Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 3/3/2003

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U N I T E D N A T I O N S

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Integrated Regional Information Network

CONTENT:

1 - BURUNDI: HIV/AIDS researcher praises action of local NGOs

2 - TANZANIA: US $781,220 to fight malaria via combination therapy in

Zanzibar

1 - BURUNDI: HIV/AIDS researcher praises action of local NGOs

BUJUMBURA, 26 February (PLUSNEWS) - An HIV/AIDS researcher for Save the

Children UK, Dr Vera Bensmann, has presented the findings and

recommendations of a nine-month study on the humanitarian response to the

pandemic in Burundi, the UN Office for the Coordination in Humanitarian

Affairs (OCHA) reported last week.

In her presentation, delivered on Monday to a 100-strong audience at the

National Institute for Public Health in the capital, Bujumbura, Bensmann

praised the response by the local NGOs.

" It is encouraging to see that national organisations are doing an amazing

job - organisations like Swaa-Burundi [society for Women Against AIDS IN

Africa] and FVS [Familles pour vaincre SIDA], " she said.

It was encouraging, she added, that most actors were aware, either in the

field or at headquarters level, of the humanitarian and developmental

importance of tackling the HIV/AIDS pandemic. " The question today, is what

form that response will take, " she said.

Most programmes, notably by international NGOs (INGOs), focused on

prevention issues.

" We can ill afford to ignore the needs of those people living with

HIV/AIDS, " she said. " We have to act, not only to prevent the spread of

the disease but also to ensure that those already infected remain in good

health. "

" Too often too many people die needlessly, " she said. " HIV/AIDS today is

not an automatic death sentence. Healthy carriers can live, support their

family and contribute to the productive economy for years, if not

decades. "

OCHA's spokesman in Burundi, McGowan, welcomed the publication of

the report and urged its broad dissemination. " We have directly linked the

report with our OCHA Burundi website, and hope that other HIV/AIDS actors

will benefit from this valuable research, " he said.

The National AIDS Council was established in Burundi in mid-2002. The

creation of this body represented an opportunity for the NGOs and INGOs to

work together to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Bensmann said.

The time had come for increased HIV/AIDS information sharing, information

dissemination and true programme collaboration among all the HIV/AIDS

actors. " All too often, many organisations replicate very similar studies,

neglect to share study results, or simply fail to coordinate a structured

response. This failure leads to scattered programming that lacks the

necessary structure that can provide an efficient and effective response

to HIV/AIDS, " she said.

Another common phenomenon among INGOs, she observed, was the extent to

which programmes were hurriedly designed, often with insufficient research

and analysis, but under pressure to ensure continuation of short-term

donor funding, or to avoid a funding gap which would otherwise leave the

programmes unfunded. " There is no substitute for thorough programme

planning underpinned by accurate needs assessments and analysis of the

situation and role played by other actors in the field, " Bensmann said.

She called on INGOs to use their expertise, share their experience, and

work in true collaboration with national NGOs and the government, through

the National AIDS Council, for the betterment of all Burundians,

particularly those living with, or affected by HIV/AIDS.

There are about 390,000 adults and children living with HIV/AIDS in

Burundi, OCHA said.

[OCHA's Burundi website is at http://www.reliefweb.int/ochaburundi/]

[ENDS]

2 - TANZANIA: US $781,220 to fight malaria via combination therapy in

Zanzibar

NAIROBI, 3 March (PLUSNEWS) - The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in

Zanzibar, Tanzania, signed a US $781,220 agreement last week with the

Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to introduce modern

anti-malaria drug treatments to the islands and train its doctors and

nurses.

Zanzibar, located off the coast of mainland Tanzania, is home to about one

million people. An estimated 6,000 children under five die from malaria

every year, and thousands of young women are at severe risk of malaria

during pregnancy due to physiological changes and weakened immune systems,

the Global Fund reported.

The Global Fund said that the radical shift from mono- to

combination-therapy of this initiative had been carefully designed and

prepared by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, in cooperation with

key international partners, such as the World Health Organisation, the UN

Children's Fund, and Population Services International, a US-based NGO

specialising in the social marketing of health-related products, including

malaria nets and condoms.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said it believed

that the impact and results of this initiative would manifest very quickly

in Zanzibar, thereby saving the lives of thousands of young children and

pregnant women.

For a fact sheet for this initiative, go to:

http://www.globalfundatm.org/journalists/fsheets/zanzibar.html

[ENDS]

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