NAMIBIA Joins the League of Condom Producers in Africa

NAMIBIA: /HEALTH/RIGHTS/ /26/11/02 Sabanews

WINDHOEK – NAMIBIA is now the second African country after SOUTH AFRICA to start manufacturing condoms to reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS.

A Namibian-owned firm, Commodity Exchange, says it aims to make the condoms available at an affordable price, according to a report from Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency.

Sabina Maritz, the director of the company, says Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia have indicated interests to buy condoms directly from Commodity Exchange.

Currently the factory sells condoms in NAMIBIA at 12 US cents for a packet of three, says IPS.

Health workers say the only way to protect people from contracting HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases is through condom use.

The debate about the use of condom is a very sensitive one, especially in traditional African societies.

In NAMIBIA, for example, talking about sexuality or sexual intercourse is taboo, says IPS.

NAMIBIA is rated among the Sub-Saharan African countries with the highest HIV/AIDS infections. It has 230,000 HIV-positive people out of a population of 1.8 million. /Sabanews/an

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A Glimmer of Hope for AIDS Orphans in MOZAMBIQUE

MOZAMBIQUE - Ana Martinho is 15 years old. She is the eldest in a family of six. Her mother died in March, after a long illness.

Martinho says her mother had been ill for a long time. Reencontro, a non-governmental organisation helping orphans and people living with AIDS took her to hospital where she died.

The children’s father died in December 1999. If Reencontro hadn’t stepped in, the children would have had no support, says Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency.

Reencontro gives them food and clothing. And also pays their school fees.

There is an increase in the number of children who have lost their parents and who have no close relatives to look after them. MOZAMBIQUE will have an estimated 1 million AIDS orphans by 2010, it is estimated.

Reencontro chairperson, Doroteia Mbalane, told IPS her group is also looking after 500 AIDS orphans in Gaza province, where it has just set up an office. /Sabanews/an

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Anti-HIV/AIDS Efforts in BANGLADESH Follow Men to the Mosques

BANGLADESH: /RIGHTS/HEALTH/ /26/11/02 Sabanews

DHAKA – Risky social behaviour is a new subject at Friday sermons in mosques BANGLADESH.

Imam, Maulana Athikur Rahman, says he tells his congregation to never engage in sex with any woman other than your wife, an Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency report says.

He then explains to them how HIV is transmitted.

Athikur Rahman was roped into an HIV/AIDS training scheme six months ago.

The training was at the Imam Training Academy, an organ of the Islamic Foundation Bangladesh (IFB) run by the BANGLADESH government's ministry of religious affairs

Experts have stepped up efforts to raise awareness despite BANGLADESH’s very low level of HIV prevalence of 2 percent.

Imams command respect and credibility in their communities, says IPS. Athikur Rahman says his male-only congregation passes on information to their female kin . /Sabanews/an

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