Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 11/8/2006

[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) -

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

CONTENT:

1 - ANGOLA-ZAMBIA: Refugees return home armed with the knowledge of HIV/AIDS

prevention

2 - ZIMBABWE: Undertakers report booming business

1 - ANGOLA-ZAMBIA: Refugees return home armed with the knowledge of HIV/AIDS

prevention

MAYUKWAYUKWA REFUGEE CAMP, 8 November (PLUSNEWS) - Four years after a ceasefire

ended decades of civil war in neighbouring Angola, Zambia is still home to more

than 25,000 Angolan refugees awaiting repatriation. Zambia's HIV/AIDS prevalence

rate is about 18 percent; in Angola it is around 4 percent. The challenge is how

to keep Angola's relative low rates of HIV/AIDS in check.

About 170,000 refugees have already gone home, some having fled the fighting in

the 1970s. They are returning to a country where war-induced isolation has

helped dampen HIV infection.

The situation poses an acute problem: Will peace and the reopening of the

country mean a jump in prevalence levels? The problem is aggravated by Angola's

low rates of knowledge about HIV/AIDS - what the disease is and how to avoid it.

In Zambia the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Christian

Outreach Relief and Development (CORD) have developed a wide range of programmes

aimed at educating Angolan refugees about the dangers of HIV/AIDS, which has

killed millions across southern Africa.

" When the refugees return to Angola they often face discrimination because the

locals assume they will be carrying HIV or other diseases, " said

Barnhart of IOM. " The refugees need to empower themselves and be able to talk

intelligently about the problem, and to overcome the fear they will encounter.

Beyond that, they should be in a position to pass on to fellow Angolans what

they have learned in Zambia. "

Delivering the safe sex message, wiping out the stigma and myths concerning

HIV/AIDS, are part of all activities at Mayukwayukwa camp.

Dozens of excited children gather in front of a television set as the sun sets

on this ramshackle camp in western Zambia, home to thousands of Angolan

refugees.

When the first feature of the evening flicks across the screen, the children

hush each other and fall silent. The cartoon shows a group of boys who want to

play football - but they don't have a ball. Refusing defeat, they collect

packages of condoms, roll them together and use that instead. When the condom

ball breaks, the game is definitely over.

It's hard to say whether the message is getting through, but the children laugh

and clap at the cartoon regardless. For many, the short film is their first,

gentle lesson in safe sex and the dangers of HIV/AIDS.

The training also encourages them to pass on their knowledge when they return

home to Angola, where they will be integral to rebuilding the communities they

were forced to abandon.

The younger refugees - both boys and girls - are encouraged to participate in a

football league, where safe sex and HIV/AIDS are discussed before and after

matches.

Farming skills taught by a Peace Corps volunteer are peppered with lessons in

nutrition and general health, while literacy training and health workshops help

build awareness of HIV and other diseases. For the sexually active, condoms are

readily available and freely distributed.

" All these programmes are designed to prevent the spread of HIV in the camp and

to educate those who are not infected, " said CORD spokesman Chola Musonda. " We

believe the messages about HIV will flow into the community here, and back into

Angola when they repatriate. If myths about the disease can pass from person to

person, why not the truth? "

When Lucas Savier, 43, and a married father of two, fled Angola for Zambia in

2000 he knew nothing about HIV, except that it was a disease that could kill. An

eager student at health classes run by the IOM at the Mayukwayukwa camp, he now

teaches others.

" Prevention is very important, you should not be doing unprotected sex, " Savier

said. " You should not use the same razorblades as other people, but AIDS can't

be caught from drinking from the same glass or from hugging somebody. It's crazy

what some people think. "

Although the IOM did not provide exact numbers, partly because testing is

voluntary, it said the level of HIV in the refugee camps was " extremely low " .

The crucible of the camp has provided a scenario where the poor and largely

uneducated can be taught how to avoid the disease.

" The refugees have dealt with the problem by acknowledging it, " said Barnhart.

" In the videos they watch others facing the problem and realise it is something

that should not be hidden because of shame. When they go back to Angola,

prevention will be the weapon they take with them. "

jh/go/he/oa

[ENDS]

2 - ZIMBABWE: Undertakers report booming business

HARARE, 8 November (PLUSNEWS) - One sector of Zimbabwe's depressed economy is

experiencing boom times. For those providing services for the dead, business is

very healthy.

An area on the western fringes of the central business district in the capital,

Harare, has been dubbed 'Death Valley' in recognition of the concentration of

businesses like undertakers, coffin manufacturers and funeral insurance

companies.

Although the capital has six registered funeral parlours, a further 21

unregistered parlours have sprouted up as a result of high demand for funeral

services. Attempts by the authorities to shut them down merely drove them

underground and they have reappeared as backyard businesses across the city.

According to the government's National AIDS Council, established to combat the

HIV/AIDS pandemic, at least 14,000 people die each month of AIDS-related

diseases. Analysts attribute the high death rate to low nutritional levels and

limited access to ARVs.

Humanitarian agencies say at least 1.3 million people are in need of food aid,

while UNAIDS estimates that one in five sexually active adults is infected with

HIV; 83 percent of the country's roughly 12 million people live on US$2 or less

a day.

Sebastian Chinaire, of the Grassroots Organisation for People Living with HIV

and AIDS, which advocates for the provision of ARVs to HIV-positive people, said

" We only have 30,000 people who are receiving ARVs, and yet there are as many as

600,000 people who need the live-saving drugs but we are unable to access them.

The government has stopped supplying us with food packs, which were good for

those on ARVs, but affected people cannot take the drugs on empty stomachs. We

need drugs and food. "

ph Chinemano, a manager at a 'death valley' funeral parlour, told IRIN that

their industry was probably the most profitable in Zimbabwe. " There are not too

many players in our kind of work, and with such a high death rate in Zimbabwe

.... we are assured of a steady supply of customers. "

The economic meltdown since President Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF government

embarked on its fast-track land reform policy six years ago, in which white

farmers' land was seized for redistribution to landless blacks, has taken annual

inflation to around 1,000 percent - the highest in the world - and unemployment

to over 70 percent, with chronic shortages of fuel, food, energy and medical

supplies.

Simba Chandada, who lost his job as a carpenter at a large furniture

manufacturing company in 2000, has now turned his hand to making coffins in

Mbare, a poor neighbourhood in Harare.

" The established coffin manufactures have a disadvantage in that they have fixed

prices for their products. I negotiate prices with my clients and can also

arrange terms for payment if they have no money to make an immediate payment, "

Chandada told IRIN.

The undertakers' booming trade is putting pressure on Harare's cemetaries.

Harare Housing and Community Services, a municipal department, said in a recent

report that the capital's cemeteries, already at 70 percent capacity, were

expected to be filled within the next 12 months. This has already occurred in

Mutare on the Mozambican border in Manicaland Province, where the two main

cemeteries are full, forcing residents to travel to the remaining burial ground

15km beyond the city limits.

Harare's authorities are considering other ways of disposing of bodies, although

cremation runs against traditional burial customs.

" Given the shortages of land for burials, the department of housing and

community services is considering the issue of cremation as an alternative and a

national debate will be initiated on the issue. There is a critical shortage of

burial space and the city is currently taking long-term measures to address the

problem and alternative land has been opened up, " the community services report

said.

Burials used to take place on weekdays but are now also conducted at weekends,

providing a lucrative market place to vendors, in defiance of bylaws forbidding

such practices in graveyards.

Tina Chikanga, a graveyard vendor and widowed mother of four, said, " There is a

big market of mourners who are prepared to buy fruit and cool drinks because of

the ... [heat]. I will continue to provide that kind of service as long as I do

not have a formal job. "

fd/go/he/oa

[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

[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) -

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

CONTENT:

1 - ANGOLA-ZAMBIA: Refugees return home armed with the knowledge of HIV/AIDS

prevention

2 - ZIMBABWE: Undertakers report booming business

1 - ANGOLA-ZAMBIA: Refugees return home armed with the knowledge of HIV/AIDS

prevention

MAYUKWAYUKWA REFUGEE CAMP, 8 November (PLUSNEWS) - Four years after a ceasefire

ended decades of civil war in neighbouring Angola, Zambia is still home to more

than 25,000 Angolan refugees awaiting repatriation. Zambia's HIV/AIDS prevalence

rate is about 18 percent; in Angola it is around 4 percent. The challenge is how

to keep Angola's relative low rates of HIV/AIDS in check.

About 170,000 refugees have already gone home, some having fled the fighting in

the 1970s. They are returning to a country where war-induced isolation has

helped dampen HIV infection.

The situation poses an acute problem: Will peace and the reopening of the

country mean a jump in prevalence levels? The problem is aggravated by Angola's

low rates of knowledge about HIV/AIDS - what the disease is and how to avoid it.

In Zambia the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Christian

Outreach Relief and Development (CORD) have developed a wide range of programmes

aimed at educating Angolan refugees about the dangers of HIV/AIDS, which has

killed millions across southern Africa.

" When the refugees return to Angola they often face discrimination because the

locals assume they will be carrying HIV or other diseases, " said

Barnhart of IOM. " The refugees need to empower themselves and be able to talk

intelligently about the problem, and to overcome the fear they will encounter.

Beyond that, they should be in a position to pass on to fellow Angolans what

they have learned in Zambia. "

Delivering the safe sex message, wiping out the stigma and myths concerning

HIV/AIDS, are part of all activities at Mayukwayukwa camp.

Dozens of excited children gather in front of a television set as the sun sets

on this ramshackle camp in western Zambia, home to thousands of Angolan

refugees.

When the first feature of the evening flicks across the screen, the children

hush each other and fall silent. The cartoon shows a group of boys who want to

play football - but they don't have a ball. Refusing defeat, they collect

packages of condoms, roll them together and use that instead. When the condom

ball breaks, the game is definitely over.

It's hard to say whether the message is getting through, but the children laugh

and clap at the cartoon regardless. For many, the short film is their first,

gentle lesson in safe sex and the dangers of HIV/AIDS.

The training also encourages them to pass on their knowledge when they return

home to Angola, where they will be integral to rebuilding the communities they

were forced to abandon.

The younger refugees - both boys and girls - are encouraged to participate in a

football league, where safe sex and HIV/AIDS are discussed before and after

matches.

Farming skills taught by a Peace Corps volunteer are peppered with lessons in

nutrition and general health, while literacy training and health workshops help

build awareness of HIV and other diseases. For the sexually active, condoms are

readily available and freely distributed.

" All these programmes are designed to prevent the spread of HIV in the camp and

to educate those who are not infected, " said CORD spokesman Chola Musonda. " We

believe the messages about HIV will flow into the community here, and back into

Angola when they repatriate. If myths about the disease can pass from person to

person, why not the truth? "

When Lucas Savier, 43, and a married father of two, fled Angola for Zambia in

2000 he knew nothing about HIV, except that it was a disease that could kill. An

eager student at health classes run by the IOM at the Mayukwayukwa camp, he now

teaches others.

" Prevention is very important, you should not be doing unprotected sex, " Savier

said. " You should not use the same razorblades as other people, but AIDS can't

be caught from drinking from the same glass or from hugging somebody. It's crazy

what some people think. "

Although the IOM did not provide exact numbers, partly because testing is

voluntary, it said the level of HIV in the refugee camps was " extremely low " .

The crucible of the camp has provided a scenario where the poor and largely

uneducated can be taught how to avoid the disease.

" The refugees have dealt with the problem by acknowledging it, " said Barnhart.

" In the videos they watch others facing the problem and realise it is something

that should not be hidden because of shame. When they go back to Angola,

prevention will be the weapon they take with them. "

jh/go/he/oa

[ENDS]

2 - ZIMBABWE: Undertakers report booming business

HARARE, 8 November (PLUSNEWS) - One sector of Zimbabwe's depressed economy is

experiencing boom times. For those providing services for the dead, business is

very healthy.

An area on the western fringes of the central business district in the capital,

Harare, has been dubbed 'Death Valley' in recognition of the concentration of

businesses like undertakers, coffin manufacturers and funeral insurance

companies.

Although the capital has six registered funeral parlours, a further 21

unregistered parlours have sprouted up as a result of high demand for funeral

services. Attempts by the authorities to shut them down merely drove them

underground and they have reappeared as backyard businesses across the city.

According to the government's National AIDS Council, established to combat the

HIV/AIDS pandemic, at least 14,000 people die each month of AIDS-related

diseases. Analysts attribute the high death rate to low nutritional levels and

limited access to ARVs.

Humanitarian agencies say at least 1.3 million people are in need of food aid,

while UNAIDS estimates that one in five sexually active adults is infected with

HIV; 83 percent of the country's roughly 12 million people live on US$2 or less

a day.

Sebastian Chinaire, of the Grassroots Organisation for People Living with HIV

and AIDS, which advocates for the provision of ARVs to HIV-positive people, said

" We only have 30,000 people who are receiving ARVs, and yet there are as many as

600,000 people who need the live-saving drugs but we are unable to access them.

The government has stopped supplying us with food packs, which were good for

those on ARVs, but affected people cannot take the drugs on empty stomachs. We

need drugs and food. "

ph Chinemano, a manager at a 'death valley' funeral parlour, told IRIN that

their industry was probably the most profitable in Zimbabwe. " There are not too

many players in our kind of work, and with such a high death rate in Zimbabwe

.... we are assured of a steady supply of customers. "

The economic meltdown since President Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF government

embarked on its fast-track land reform policy six years ago, in which white

farmers' land was seized for redistribution to landless blacks, has taken annual

inflation to around 1,000 percent - the highest in the world - and unemployment

to over 70 percent, with chronic shortages of fuel, food, energy and medical

supplies.

Simba Chandada, who lost his job as a carpenter at a large furniture

manufacturing company in 2000, has now turned his hand to making coffins in

Mbare, a poor neighbourhood in Harare.

" The established coffin manufactures have a disadvantage in that they have fixed

prices for their products. I negotiate prices with my clients and can also

arrange terms for payment if they have no money to make an immediate payment, "

Chandada told IRIN.

The undertakers' booming trade is putting pressure on Harare's cemetaries.

Harare Housing and Community Services, a municipal department, said in a recent

report that the capital's cemeteries, already at 70 percent capacity, were

expected to be filled within the next 12 months. This has already occurred in

Mutare on the Mozambican border in Manicaland Province, where the two main

cemeteries are full, forcing residents to travel to the remaining burial ground

15km beyond the city limits.

Harare's authorities are considering other ways of disposing of bodies, although

cremation runs against traditional burial customs.

" Given the shortages of land for burials, the department of housing and

community services is considering the issue of cremation as an alternative and a

national debate will be initiated on the issue. There is a critical shortage of

burial space and the city is currently taking long-term measures to address the

problem and alternative land has been opened up, " the community services report

said.

Burials used to take place on weekdays but are now also conducted at weekends,

providing a lucrative market place to vendors, in defiance of bylaws forbidding

such practices in graveyards.

Tina Chikanga, a graveyard vendor and widowed mother of four, said, " There is a

big market of mourners who are prepared to buy fruit and cool drinks because of

the ... [heat]. I will continue to provide that kind of service as long as I do

not have a formal job. "

fd/go/he/oa

[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