Nyt om AIDS i det sydlige Afrika

SOUTH AFRICA: Joining the HIV battle makes good business.

© PlusNews

Levi's branded condoms are popular with young people

JOHANNESBURG, 25 January 2007

- Behaviour change has been widely identified as the key to reducing new HIV infections, but so far neither governments, religious leaders nor AIDS organisations have had significant success in convincing large numbers of people to change their risky sexual behaviour.

The late-comer to trying to address this problem is the corporate sector: the source of marketing and advertising experts with the best proven track record in influencing behaviour.

Cal Bruns is one such man. His resume includes designing advertising campaigns to sell Coca-Cola to township dwellers. Now, he and his partners have moved into the business of "corporate social opportunity." His company, Matchboxology, has been finding ways to use the branding power of well-known clothing company Levi Strauss to market HIV/AIDS messages to young South Africans since 2005.

In describing his company's work with Levi Strauss, Bruns makes the distinction between 'corporate social responsibility', a familiar term in the business and non-profit worlds, and 'corporate social opportunity'.

The difference, he told delegates at the "HIV/AIDS: Impact on Business" conference in Johannesburg on Wednesday, lies in viewing a company's philanthropic endeavours as valuable business opportunities rather than as a small but necessary drain on profits.

The willingness of big-name retailers like Motorola, Gap and American Express to join the 'Red' campaign, which sells Red-branded products to raise money for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, showed that "doing good is good for business".

Bruns said retailers were jumping on the Red bandwagon, not merely out of benevolence, but because it made good business sense. Red products tap into consumer desires both to "do good" and to be seen wearing fashionable brands. As the Red website puts it: "What better way to become a good-looking Samaritan?"

In South Africa, a highly visible HIV/AIDS campaign has raised the profile of Levi Strauss among consumers and potential employees, while delivering HIV/AIDS messages in ways that appeal to young people - a high-risk group becoming increasingly impervious to safer sex messages from more traditional sources like schools and NGOs.

"We could have chosen another issue, but HIV and AIDS was the major issue facing South African youth today," said Winston Pratt, human resources director for Levis Strauss South Africa. "The most vulnerable group [for HIV infection] are 15- to 24-year-olds, the same group that makes up our core customers."

In 2006, Levi Strauss partnered with New Start, an NGO that specialises in delivering voluntary counselling and testing services (VCT), to bring mobile testing units to shopping malls, university campuses and streets in South Africa's three major cities: Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.

Apart from giving New Start's counsellors additional training in how to deal with adolescents, young people were offered incentives like free tickets to 'Rage for the Revolution', an awareness-raising musical event that was part of the clothing manufacturer's 'Red for Life' HIV/AIDS initiative.

During the six-week campaign, 4,082 people were tested at New Start clinics, of whom 32 percent were 15- to 24-year-olds, an age group that has proved particularly hard to reach with HIV testing.

In the past year, Levi Strauss has also partnered with Cosmopolitan magazine and others to distribute condoms branded with its logo.

"By putting the logo of a very aspirational brand on a condom, and putting them into magazines and taking them to kids at events and clubs, you'd be shocked at how fast they disappear," said Bruns.

Levi Strauss is launching a line of clothing in 2007, bearing AIDS-savvy slogans like: 'I can buy my own damn Levi's, Sugar Daddy' and 'If you're too scared to test, you're too scared for me.'

Brad Mears of the South African Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS (SABCOHA) believes there is potential for businesses to become much more involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS. "We haven't harnessed the real power of the private sector," he said. "If you want a business person to think about HIV, you've got to speak to them in business terms."

Part of bringing a more business-like approach to corporate philanthropy, said Pratt, was considering sustainability. Incorporating social responsibility initiatives into a company's core business made better sense than making annual donations to a chosen cause.

"We've got to travel this road together," Bruns told the conference. "If only one brand does this, they've got limited financial ability to make the tipping point. We need lots more brands to get involved. Corporate social opportunity can change the battle against HIV and AIDS in Africa."

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EU vil give verdens fattige billig kopimedicin

politiken.dk Onsdag 24. okt 2007
Af Petrine Elgaard, Strasbourg

Udviklingslande skal have lov til at behandle HIV og malaria med billig
kopimedicin, mener Europaparlamentet.

Dyre patenter må komme i anden række, når det kommer til behandling af
livstruende sygdomme i verdens fattigste lande.

Det mener Europa-parlamentet, der har stemt for, at udviklingslande for
fremtiden skal have lov til at købe eller producere billige kopier af
patenteret medicin.

En mulighed der vil kunne ændre livet for millioner af mennesker. Alene på det afrikanske kontinent slås 25 millioner mennesker med hiv og aids.
Og hvert halve minut dør et barn af malaria et sted i verden.

Fattige vinder over medicinalgiganter
Imens langt størstedelen af Europaparlaments 785 medlemmer i dag stemte for forslaget, er mange af vestens større medicinalfirmaer stærkt
utilfredse med det.

Fordi det vil kunne betyde, at de for fremtiden vil tabe store summer på de fattige landes epidemier.

Men kampen mod hiv, aids og malaria er vigtigere end økonomiske interesser, konstaterede EU-kommissionens handelskommissær Peter Mandelson i denne uge.

Netop Mandelson advarede ellers tidligere på året Thailand mod at kopiere patenteret AIDS-medicin. Men den holdning har han nu ændret.

Vejen fremad er kopier

At verdens fattige får lettere adgang til livsnødvendig medicin er et stort og vigtigt skridt fremad, mener Socialdemokraternes parlamentariker Ole Christensen.

»Det er en sejr«, siger han til politiken.dk.

»Tidligere har kommissionens tilgang til problemet lugtet fælt af euro og store europæiske medicinalgiganters interesser. Men nu har vi fået en klar indrømmelse af de fattige landes ret til medicin«.

Billige produkter lige om hjørnet

Men der er endnu et par trin at traske, inden de fattige lande er
fuldstændig sikret adgang til billig medicin. For aftalen, som organisationen WTO står bag, skal igennem unionens ministerråd, før EU
endeligt tilslutter sig forslaget.

Ifølge Ole Christensen burde den del af godkendelsen ikke blive noget
problem, da ministrene tidligere har været positive over for ideen.

Og går alt som smurt, er det muligt, at aftalen allerede vil gå igennem
i løbet af 2008.

 

SADC: Good governance needed to deal with Aids

M&G, Johannesburg, South Africa 05 December 2006

Good governance in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) was the key to dealing with HIV/Aids, Judge Edwin Cameron said on Monday.

"Where there are human rights abuses, we cannot deal properly with Aids," Cameron said in Johannesburg at the launch of the Aids Rights Alliance for Southern Africa's (Arasa's) report on HIV/Aids and human rights in the SADC region.

The report is an evaluation of the steps taken by countries in the SADC region to implement international guidelines on HIV/Aids and human rights.

Cameron said the report showed that the response to HIV/Aids in the region had been less than effective.

Human rights abuse hampered the implementation of treatment of HIV/Aids.

According to the report, 85% of people who were in need of antiretrovirals did not have access to treatment.

"This is a terrible statistic when we know that Aids is a manageable condition," Cameron said.

Michaela Clayton, director of Arasa, said the report was the first from information received from civil society on the state of human rights and HIV/Aids.

"The report outlines the number of failure by governments in the region," Clayton said.

She said challenges facing the region were the stigma attached to Aids, limited access to health care, restrictions on right to information and lack of political leadership.

"Many countries in the region have risen to the challenge of responding to the HIV epidemic but are confronted with financial, structural, political barriers to the implementation of law reform and programmes to effectively address the HIV epidemic."

She said the report focused on structures and partnerships for multi-sectoral response, protective legal and policy framework, access to treatment and legal services.

"It deals with the nature to which countries have used and implemented international guidelines on HIV/Aids and human rights."

She said the findings were at one level encouraging as some progress has been reported.

"However, human rights abuses remain prevalent as a result of stigma and discrimination."

Clayton said gender-based violence and inferior treatment of women and children continued to fuel the epidemic.

 

 

Swaziland har flest HIV-positive

Swaziland har den største udbredelse af HIV i verden. 38,5 procent af de voksne swazier er HIV-positive. Det oplyste FNs generalsekretærs særlige udsending vedrørende HIV/AIDS i Afrika, Stephen Lewis, forleden.

Lewis kom med den triste nyhed under et møde med Swazilands konge, Mswati 3. Ifølge avisen The Times of Swaziland svarede Mswati: "Vi ønsker ikke at være først i verden, når det kommer til HIV-udbredelse, så vi har startet utallige projekter til at få bugt med følgerne af denne plage".

De seneste år har Botswana, som også ligger i det sydlige Afrika, toppet HIV-statistikken. Men ifølge Lewis er der meget klare tegn på, at HIV-udbredelsen er faldet fra 38,8 til 37,5 procent.

Det er sket af flere grunde. Dels fordi mange HIV-positive er døde. Og dels fordi regeringen er gået massivt ind i kampen mod HIV/AIDS i samarbejde med udenlandske donorer. Botswana var det første land i Afrika, der tilbød gratis behandling af AIDS-syge med antiretrovir-medicin, som styrker immunforsvaret og forlænger de flestes levetid.

Swaziland er ved at tage de første skridt mod antiretrovir-behandling i samarbejde med Verdenssundhedsorganisationen, WHO. Det er et led i FNs såkaldte "3 i 5"-initiativ, som skal sikre, at 3 millioner HIV-positive verden over får antiretrovir-medicin i 2005.

Men både i Botswana og Swaziland er der mange myter og fordomme omkring HIV/AIDS. Få ved, at de er smittede, og mange tør ikke blive HIV-testet af frygt for at blive udstødt af familie og venner.

I begge lande har kvinder lav status, og Stephen Lewis benyttede sit besøg i Swaziland til at fastslå, at "kvinder skal have ret til at sige nej (til sex) og ret til at insistere på, at mænd bruger kondomer".

 

Mozambique: Kampen mod aids begynder på fabrikken

Fagbladet 3f 1 december 2007.
Af Peter Rasmussen, Fagbladet 3F

Den 1. december er det international aids-dag. I Mozambique underviser fagligt aktive tusinder af arbejdere i aids. Bernadette er med til at mindske den livsfarlige uvidenhed om hiv og aids.

- Der er ingen hiv-smittede her!

Produktionschefen på fabrikken Darling i Matola i Mozambique, smiler bredt. Han er ikke i tvivl, om at hans 500 ansatte hverken har hiv eller aids. De er alle blevet testet, forsikrer chefen overbevisende.

Problemet er, at han ikke aner, hvad han taler om.

- Vi er slet ikke blevet testet for hiv, siger 33-årige Bernadette Bernado og ryster stille på hovedet. Hun arbejder på virksomheden, som laver hårpynt.

Som om det ikke var nok, vil hendes chef isolere eventuelle hiv-smittede, så de arbejder for sig selv. Det betyder i realiteten en fyreseddel, da det er umuligt i samlebåndsarbejdet, fortæller hun.

Troede at aids smittede gennem snak

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Kort om Bernadette:
33 år - fabriksarbejder - gift med Manuel - 1 barn.
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Heldigvis ved de fleste ansatte mere om aids end deres chef. Bernadette er blevet uddannet til at undervise sine kolleger om hiv og aids gennem fagforeningens kvindekomité. Og indsatsen hjælper.

- Tidligere var der mange, der troede, at aids smittede, når man talte sammen, og at det var forbundet med heksekraft. Men jo mere vi taler om det, desto mere viden er der. Det er blevet godt modtaget, siger Bernadette.

Hun har selv epidemien helt inde på livet: Hendes søster har været aids-syg i to år.
- Jeg ved, at jeg skal miste hende. Men kurserne om aids gør det nemmere for mig at forstå og acceptere det og dermed nemmere at støtte hende, siger Bernadet, der bor i et fattigt arbejderkvarter uden for hovedstaden Maputo.

Åbenhed frem for alt
Hun glæder sig over, at mange af hendes kolleger får større viden om aids. Selv børn kender til kondomer i dag. Alligevel er sygdommen tabu, for mange smittede bliver udstødt af deres familie og på arbejdspladsen. Derfor fortæller de ikke engang de nærmeste om sygdommen.

- Jeg aner ikke, hvem af mine naboer der er hiv-smittede, og så er det svært at hjælpe. Derfor opfordrer jeg altid til åbenhed og tolerance, siger Bernadet.

Det er heller ikke lykkedes at sætte en stopper for mange mænds storforbrug af sexpartnere, der er med til at sprede sygdommen.

- Vi gør, hvad vi kan, for at aflive de mange myter, der stadig findes om aids, siger Bernadette og nævner en af de værste:

Myten om, at man bliver helbredt for aids, hvis man er sammen med en jomfru.