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R792-million boost for KZN AIDS fight
Kerry Cullinan Independent on Saturday, 27 April 2002. Reprinted courtesy Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd
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KwaZulu-Natal's battle against HIV/AIDS has been given a massive $72 million (about R792 million) boost from the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria. The money will be used to fund a range of care-oriented services for those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.
These include expanding voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) treatment of opportunistic infections, managing HIV-positive TB patients, expanding home-based care, orphan care and the comprehensive provision of anti-retrovirals.
The biggest allocation has been earmarked for a private/public partnership with the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry and home-based care. Significant funds have also been approved to provide comprehensive care to HIV-infected patients in the public and private sector.
The services will be rolled out over five years under the guidance of an advisory board made up of key stakeholders in the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Department of Health, the private sector and community, non-governmental and religious organisations. Nationally, the Fund has also granted South Africa $93 million (more than R1 billion) for the treatment, care and support of people with TB and HIV, and prevention campaigns, according to the Global Fund.
KwaZulu-Natal's application to the Fund was driven by the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine's Enhancing Care Initiative (ECI) and HIV/AIDS Public Health Programme. The Enhancing Care Initative is a collaboration between the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine and the Department of Health - KZN, administered by the Harvard AIDS Institute in Boston, America. The Enhancing Care Initiative facilitated the formation of the provincial co-ordinating mechanism, which brought together the University, the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, various other organisations and the provincial Department of Health.
Professor Umesh Lalloo and Dr Robert Pawinski, drivers of this initiative, were ecstatic with the approval of funding, although neither man wanted to comment until a meeting with all stakeholders had taken place. However, it was highly unusual for the Fund to grant the money directly to the province rather than channel it through a national structure. According to Fund rules, priority will be given to proposals from country co-ordination mechanisms, or national "collaborative partnerships" between government, NGOs, people living with the three diseases and the private sector.
The government's head of HIV/AIDS Directorate, Dr Nono Simelela, expressed unhappiness that the Fund had given money directly to KZN rather than channelling it nationally. "KwaZulu-Natal wrote to the Fund to withdraw its application after 'in-principle' agreement to channel all applications to the Fund through the SA National AIDS Council (SANAC)," said Simelela, adding that the Minster of Health should take up the matter with the Fund.
However, Fund representative Dr Cristoph Benn said in a letter to NGOs that, in exceptional cases, organisations could apply directly to the Fund. These exceptions include cases where countries "suppress or have not established partnerships with NGOs". |
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