Sunday, December 19, 2010
Friday, December 17, 2010
CARE Canada - Becoming an Agent of Change!
Impoverished women confront humanity's most severe hardships, day in and day out. Help empower women and girls around the world.
For $1 a day, this fund empowers a woman or girl to succeed. Learn more at http://www.care.ca/
For $1 a day, this fund empowers a woman or girl to succeed. Learn more at http://www.care.ca/
Sunday, December 5, 2010
WikiLeaks just made the world more repressive - The Globe and Mail
WikiLeaks just made the world more repressive - The Globe and Mail: "This latest Wikileaks release continues the spineless, voyeuristic and manipulative behaviour of someone unwilling to take responsibility for the 2nd and 3rd orders of consequences of this action. You bet, there will be increased security issues - for aid workers, citizens, diplomats, reporters, allied military in theatre, and more. Furthermore, 'questioning' democracies, either formally mentioned in the reports, or watching on the periphery, will clamp down on human rights. Canadians have a lot at stake in Afghanistan, and in other messy parts of the world, much of which involves human lives on the ground. Who is going to benefit from the release of this information? Taxpayers? Military dictatorships? Hollywood screenwriters? Bored bloggers?"
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
HIV/AIDS in South Africa - Putting the Community in Charge
In honour of World AIDS Day, this essay focuses on MDG #6 [Combat HIV/AIDS] with a story about people living in rural South Africa. South Africa is regarded as having the most severe HIV epidemic in the world (UNAIDS, 2010). After 30 years of fighting this relentless pandemic, women in South Africa, 55 per cent of whom are living with HIV/AIDS, still do not have the same levels of medical treatment, public health policy and social supports as their counterparts in other parts of the world, suffering from the affects of a similar pandemic. More often than not, women living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa bear additional burdens to their own illness. Due to the prevalence of the virus, most are also caring for the sick in their communities, and they are sheltering their sisters’ orphans and their dead brother’s young wife and baby. The disease continues to run rampantly and has devastating socio-economic consequences, i.e. sick women earn less money, sick women cultivate less food, less children go to school, and no one has savings (Nolen, 2008).
Canada’s fearless, eloquent and unstoppable human rights crusader and former United Nations envoy on AIDS in Africa, Stephen Lewis, calls the ongoing HIV/AIDS crisis the “most difficult and damaging pandemic we’ve ever experienced” (Mahoney, 2010). The hardship for infected women and their families begins long before they die. Social stigma and self-denial, related to suspected infection, cause many women to delay or refuse testing. When positively diagnosed, fear and despair soon follow because of poor-quality counseling and lack of social support. Again, poverty plays a role in terms of impact and complications because it prevents many infected women from finding adequate nutrition and prevention measures (Avert, 2010). In rural South Africa it is difficult to access health clinics and yet, once discovered, waiting lists for antiretroviral (ARVs) treatments and meeting the eligibility criteria for ARVs mean that many become seriously ill before accessing treatment. Yet, it is community-based care that is being touted as the best option since it would be impossible to care for hundreds of thousands of people dying from AIDS in public hospitals (Avert, 2010).
One such community-based development organization is St. John South Africa. This 1000 year, humanitarian organization offers a network of medical professionals, program development specialists, and instructors who provide health and safety training, HIV/AIDS awareness sessions, as well as, first aid and home care training to more than 39,000 South Africans each year (St. Joh, 2010).
In addition to classroom training and community-based delivery of care, St. John also participates in a very innovative concept of rural care for poor, sick people living in the farthest reaches of South Africa. Since 1993, The Phelophepa Health Care Train (pronounced pay – low- pee – pa) has traveled more than 100,000 miles on South African rail tracks, to the most remote rural communities possible, to bring primary health care to communities that otherwise have no access to modern medicine (a compelling 23 minute video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn_1MUed06o). A combination of 19 staff and 36 volunteer medical students work on the train and currently see about 45,000 patients per year – a total, so far, of more than 500,000 patients (St. John, 2010).
I had the privilege of reporting on the funding progress and success stories of the Phelophepa Miracle Train for five years, as the Canadian communications officer for St. John Ambulance Canada. It was this kind of community-based care and compassion which spurred my desire to learn more about the fundamentals of international community development. It seems that much of the success of community-based programs, such as the Phelophepa train visits, are based on bringing professional care and training to the poor at their level, empowering the patients with preventative measures, teaching them basic health and first aid skills, engaging their leaders, and being honest and respectful with them. Many of the patients and visitors are orphaned children and youth, or are primary caregivers for their HIV/AIDS – afflicted mothers. These are brave young people who are able to provide comfort and basic personal care for their ailing family members in some of the most difficult conditions.
This learning unit has broadened my understanding of women’s issues by underscoring the interrelationship of the MDGs. We cannot simply focus on one goal in isolation from the other seven. Furthermore, I believe that as the collection of national and international statistics, indicators, and sex-disaggregated data improve; as MDGs make greater gains; and, as governments, military and non-governmental organizations work more collaboratively and demonstrate greater accountability of investments into developmental initiatives, only then will we begin to see gender equity or at least greater gender equality.
Finally, as a community development worker, I will be ever-mindful and respectful of the many complex challenges, risks and unimaginable burdens which women, children and families bear.
St. John South Africa
The Vision of Africa The Phelophepa Health Care Train http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sC2wK-LTJQ. Retrieved November 30, 2010.
Canada’s fearless, eloquent and unstoppable human rights crusader and former United Nations envoy on AIDS in Africa, Stephen Lewis, calls the ongoing HIV/AIDS crisis the “most difficult and damaging pandemic we’ve ever experienced” (Mahoney, 2010). The hardship for infected women and their families begins long before they die. Social stigma and self-denial, related to suspected infection, cause many women to delay or refuse testing. When positively diagnosed, fear and despair soon follow because of poor-quality counseling and lack of social support. Again, poverty plays a role in terms of impact and complications because it prevents many infected women from finding adequate nutrition and prevention measures (Avert, 2010). In rural South Africa it is difficult to access health clinics and yet, once discovered, waiting lists for antiretroviral (ARVs) treatments and meeting the eligibility criteria for ARVs mean that many become seriously ill before accessing treatment. Yet, it is community-based care that is being touted as the best option since it would be impossible to care for hundreds of thousands of people dying from AIDS in public hospitals (Avert, 2010).
One such community-based development organization is St. John South Africa. This 1000 year, humanitarian organization offers a network of medical professionals, program development specialists, and instructors who provide health and safety training, HIV/AIDS awareness sessions, as well as, first aid and home care training to more than 39,000 South Africans each year (St. Joh, 2010).
In addition to classroom training and community-based delivery of care, St. John also participates in a very innovative concept of rural care for poor, sick people living in the farthest reaches of South Africa. Since 1993, The Phelophepa Health Care Train (pronounced pay – low- pee – pa) has traveled more than 100,000 miles on South African rail tracks, to the most remote rural communities possible, to bring primary health care to communities that otherwise have no access to modern medicine (a compelling 23 minute video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn_1MUed06o). A combination of 19 staff and 36 volunteer medical students work on the train and currently see about 45,000 patients per year – a total, so far, of more than 500,000 patients (St. John, 2010).
I had the privilege of reporting on the funding progress and success stories of the Phelophepa Miracle Train for five years, as the Canadian communications officer for St. John Ambulance Canada. It was this kind of community-based care and compassion which spurred my desire to learn more about the fundamentals of international community development. It seems that much of the success of community-based programs, such as the Phelophepa train visits, are based on bringing professional care and training to the poor at their level, empowering the patients with preventative measures, teaching them basic health and first aid skills, engaging their leaders, and being honest and respectful with them. Many of the patients and visitors are orphaned children and youth, or are primary caregivers for their HIV/AIDS – afflicted mothers. These are brave young people who are able to provide comfort and basic personal care for their ailing family members in some of the most difficult conditions.
This learning unit has broadened my understanding of women’s issues by underscoring the interrelationship of the MDGs. We cannot simply focus on one goal in isolation from the other seven. Furthermore, I believe that as the collection of national and international statistics, indicators, and sex-disaggregated data improve; as MDGs make greater gains; and, as governments, military and non-governmental organizations work more collaboratively and demonstrate greater accountability of investments into developmental initiatives, only then will we begin to see gender equity or at least greater gender equality.
Finally, as a community development worker, I will be ever-mindful and respectful of the many complex challenges, risks and unimaginable burdens which women, children and families bear.
References
Amnesty International Rural women living with HIV face human rights abuses in South Africa
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AFR53/001/2008/en]. Retrieved November 30, 2010.
Avert HIV and AIDS in South Africa
Berger, Karen. Health Care on Phelophepa , South Africa
Human Rights Watch, Women's Rights
http://www.hrw.org/women/. Retrieved November 26, 2010.
http://www.hrw.org/women/. Retrieved November 26, 2010.
Mahoney, Jill Searching for hope in the AIDS battle. Globe and Mail, November 29, 2010.
Nolen, Stephanie 28 stories of AIDS in Africa . Vintage Canada
SIL International, Women and literacyhttp://www.sil.org/literacy/wom_lit.htm.%20Retrieved%20November%2029, 2010.
The Vision of Africa The Phelophepa Health Care Train http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sC2wK-LTJQ. Retrieved November 30, 2010.
United Nations Statistics Division The World’s Women 2000: Trends and Statistics, http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/indwm/wwpub2005.htm. Retrieved November 28, 2010.
UNAIDS (2009), AIDS Epidemic Update: November 2010, http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/HIVData/EpiUpdate/EpiUpdArchive/2010/default.asp
United Nations, Statistics and indicators on Men and women
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/indwm/wwpub2005.htm. Retrieved Nov 29, 2010.
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/indwm/wwpub2005.htm. Retrieved Nov 29, 2010.
United Nations Development Fund for Women Women, Poverty and Economics. http://www.unifem.org/gender_issues/women_poverty_economics/. Retrieved Nov 27, 2010.
World Health Organization, Department of Women, Gender, and Health
http://www.who.int/gender/en/. Retrieved November 29, 2010.
http://www.who.int/gender/en/. Retrieved November 29, 2010.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)