From: Ans Aartsema (nothingels@yahoo.com)
Date: 24 Nov 2001 20:00 uur
AIDS in South Africa has reached epidemic proportions.
Almost 20 percent of the population, or 4,100,000
people are living with HIV. The majority of them are
poor, black, uneducated, non-voting and easy for the
government to ignore. Faced with Apartheid debts and
struggling to keep the economy alive in the
global-capitalist marketplace, the ANC has little
money left to help a population of HIV sufferers with
no power and no idea how to demand their rights.
Other projects, therefore, are stepping in to fill the
gap. The Wings of Love is a community-based
organisation (CBO) providing counselling and help to
victims of domestic violence in the south Durban
township of Wentworth. The organisation has been
operating its “victim empowerment programme” since
1992: educating the abused, helping rebuild their
self-esteem and providing the information and legal
assistance needed to escape their violent
relationships. AIDS is impossible to separate from
their work in a region where estimates suggest as many
as 4,500 new infections every day. (Compared to 3,435
in England in the entire year 2000.) Their stable
income is only US150 dollars per month, out of which
they provide a safe house, a counselling centre, &
legal assistance for a population of approx. 100,000
coloured, indian and Black people. “We go in and do
it, it’s a job that has to be done. You can’t wait for
the money.”
The Treatment Action Campaign has a more direct
approach. They have been pushing the South African
government to fight against the international
patenting regulations that make medication for HIV+
people in Africa prohibitively expensive. Their
successes include wining the legal battle for the
right to import a cheaper generic version of
Neviropine (a drug which cuts transmission of HIV from
mother to child during pregnancy by as much as 50%).
However, there is a long way to go before their battle
with the WTO ends and South Africa wins the right to
manufacture generic versions of patented life-saving
drugs at an affordable price for HIV+ South Africans.
Both these organisations can make a real and essential
difference to people’s lives with a relatively small
sum of our money. Which is why, on World AIDS Day, 1st
December, there will be a benefit party for AIDS in
South Africa.
Come to the Vrankrijk’s AIDS benefit - HeteroHomo
Disco-a-go-go night, 10-3 on 1st December. Strut your
funky stuff to disco grooves, glitzy caberet and more
fancy-dress costumes than you can shake a stick at!
Only 4+ guilders donation for entry and everyone gets
a free copy of the greenpepper magazine, With more
info about AIDS and the work of the Wings of Love &
Treatment Action Campaign. See you there!
(Sorry, no dogs allowed.)
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