|
|
 |
AIDS activists stage Black Christmas hunger strike
Joonji Mdyogolo Page 2, The Star, 30 Dece 2002. Republished courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd
|
Johannesburg: For days, activists have been shivering and going hungry outside the offices of a drug company to fight discrimination against HIV-positive people. "We've tried picketing, demonstrating and negotiating and it has all fallen on deaf ears," said Joe Manciya, media officer for the National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS (NAPWA.
Manciya said about 100 NAPWA members had decided at a national meeting on Christmas Eve to stage a "Black Christmas", a week-long hunger strike and picket, while they reviewed the outcome of their campaigns throughout the year. Since Christmas night, 15 NAPWA members have camped outside the Midrand offices of drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline, drinking only water collected from a service station.
Manciya admitted that the campaign had not been easy physically on the volunteers, the youngest of whom is 19. Hunger striker Geoffrey Jewell, 51, who works at the NAPWA head office, said he had been living with HIV for 22 years. He no longer took drugs, apart from the occasional aspirin because the medicine was so expensive. "My reason for being here is so that companies, like GlaxoSmithKline, will reduce their prices so they can be accessible to everyone," said Jewell.
Another hunger striker, Elsie Bogatswe, 41, said although she had felt faint and sick she would not give up. Bogatswe, who has been living with the disease for 14 years, said: "I am doing this mostly for people who can't come here. I am representing all the people who are sick in hospital," she said.
According to a NAPWA memorandum, the objectives of the hunger strike are to compel the government:
- To pass legislation that will force financial institutions to stop discriminating against people living with HIV/AIDS;
- To formulate legislation that will force makers of HIV/AIDS drugs to do away with patenting rights.
GlaxoSmithKline has, according to Manciya, not yet responded to its memorandum.
But Vicki Ehrich, Director of Corporate Affairs at GlaxoSmithKline, said she was surprised by the the hunger strike and the picket. Ehrich said she met with NAPWA members on Christmas Eve, when they submitted the memorandum to her. "We had a very amicable interchange. They stated their position, I gave them my business card and we agreed that I would respond in January and they dispersed," she said.
|
| Was this article helpful to you? |
 ?0%???? ?0%
|
|
Back
|
|
|
|
