Southern African NGOs seize the initiative.
1990; National Institutes of Health; Issue: 12 Linguagem: Inglês
Autores Tópico(s)
HIV/AIDS Impact and Responses
ResumoThe Southern African Network of AIDS Service Organizations (SANASO) was begun at a conference in Harare, Zimbabwe in May 1990, marking the 1st local unification of Non-Governmental agencies in AIDS prevention and care. This region has about 20% of Africa's reported AIDS cases, but has seen an 8-fold increase in 2 years. The goals of the organization are to facilitate sharing of information, ideas and experiences, to promote cooperation among the NGOs, to move toward common positions on AIDS and to articulate to the rest of the world the needs of the region as regards AIDS. While the incidence ranges from 6/million in Lesotho, to 906/million in Malawi, the countries represented have varied but pressing political and economic situations making HIV infection a serious threat. Examples are economic contraction with reduced funding of health and education; rapid urbanization; wars in Angola and Mozambique, with associated sexual abuse, refugees and displaced people; and in South Africa Apartheid, unemployment, forced relocation, violence and even suspicion of the government's AIDS program. Discussions on how the NGOs in particular can help change peoples' behavior resulted in the suggestion that they involve People With AIDS (PWA), to give the disease "a face" and lessen fear and alienation. The best example of such a successful approach is the home-based care instituted by Zambia's Chikankata Salvation Army Mission Hospital.
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