS Med, March 2008 - The advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) dramatically improved the prognosis for both adults and children infected with HIV who had access to treatment. However, the optimal timing for initiating treatment remains controversial, particularly in children. This debate lays out the case for deferred treatment against the case for early initiation of HAART in children.

http://www.aidsportal.org

Boston, 15 February 2008 - Scientists are no further forward in developing a vaccine against HIV after more than 20 years of research, a Nobel Prize-winning biologist has said. Professor David Baltimore, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), said there was little hope among scientists. But he underlined that they were continuing efforts to develop a vaccine.

http://news.bbc.co.uk

Kampala | Washington, DC – HIV/AIDS implementers from around the world will gather in Kampala, Uganda from June 3-7 for the 2008 HIV/AIDS Implementers’ Meeting. Recognizing the rapid expansion of HIV/AIDS programs worldwide, the focus of this year’s meeting is building the capacity of local prevention, treatment, and care programs; enhancing quality; and promoting coordination among partners. The meeting’s theme is “Scaling Up Through Partnerships: Overcoming Obstacles to Implementation.”

http://data.unaids.org

Geneva, 14 March 2008 - The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is committed to the systematic integration of tuberculosis control in Red Cross and Red Crescent HIV programmes at community level, particularly in countries where co-infection has become a public health emergency. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 250,000 people living with HIV develop tuberculosis (TB) every year. Some 14 million adults are co-infected with TB and HIV – and 70% of them live in Africa.

http://www.ifrc.org

Noragric prepared a review on the current views on the relationships between agriculture, HIV infections and AIDS-related diseases in sub-Saharan Africa. Often considered unrelated, this report, drawing on review papers and original research suggests that agriculture both is severely affected by HIV and AIDS and that the state of agriculture significantly influences the spread of HIV.

The report points out that few sub-Sharan African countries have substantial analyses of the rural and agricultural situations in their Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs). Few countries have national policies that give high priority to agriculture and the link between agriculture and HIV and AIDS is missed. Therefore one of the biggest and most dangerous risks for farmers in sub-Saharan Africa is HIV and AIDS.

http://www.umb.no

This guide from the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance project outlines key steps for integrating food assistance and nutrition into HIV programmes. It identifies key challenges to integrated HIV programming: inadequate understanding of how to address the overlaps between HIV and food security, problems raising resources from multiple funding agencies which may not be available at the same time, difficulty attributing results to any single intervention, and differing objectives and targets between HIV and food security programmes. Furthermore, the intensity and urgency of HIV or food assistance programmes often makes it difficult to focus on integration.

http://www.wfp.org

This toolkit from the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, was developed for assessing and building capacities for high quality responses to HIV in intermediary organisations. Intermediary civil society organisations play a significant role in building community responses by establishing partnerships with selected grassroots organisations. Through a capacity building programme of grants and/or technical support, they support the community response in scaling up their HIV programmes. Increasingly, intermediary organisations are also required to develop their own capacity to undertake this work.

http://www.aidsalliance.org

The primary purpose of this document from UNGASS is to provide key constituents who are actively involved in a country’s response to AIDS with essential information on core indicators that measure the effectiveness of the national response. These guidelines will also help ensure the consistency and transparency of the process used by national governments. In addition, this information can be used by UNAIDS to prepare regional and global progress reports on implementation of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS.

Countries are strongly encouraged to integrate the core indicators into their ongoing monitoring and evaluation activities. These indicators are designed to help countries assess the current state of their national response while simultaneously contributing to a better understanding of the global response to the AIDS pandemic, including progress towards meeting the targets in the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS.

http://data.unaids.org

Under the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS (GCWA), the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), together with the United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA) and Young Positives are developing 23 country Report Cards with the aim to strengthen HIV Prevention strategies for girls and young women. Each Report Card provides a country profile, information on HIV prevention from the legal, policy, service availability and accessibility, rights and participation perspectives and includes quotes and issues raised by young women and girls of the country. They also discuss key social and cultural issues, including the role of men and boys in HIV prevention.

http://www.ippf.org

This toolkit from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) on Education aims to help education staff from development cooperation agencies, including both development and humanitarian-oriented multilateral and bilateral agencies as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other civil society organisations, to support the process of mainstreaming HIV and AIDS into education sector planning and implementation. It is designed to be used as a reference tool or a resource for training and discussion, depending on the local needs and context.

http://unesdoc.unesco.org

The Lancet 2008 - Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is increasingly available in Africa, but physicians and clinical services are few. We therefore assessed the effect of a home-based ART programme in Uganda on mortality, hospital admissions, and orphanhood in people with HIV-1 and their household members.

Households were visited every week by lay providers, and no clinic visits were scheduled after enrolment. We compared rates of death, hospitalisation, and orphanhood during different study periods and calculated the number needed to treat to prevent an outcome.

http://www.aidsfocus.ch

Journal of Internal Medicine, March 2008 – According to the author, Prof. Kallings, Founding President of the International AIDS Society (IAS), Science responded to the challenge of AIDS by rapidly identifying aetiology, describing pathogenesis and transmission routes, and developing diagnostic tests and treatment. However, this did not prevent the global spread of HIV, with 25 million fatal cases so far, another 33 million infected, and disastrous socioeconomic and demographic consequences.

In spite of unprecedented political attention and financial resources, the response is falling further behind the growth of the epidemic. With no cure or vaccine in sight, scaling up prevention is of paramount importance.

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com

Bienne | Cet atelier de Medicus Mundi Suisse sera consacré aux possibilités et aux limites de l’engagement et de la collaboration des bénévoles et des salarié-e-s au sein des organisations de coopération internationale. L’atelier s’adresse à toutes les personnes – bénévoles, volontaires ou salarié-e-s – travaillant dans des petites ou moyennes organisations.

Toutes les organisations membres de Medicus Mundi Suisse travaillent avec des bénévoles. Le fait que bénévoles et salarié-e-s aient souvent des compétences différentes a-t-il des incidences sur le travail, et lesquelles? Les mêmes règles s’appliquent-elles aux bénévoles et aux salarié-e-s? Que signifie au juste «professionnel»?

http://www.medicusmundi.ch

Zürich | Ziele: Sie erwerben fundiertes Grundwissen zu HIV/Aids in den Bereichen Medizin, Recht, Epidemiologie und wissen um die gesellschaftlichen Besonderheiten dieser Infektionskrankheit. Ebenso sind Sie vertraut mit den grundlegenden Beratungsbotschaften und –strategien der Aids-Hilfe Schweiz und kennen das Angebot unserer Organisation. Zudem vertiefen Sie Ihre Beratungskompetenz im Bereich HIV und setzen sich mit Public-Health-Strategien auseinander.

http://www.aids.ch

Ausserholligen | The course offered by SDC aims to provide information on and skills in mainstreaming HIV/AIDS. It aims to strengthen participants’ motivation and competence to mainstream HIV/AIDS as relevant for their work.

At the end of the day, participants should know what is understood by the comprehensive approach and be able to apply the concept of risk/vulnerability reduction and impact mitigation.

http://www.deza.admin.ch

Zürich | Aids & Kind führt im Juli 2008 eine Tagung für Jugendliche durch, die von HIV/Aids betroffen sind. Durch die Teilnahme sollen die Jugendlichen eine konstruktive Unterstützung erhalten, die ihren Umgang mit der Krankheit verbessert und die ihre Kompetenz im Bereich von HIV/Aids fördert. Der Erfahrungsaustausch soll ihre persönlichen Ressourcen stärken und sie bei der Wahrnehmung ihrer sozialen Verantwortung unterstützen. Eingeladen sind alle direkt von HIV/Aids betroffenen Jugendlichen aus allen europäischen Ländern und der Schweiz.

http://www.aidsfocus.ch

Bern | The Afro-European Medical and Research Network (AEMRN) will be holding their first annual Strategic Planning Symposium on the theme: “Knowledge Management, Resource Mobilisation and sustained HIV/AIDS Research in Low-income Countries - Case of Sub-Saharan Africa”.

The programme include presentation of papers from selected speakers around the World as well as brain storming and plenary sessions on Knowledge Management, Resource Mobilisation and HIV/AIDS Research.

http://www.aidsfocus.ch

Bienne | cinfo: Le VIH/SIDA est une réalité douloureuse dans de nombreux pays de la coopération internationale (CI). Il affecte non seulement chaque aspect de la vie des populations concernées, mais il a également un impact considérable sur la vie et le travail de personnel expatrié de la CI. Ce séminaire a pour objectif d’accompagner les participants/es afin qu'ils/elles puissent mieux gérer ce défi.

http://www.cinfo.ch

aidsfocus.ch, la Plate-forme suisse «VIH/sida et coopération internationale» est un projet de Medicus Mundi Suisse. 33 organisations partenaires et la Direction de Développement et Coopération (DDC) participent avec une contribution financière.

Les partenaires d'aidsfocus: Afro-European Medical and Research Network, Action de Carême, Aide Suisse contre le Sida, Bethlehem Mission Immensee, Caritas suisse, cinfo, CO-OPERAID, Croix-Rouge suisse, Déclaration de Berne, EPER, Esperanza Medicines Foundation, FEPA, Fondation Terre des hommes, Fédération Genevoise de Coopération, Féderation Internationale du Croix-Bleue, Gemeinschaft der St. Anna-Schwestern, IAMANEH Suisse, INTERTEAM, Institut Tropical Suisse, Kindernothilfe Schweiz, Kwa Wazee, Médecins Sans Frontières, medico international suisse, mediCuba-Suisse, missio, mission 21, MIVA Suisse, REPSSI, Sida & l'enfant, SolidarMed, Swiss Aids Care, Tear Fund, terre des hommes schweiz, World Vision Suisse.