You are invited to light a virtual candle for someone who has been touched by HIV/AIDS. Visit http://www.candlelightmemorial.org/lightcandle to be a part of the fastest growing on-line AIDS Candlelight Memorial. The "On-Line AIDS Candlelight Memorial", which is part of the Global Health Council's International AIDS Candlelight Memorial Campaign, gives people from around the world the opportunity to join millions of others in remembering those who have been impacted by HIV/AIDS. Once you have lit your virtual candle, you will have the opportunity to join the world's largest grassroots AIDS event and register your community to be part of the "International AIDS Candlelight Memorial" on May 18, 2003. By organizing a Memorial for May 18, you will be lighting candles in solidarity with millions of other individuals in more than 90 countries around the world.
Governance and participation in health
To begin planning its program, the new Ethiopian Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Culture turned to an approach called participatory learning and action, or PLA. Officials involved young people throughout the country in a learning and planning process for the Ministry. The youth developed a national youth charter and a 3-year action plan to mobilize youth for improved sexual health and HIV/AIDS preventive behavior. Plus, the process led to the creation of a dynamic network of young people committed to the health and future of the country.
This paper produced by the Centre for Social Science Research (CSSR) at the University of Cape Town compares public opinion survey data from the Afrobarometer with epidemiological data about the HIV/AIDS pandemic in seven Southern African countries. The authors use this data to examine the degree to which people are aware of the pandemic, and are willing to speak about it. They also use it to examine whether it yields any palpable consequences of the disease in terms of public health. In turn, they also ask whether data on public awareness of AIDS deaths and individual health status corroborate, broadly, existing epidemiological data on HIV/AIDS. Finally, they examine the degree to which HIV/AIDS affects southern Africans' political priorities, political participation and expectations for government action.
Established in Sept 2001, this is a global movement that seeks to reduce the incidence of diseases like AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria among poor people. The campaign's goal is to advocate for and communicate best practices to stimulate social and political change. The campaign supports networks of existing organisations by providing strategic information, best practices, prototype messages, opportunities for collaboration and co-ordination. A website facilitates this exchange of information.
Africa Malaria Day on 25 April 2003 is nearing, marking three years since African leaders met in Abuja, Nigeria and promised to help fight malaria by dropping taxes on treated mosquito nets. Research and experience prove beyond any doubt that Insect Treated Nets (ITNs) save lives by preventing new malarial infections. Recognizing their life-saving potential, African leaders pledged to drop all taxes and tariffs on ITNs. But despite this, many countries have yet to drop the malaria tax. At the website below there are a range of resources for finding out more about malaria and the campaign to drop the taxes on mosquito nets, information about the campaign to pressure African leaders to comply and a list of countries who have kept their promise about the tax and those who haven't.
This is a handbook to help planners and implementors look at the effectiveness of their BCC interventions. Implementors can use the handbook to help them monitor, since the handbook can point out both strengths and potential weaknesses of an ongoing intervention. The handbook can also be used as a planning tool because it highlights important points for the design and development of effective BCC programming.
A Cape Town doctor has dramatically helped the fight against tuberculosis (TB) by introducing a SMS service to remind patients to take their medication. Dr. David Green, a consultant in Managed Care, Disease Management and Information Systems, became so frustrated when his mother constantly forgot to take her medication for hypertension, that he started sending her SMS reminders -- and it worked. It did not take him long to make the connection between the effectiveness that his SMS messages had on alerting his mother, the high incidence of TB in Cape Town, and the possibilities that bulk SMS messages could present.
This paper focuses on the socio-cultural context in which the enactment of 'high risk' youth sexual activity takes place. The author maintains that understanding youth sexual culture and the context of high-risk sexual activity will provide the basis upon which programmes aimed at promoting safer sex practices are designed. It is concluded that the future may quite literally depend on the extent to which the current culture/context in which young people are developing their ideas about sex, and enacting their sexuality, can be transformed.
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) says South Africa's responses to the impact of the disease on young people, are paying off. Releasing its latest report on the epidemic, the UNAIDS said HIV prevalence among teenagers in South Africa shrank between 1998 and 2001.
"In the next 24 hours, over 30,000 children will die from preventable diseases on our planet earth. Today, while the world is writing a collective obituary of the future generation, we know why they are dying and we know who are responsible for these deaths. We also know how these deaths can be stopped. We urge you to join 'The Million Signature Campaign', - a march demanding health for all."