Reaching Young People to Beat AIDS Pandemic in BOTSWANA

BOTSWANA: /RIGHTS/HEALTH/ /13/09/02 Sabanews

GABORONE – Reaching for the young is BOTSWANA's best hope to beat the AIDS pandemic, reports Inter Press Service (IPS).

Half of BOTSWANA's people are poor. Jobs are scarce. IPS says for many girls, sex is the only way to acquire goods.

Half of all teenage girls get pregnant in BOTSWANA. Why? To show parents they are grown-up, to prove their fertility, to catch a husband, to have a baby to love. Boys impregnate girls to show their manhood.

The United Nations Foundation (UNF) is sponsoring a 1.8-million-U.S.-dollar AIDS awareness project in poor townships of BOTSWANA’s capital, Gaborone.

The Urban Youth Project will run for three years, according to the IPS report. It will reach young people at risk, such as sex workers, street children, orphans and unemployed youth.

Irene Maina, of UNAIDS says the target group is 15-20 year olds in the poor areas. Activists hope to boost young people’s self esteem and convince them to live healthier lives and say no to unsafe sex. /Sabanews/an

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ANGOLA’S Rich Fly to Lisbon, or Sao Paulo to Get Quality AIDS Care

ANGOLA: /HEALTH/RIGHTS/ /13/09/02 Sabanews

LUANDA – If you are poor and HIV-positive in ANGOLA your only hope of treatment is to win a government lottery.

An Inter Press Service (IPS) report says the Junta Nacional de Saude (National Health Board) has a scheme that pays for the treatment abroad of patients with HIV/AIDS, cancer, heart and other serious conditions.

Thousands apply. Only a handful are chosen. The well connected get chosen first. It is the lucky ones among the poor who win a ticket to health, according to IPS.

The government system is unfair and unsustainable.

For an AIDS patient in ANGOLA, each trip costs at least 5,000 U.S. dollars. It must be repeated three times a year for control and adjustment of medication.

When trips are delayed, and this often happens, treatment is compromised. New resistant viral strains can appear if the regime is not followed carefully.

IPS interviewed health experts who point out that with that money, ANGOLA could set up a pilot project to treat 1,500 people -- far more than the Junta flies to SOUTH AFRICA. If successful, the scheme could be expanded and replicated. /Sabanews/an

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