HEALTH-SWAZILAND: NGOs Spearheading the Fight Against AIDS

By James Hall Reprint | | Print |

James Hall

MBABANE, Jul 19 2002 (IPS) - Non-government organisations in the health sector are spearheading the fight against AIDS in one of the worst affected nations in the world.

“Government is doing nothing, she doesn’t even have an AIDS policy, so we must step in to save lives and bring comfort to the afflicted,” says Hannie Dlamini, president of the Swaziland AIDS Support Organisation.

King Mswati declared AIDS a National Disaster in 1999. But the health ministry has not responded with emergency programmes, and prefers to delegate the job of handling AIDS to NGOs.

Most health organisations estimate that one third of Swaziland’s adult population is HIV positive. However, at the Matsapha Industrial Estate and other business centres, companies are reporting up to half their workforce is suffering from the effects of HIV or AIDS.

Some 30,000 children will be orphaned annually when their parents succumb to AIDS, estimates the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Despite new foreign direct investment in the kingdom, economic growth dropped again last year, as trained and skilled workers disappear from management positions and the factory floor.

Further eroding the economic picture, the retail and banking sectors are suffering as AIDS prevents people from earning an income to make monthly account payments, purchase new items or service loans.

“AIDS is creating an economic and social domino effect, with no end in sight,” says Kobla Qwashe, a business consultant in Manzini, the commercial capital of Swaziland. Qwashe shocked the nation by reporting that in the near future Swaziland will have to import labour from neighbouring countries to replace ailing Swazi employees.

“Government has striven to attract foreign direct investment into the country to create jobs and lower unemployment. Grotesquely, it is AIDS that is taking care of unemployment rate, as fewer adult Swazis exist to be employed, and we face a labour shortage,” wrote the Times of Swaziland in a comment.

The grim drumbeat of rising AIDS statistics has apparently paralysed the health ministry, which in the opinion of some critics is all talk and no action when it comes to AIDS.

“You want to know about AIDS, talk to the Swaziland National AIDS Programme,” health ministry principal secretary Sandile Ndzimiso dismissed a reporter who sought information about the ministry’s AIDS policy.

For the third time this year, Swaziland has lost out on millions of emalangeni in free drugs to treat AIDS patients and prevent HIV transmission. This month, U.S. President George W. Bush announced the American government would give a whopping E5 billion (500 million U.S. dollars) in assistance to African countries to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the HIV virus that leads to AIDS. The anti-retroviral drug nevirapine will be given to mothers.

President Bush said the aid would go to Swaziland’s neighbours, South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana and Namibia. Swaziland is not included on the list of countries to receive assistance. This is because Minister Dlamini has said anti-retroviral pose risks and that they have dangerous side effects.

The minister told the government television station, Swazi-TV, that the nation requires “testing centres” to do its own evaluations of pharmaceuticals.

The minister’s critics say the cost and expertise of such facilities are beyond the small nation’s capabilities. And that Swaziland’s own worries about anti-retroviral drugs have no scientific basis according to current research.

Studies made over a year ago by the United Nations showed that the drugs’ side effects are minimal, such as nausea, and were well worth any inconvenience because the drugs save the lives of babies born from mothers who are HIV positive.

Last year, Swaziland lost out on E4 million (400,000 U.S. dollars) in medical assistance from UNICEF because of the health minister’s objections.

Swaziland is also losing out on big AIDS assistance money from computer billionaire Bill Gates. Gates has set up a foundation to stop babies from being infected by their HIV-positive mothers, and to keep HIV-positive parents healthy. The health ministry has refused to apply for assistance from the Gates Foundation.

This lack of action has convinced public health groups of the need to become more proactive in the AIDS crisis.

“We have no choice but to take up the job ourselves,” says Hannie Dlamini of the Swaziland AIDS Support Organisation, which counsels people who are HIV positive or live with AIDS. “We have a programme like government should have set up, but never did – education, testing, counselling, nutritional advice and some medication.”

Dlamini says his group emphasises healthy living, including a well-balanced diet and exercise, instead of a reliance on drugs, which are expensive and hard to come by in Swaziland.

The AIDS Support Centre in Manzini has increased its own education and counselling activities, and is spreading awareness of AIDS prevention into the furthest rural reaches of the kingdom.

UNICEF is launching a campaign with Swazi churches to safeguard children from abuse and other dangers, which for sexually active secondary school children includes the risk of HIV.

Officials with the national police force, correctional services and army have expressed awareness that Swaziland’s police personnel, prison workers and soldiers are at high risk of contracting HIV, and programmes are in development to bring them the AIDS prevention message.

The Federation of Swaziland Employers is distributing AIDS information books to every business in the kingdom that requests them for their workers. As industries find their workforce decimated by AIDS, managers have requested educational aides from the federation.

“We have had requests come to us from trucking companies, manufacturers, and agricultural plantations that hire itinerate seasonal workers,” says Musa Hlope, secretary general of the employers’ federation.

“Even if there is no coordinated national effort, enough NGOs and other groups are attacking the AIDS problem that we can expect some impact on the disease’s spread,” says Agnes Kunene, a nurse in Manzini.