R1,8bn award could turn tide against AIDS

The multi-billion dollar international Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has given a whopping R1,8-billion to South Africa - the biggest donation to any country.

Enhancing the effectiveness of partnerships

The government is seeking partnerships in business and among civil sectors to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Bongani Khumalo, strategic adviser for integrated sustainable rural development and HIV/AIDS in the Presidency, told a convention of the SA Institute of People Management in Johannesburg late last year [2001] that the HIV/AIDS pandemic is the most urgent strategic challenge facing South Africa.

A boost for AIDS research in South Africa

The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) has awarded two grants to Massachusetts General Hospital - totaling $3.75 million - to expand HIV/AIDS clinical research capacity within South Africa.

KZN Health Dept joins hands with natural health practitioners

In a first for KZN, the Department of Health demonstrated its support for complementary health therapies by attending the launch of the Glenwood Natural Health Centre on Friday 28 June 2002. KZN MEC for Health Dr Zweli Mkhize officially opened the Centre in a private ceremony earlier in the day, and his Deputy, Professor Steven Hendricks, addressed guests at an evening function. The Centre, which offers homeopathy, acupuncture, network chiropractic, reflexology and herbal remedies, is owned by leading alternative health practitioners, Doctors Colin La Grange and Cheryl Morris.

Gozololo Halfway House for AIDS orphans opened

Ms Miram Cele has dedicated most of her adult life to trying to keep children off the streets and away from danger. Her struggle, which started when she became involved with children traumatised and orphaned by the political violence in the late 80s and early 90s, continues today with the growing number of children left without parents because of AIDS. So it was like a dream come true for Cele, the winner of the Martin Luther King prize, when the Gozololo Halfway House project for AIDS orphans was opened in KwaMashu recently.

ARV treatment can work in poor communities

Two pilot anti-retroviral (ARV) programmes, underway in South Africa and Uganda, have demonstrated that AIDS treatment campaigns are possible in poor communities. What's missing to scale-up these initiatives into national programmes is funding and the political will, healthcare workers say.

Graca packs a 'punch' in Barcelona

"You worked together to end apartheid. Do the same to conquer AIDS." That is the message from Mozambican activist Graca Machel to world leaders at the 14th International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Spain.

Folktales to address modern problems

The African folklore tradition is being revived in Swaziland to communicate difficult contemporary problems like AIDS and child abuse.

International Partnership Against AIDS In Africa

The International Partnership Against AIDS in Africa (IPAA) is a coalition of actors who have chosen to work together to achieve the shared vision of significantly scaling up efforts in Africa to curtail the spread of HIV, reduce its impact and halt the further reversal of human, social and economic development. The actors of the Partnership are: African governments; co-sponsors of UNAIDS; donors; the private sector including labour, and the community sector. (See www.unaids.org/africapartnership/whatis.html)

Organisation of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS

Taking an historic step in mobilizing to fight the AIDS epidemic in Africa, first ladies from throughout Africa have created the "Organisation of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS."