Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 7/19/2006

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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 (IRIN) - 1995-2005 ten years serving the

humanitarian community

[These reports do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

CONTENT:

1 - ZAMBIA: Recovering Copperbelt faces new dangers

1 - ZAMBIA: Recovering Copperbelt faces new dangers

NDOLA, 19 July (PLUSNEWS) - After a decade of unemployment, Zambia's Copperbelt

region is recovering thanks to surging world copper prices. But, with among the

worst HIV infection rates in the country, the legacy of the recession will be

felt for many years to come.

Copper and cobalt have generated Zambia's wealth for over 70 years, with a

string of major towns growing up around the mines. But privatisation of the

industry in the 1990s, triggered by low world prices and a broke government, led

to huge job losses and falling living standards in the highly urbanised central

province.

Poverty, sex work, and inevitably HIV/AIDS are closely interrelated. For widows

like Joyce Mutale, still waiting for benefits owed after the death of her

husband on the mines in 1999, sex work is something she has had to come to terms

with - her youngest sister is on the streets.

As heart-breaking as the experience has been, " it would be hypocritical for me

to turn a blind eye to our present suffering and tell my younger sister to quit

commercial sex - she is the one supporting us. Maybe I can discourage her once I

get my late husband's termination benefits, " said Mutale.

" I know there is HIV and it is real because we have seen many of our colleagues

- even fellow widows - dying, but I always encourage my sister to insist on

condoms ... There is nothing much else I can do to change things at the moment. "

Three Copperbelt towns - Ndola, Kitwe and Chingola - have the country's highest

HIV infection rate at 26.6 percent. Prevalence is 22 percent in the capital,

Lusaka, and the national average 16 percent.

" The HIV pandemic has given birth to many orphans and vulnerable children in the

mining towns who are now turning into street kids [who are vulnerable to

exploitation], " said Nkhuwa, HIV/AIDS specialist for the development

agency Care International.

Formal employment in the mining sector was in decline for most of the 1990s, and

dropped to an all time low of 34,966 in 2001. But with record metal prices,

investors are returning to the Copperbelt. According to mines minister Kalombo

Mwansa, jobs recovered to 51,000 in January this year.

Although the new, often casual jobs don't include the perks and benefits

provided by the former state mining company, broken up and finally privatised in

2000, they are putting some money back in people's pockets, and companies that

service the mines back in business.

The irony is that the new economic confidence means the sex industry is also

booming.

" I don't regret having left Livingstone [Zambia's tourism capital] because I am

making more bucks out here, " said 32-year-old phine Chanda, who relocated to

Ndola in March from the southern province with her two children. " Just now the

Copperbelt is the place to be for every serious commercial sex provider. "

Working the bars of the mining town Chanda claims she makes over US$50 a night;

a civil servant on average earns about $210 a month. " Sometimes we are beaten by

clients when we insist on using a condom and they force us to have live

[unprotected] sex for which we charge a little more, " said Chanda.

" The increase in commercial sexual activities on the Copperbelt is our major

concern - it is likely to worsen the HIV/AIDS scenario of the mining towns

because HIV thrives where there are heightened sexual activities, " said Henry

Loongo of the Copperbelt AIDS Task Force.

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Subscriber: AIDS treatments

[Guest guest]

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

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) - 1995-2005 ten years serving the

humanitarian community

[These reports do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

CONTENT:

1 - ZAMBIA: Recovering Copperbelt faces new dangers

1 - ZAMBIA: Recovering Copperbelt faces new dangers

NDOLA, 19 July (PLUSNEWS) - After a decade of unemployment, Zambia's Copperbelt

region is recovering thanks to surging world copper prices. But, with among the

worst HIV infection rates in the country, the legacy of the recession will be

felt for many years to come.

Copper and cobalt have generated Zambia's wealth for over 70 years, with a

string of major towns growing up around the mines. But privatisation of the

industry in the 1990s, triggered by low world prices and a broke government, led

to huge job losses and falling living standards in the highly urbanised central

province.

Poverty, sex work, and inevitably HIV/AIDS are closely interrelated. For widows

like Joyce Mutale, still waiting for benefits owed after the death of her

husband on the mines in 1999, sex work is something she has had to come to terms

with - her youngest sister is on the streets.

As heart-breaking as the experience has been, " it would be hypocritical for me

to turn a blind eye to our present suffering and tell my younger sister to quit

commercial sex - she is the one supporting us. Maybe I can discourage her once I

get my late husband's termination benefits, " said Mutale.

" I know there is HIV and it is real because we have seen many of our colleagues

- even fellow widows - dying, but I always encourage my sister to insist on

condoms ... There is nothing much else I can do to change things at the moment. "

Three Copperbelt towns - Ndola, Kitwe and Chingola - have the country's highest

HIV infection rate at 26.6 percent. Prevalence is 22 percent in the capital,

Lusaka, and the national average 16 percent.

" The HIV pandemic has given birth to many orphans and vulnerable children in the

mining towns who are now turning into street kids [who are vulnerable to

exploitation], " said Nkhuwa, HIV/AIDS specialist for the development

agency Care International.

Formal employment in the mining sector was in decline for most of the 1990s, and

dropped to an all time low of 34,966 in 2001. But with record metal prices,

investors are returning to the Copperbelt. According to mines minister Kalombo

Mwansa, jobs recovered to 51,000 in January this year.

Although the new, often casual jobs don't include the perks and benefits

provided by the former state mining company, broken up and finally privatised in

2000, they are putting some money back in people's pockets, and companies that

service the mines back in business.

The irony is that the new economic confidence means the sex industry is also

booming.

" I don't regret having left Livingstone [Zambia's tourism capital] because I am

making more bucks out here, " said 32-year-old phine Chanda, who relocated to

Ndola in March from the southern province with her two children. " Just now the

Copperbelt is the place to be for every serious commercial sex provider. "

Working the bars of the mining town Chanda claims she makes over US$50 a night;

a civil servant on average earns about $210 a month. " Sometimes we are beaten by

clients when we insist on using a condom and they force us to have live

[unprotected] sex for which we charge a little more, " said Chanda.

" The increase in commercial sexual activities on the Copperbelt is our major

concern - it is likely to worsen the HIV/AIDS scenario of the mining towns

because HIV thrives where there are heightened sexual activities, " said Henry

Loongo of the Copperbelt AIDS Task Force.

[ENDS]

This is non-reply e-mail. Please do not hesitate to contact us at

Mail@....

Principal donors: IRIN is generously supported by Australia, Canada, Denmark,

ECHO, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and

the United States of America. For more information, go to:

http://www.IRINnews.org/donors

[This item comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information

service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its

agencies. All IRIN material may be reposted or reprinted free-of-charge; refer

to the copyright page (Http://www.irinnews.org/copyright ) for conditions of

use. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian

Affairs.]

PLUSNEWS

Tel: +27 11 895-1900

Fax: +27 11 784-6759

Email: Mail@...

To make changes to or cancel your subscription visit:

http://www.irinnews.org/subscriptions

Subscriber: AIDS treatments