STANISLAUS CONNECTIONS

Working For Peace, Justice, and A Sustainable Environment

June, 2001

A Modesto Peace/Life Center Publication

HIV/AIDS in Africa

Aids in Africa: A GENERATION AT RISK

The African AIDS crisis staggers the imagination. Six thousand Africans die daily, making it the worst infectious disease calamity since the Plague of the Middle Ages. More persons will die of AIDS in Africa over the next decade than have died from all the world’s wars of the 20th century. Many AIDS victims have done nothing more harmful than enter the world — 12.1 million African children have been orphaned by AIDS. For them the tragedy is only beginning, since many have or are likely to contract the disease. As an entire generation disappears before our eyes, church groups, private agencies and caring people worldwide and in Africa struggle to find effective responses to this catastrophe.

... We are one world, and these children are our children. Their destiny is our destiny. Each of us can make a difference. Each of us can help save lives. Let us wage this holy war together. And for the sake of our children, we will win. — Bishop Desmond Tutu

AN AFRICAN PLAGUE

• Africa has 10 percent of the world’s population, but 70 percent of global HIV/AIDS cases.

• 85 percent of all AIDS-related deaths were in Africa last year, yet less than 5 percent of Africans know their HIV status. UNAIDS

• Today there are 23.5 million African women and men infected with HIV/AIDS, plus another one million children.

• In sub-Saharan Africa 470,000 children die each year from AIDS. Over 90 percent of them contracted the disease from their mothers.

• New AIDS cases diagnosed each year: USA - 40,000 Africa - 5.6 million

• AIDS kills more Africans than war, and more wars are being fought there than on any other continent.

•  The U.S. Census Bureau estimates life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa will fall to around age 30 within a decade — the lowest in a century.

• 90 percent of all HIV transmission in Africa occurs through heterosexual sex. This is 100 percent preventable.

Malawian women with AIDS.

The National Community of Women Living with AIDS in Uganda created a special project — the Memory Book. Mothers write their life story in the book with family photos and talk about where they came from, experiences they’ve had.

“And they talk about their children because, you see, they want to leave these books for their kids, so that when they are gone — and they know that day is coming — their children will have this memory book to look at. I sat on the porch there as two mothers read to me from their books. I realized then that I was in a nation that had turned into a hospice.” — Sen. Richard Durbin

A GENERATION OF ORPHANS

Without significant intervention, by 2010 there will be 40 million AIDS orphans in Africa, most of whom will have grown up with little or no social structure. That is equal to all the children attending public schools in the USA today.

Orphans are at far greater risk of malnutrition and unlikely to receive the health care or education they need. They are also more likely to engage in hazardous labor, including commercial sex work, which in turn exposes them to greater risk of HIV infection.

AIDS has wiped out decades of progress in improving the lives and health of families in Africa — infant mortality is doubling, child mortality is tripling, and life expectancy is plummeting by twenty years or more.

Poverty-stricken African health systems are being overwhelmed by AIDS. Up to 50 percent of hospital beds are occupied by HIV/AIDS patients in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS:

Status of Women: Economic dependency and social norms make it hard for women and girls to deny men sex. Women account for 55 percent of the continent’s HIV infections. Teenage girls suffer 5 to 6 times the infection rates of boys because older men prey on them. At the same time, women and girls tend to bear the main burden of caring for sick family members, and often have less care and support when they are infected.

Poverty/Debt: 95 percent of Africans infected with HIV/AIDS live in abject poverty, with no hope of obtaining the new drugs that patients in developed countries use to combat the virus and lead comparatively normal lives. Half of Africa’s population lack access to safe drinking water, two-thirds lack access to adequate sanitation. African nations are forced to spend four times more on repaying their foreign debt than on health care or education.

Wars/Refugees: Soldiers often visit commercial sex workers — 90 percent of whom are believed to have AIDS. Civil conflict, displaced populations and increasing interventions by the armed forces of African nations further spread the disease. People are six times more likely to contract HIV in a refugee camp than in the outside population.

Fear and Denial: The stigma associated with AIDS prevents open discussion and diminishes support systems. Thandiwe Mwandla, a South African woman with AIDS, found that when her diagnosis was known, no one would buy her sugar cane or anything else she had touched. Her neighbors walked around her. She notes, “We get sick, and we get poor, and we die lying to ourselves.”

Cultural Factors: Polygamy and unsafe sexual practices are key factors. Since most men are not tested, they can unknowingly spread the disease. Many men believe sex with a virgin will cure AIDS, prompting them to target younger and younger girls. Compounding the problem is a common belief among women that if a man looks healthy, he couldn’t have AIDS.

THE ROAD TO RECOVERY

My friend with AIDS is still my friend. --South African Bumper sticker

Despite staggering statistics, significant progress is being made against AIDS by churches, governments and community organizations banding together to break the silence, challenge behavior, and provide basic care to those in need.

A tree of hope: Research conducted by Church World Service (CWS) in Senegal has demonstrated that the Moringa tree, native to tropical regions, is a fountain of vitamins and minerals. Gram for gram, Moringa leaves contain three times the iron of spinach, four times the vitamin A of carrots, seven times the vitamin C of oranges. It can also be used to clarify water, treat diabetes, and cure skin infections. CWS has launched a major initiative to promote the use of Moringa as a nutritional supplement throughout Africa.

Leading the way: Ethiopian community-based and religious organizations are at the forefront of the fight against AIDS in that country. For example, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (a CWS partner) organizes public rallies, youth workshops, counseling, and street theater to raise awareness and encourage abstinence from premarital sex. Since those carrying the disease are often discriminated against, sometimes losing their employment, the church provides money and training for income-generating projects. They have joined forces with Catholics, Evangelicals and Muslims to create a joint interfaith effort to curb the disease.

“AIDS doesn’t care about what your religion is,” commented one resident of Rakai, a Ugandan province with one of the highest HIV incidence rates in the world. In the face of desolate villages, fallow fields and abandoned orphans, Lutheran World Federation initiated a rehabilitation and development program in 1992. Clinics were established, roads and schools repaired, and school teachers were educated as health instructors. But to ensure full community participation, local religious leaders needed to cooperate. Overcoming generations of tension, the Muslim District Khaddi and the Anglican and Catholic bishops agreed to meet, pray and work together. The number of HIV/AIDS cases has dropped substantially, and their model program is now shown to visitors from around the world.

WHAT CAN I DO?

• Support Church World Service or other organizations fighting AIDS in Africa. Visit www.churchworldservice.org

• Learn more about the African AIDS crisis from the CWS Video and Film Library. For a complementary catalogue of free-loan videos, call or write: CWS Film Library, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515; 800-297-1516 or consult our website .

• Exercise Your Citizenship: UNAIDS estimates it will take $3 billion to establish effective AIDS prevention programs in Africa, about what is spent on health care in the U.S. every day. Contributions from donor nations equal only about one tenth that amount. Write your Representative and Senators urging financial support of meaningful AIDS legislation.

• Support those in your own community struggling with AIDS.

• Examine your own attitudes toward those with AIDS.

SOURCES FOR FURTHER LEARNING

•  “AIDS: Africa in Peril.” CNN.Com, www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/aids/

• AIDS in Africa: Heartbreak and Hope. United Methodist Website: http://gbgm-umc.org/programs/aidsafrica/newsfacts.stm

• Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic: June 2000. UNAIDS. www.unaids.org/epidemic_update/report/Epi_report.pdf

• AIDS Clock: www.unfpa.org/modules/aidsclock/intro.htm