Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 8/2/2005

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CONTENT:

1 - NAMIBIA: Consultations on national HIV/AIDS policy begin

1 - NAMIBIA: Consultations on national HIV/AIDS policy begin

WINDHOEK, 2 August (PLUSNEWS) - The Namibian government is drafting its first

national policy on HIV/AIDS and hopes to complete it by World AIDS Day on 1

December.

At the behest of the government a draft policy was compiled by the AIDS law unit

of the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC), an NGO, and discussed last week at a

series of workshops with stakeholders from the legal, social and community

sectors.

" The ministry of health and social services leads the process and the LAC was

tasked to write the first draft, " explained Delme Cupido of the LAC AIDS law

unit. " During those five workshops we introduced the broad outlines of the draft

and discussed possible additions, amendments and issues that need to be

included. "

This will be the country's first national AIDS policy, although " there have been

national strategic plans on HIV/AIDS in place " , said Rianne Selle, national

coordinator of the government's official AIDS awareness campaigns.

" The third medium-term plan was implemented in 2004 and will take us to 2009, "

she told PlusNews.

The 30-page draft policy deals with prevention and the treatment, care and

support of people living with HIV/AIDS, creating an enabling environment, impact

mitigation, managing and monitoring the disease.

" An effective institutional framework for the national HIV/AIDS response

requires a multisectoral approach, " the document noted. " This includes

partnerships between government and relevant stakeholders ... the private

sector, community-based and nongovernmental organisations, trade unions, the

churches and people living with HIV/AIDS. "

The government planned to allocate " at least two percent of the national budget "

for HIV/AIDS related activities, and also wants local authorities to allocate

two percent of their annual budgets " for mainstreaming HIV/AIDS activities into

their core business and services " .

Auriol Ashby, a development consultant who acted as a workshop facilitator last

week, said the input was " extremely valuable " .

One major point of debate was how to ensure that the proposed monthly grants for

orphans actually reached them.

" Participants recommended that this grant should be paid out along with the

monthly government pensions, " Ashby said. An alternative would be to increase

the pensions.

" Their rationale is that those monthly payouts are done via a reliable and

well-established system; the grim truth is that more and more pensioners look

after their grandchildren, " Ashby explained.

Helga Huses, who is HIV-positive, runs a self-help project called Family Hope

Sanctuary in the Katutura township on the western outskirts of Windhoek, the

capital.

She was one of the first people in the country to receive antiretroviral (ARV)

therapy and told IRIN she now felt like " a different person, and have regained

my energy " .

Huses's community-based organisation - established in 2004 with 82 members, only

four of them men - runs a soup kitchen in her neighbourhood and provides

home-based care.

In a nearby community hall the Family Hope Sanctuary also runs a school for

youngsters who have never attended one. " We have gathered 40 children here in

the neighbourhood between the ages of seven and fifteen and teach them reading,

writing and arithmetic, " said Huses.

Food for the soup kitchen is donated by various butcheries, dairy companies and

shops in the central business district of Windhoek, but it is never enough. A

small grant from UNAIDS, received a few weeks ago, has helped Huses to cover

some of the costs of her organisation.

" Food security is important - if you take your ARV pills on an empty stomach,

you get an upset stomach and that weakens your system, " she noted.

At last week's workshop, Huses disclosed that five members of her organisation

had died because of a lack of food. " They got weaker and the disease took its

toll, " she said.

" It is all well and good to have a policy in future, but basic things like a

meal every day - in other words food security here in the townships - must

become part of the overall effort to combat AIDS, " Huses stressed.

Namibia's ARV rollout campaign has been praised for meeting its targets.

In the UN Secretary General's report to the General Assembly meeting on HIV/AIDS

in June 2005, Namibia was mentioned as one of only three African countries where

more than 25 percent of those eligible for treatment were actually receiving it.

The other two were Uganda, where the ARV rollout is in its seventh year, and

Botswana, now in its fourth year of providing anti-AIDS drugs.

Namibia started its rollout in August 2003. " By June this year there were

already 17,000 patients on treatment in Namibia; this is the total for both the

public and private sector, " said Dr Norman , undersecretary in the

ministry of health.

The estimated number of Namibians in need of treatment stands at around 56,000.

Over the next two months, consultations on the draft HIV/AIDS policy will be

held in all 13 regions of the country. " The final version will be submitted to

cabinet and we hope to launch the official document on World AIDS Day, which is

1 December, " said Ashby.

Financial assistance for Namibia's AIDS policy process is being provided by the

European Union and the German agency for technical cooperation, GTZ.

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