Ainashe.net

Following is an announcement by The Islamic Relief.

Islamic Relief Worldwide is delighted to announce a conference entitled Islam and HIV/AIDS that will, God willing, take place in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 26 to 30 November 2007. It will comprise of five days of consultations that aim to generate practical responses to the HIV and AIDS pandemic from an Islamic perspective

There are around 40 million people living with HIV and AIDS in the world. The disease devastates individual lives as well as communities, and is increasingly affecting Muslim populations. This conference aims to contribute to halting the spread of the disease and to ensuring appropriate care for people affected by it. The Muslim world has been silent about the issue of HIV and AIDS for much too long, and it is hoped that these consultations will help to change that.

Click here to view a flyer for this conference.

In a Press Release issued recently, the World Bank says:

The Horn of Africa is one of the regions that has been most prominently impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This area is characterized by sizeable mobile populations of transport workers, migrants, refugees, internally displaced persons, and cross-border populations, populations that are most vulnerable to contracting HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases.

However, the Horn of Africa is also where there is hope that something can be done to bring about change. Countries like Kenya and Uganda are bringing down their HIV/AIDS prevalence rates — from 15% and 18.5% respectively in the 1990s to about 6.1% and 6.7% today. The efforts that have seen these figures come tumbling down have been mainly at country level.

The Press Release went on by stating:

Recognizing that movement of vulnerable populations is a major challenge in the region, on June 28, 2007 the World Bank and IGAD signed a $15 million grant to support the IGAD Regional HIV/AIDS Partnership Program (IRHAPP). The program seeks to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS among cross-border and mobile populations in IGAD’s member states: Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. The four-year project, which aims to reduce the vulnerability of these mobile populations, was initiated with the support of the World Bank and will be the first to be financed by the Africa Catalytic Growth Fund (ACGF).

By the way, it is worth noting that very little is known about the actual number of HIV/AIDS infected people in Somalia. However, many Somalis went to Eastern African countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia as refugees and those who have returned may have brought the disease to the country. Also, Ethiopian soldiers in Somalia have high number of HIV/AIDS infected among their ranks and that is probably the biggest threat facing the nation at the present time.
Click here to view the full PR on World Bank’s External Website.

Oryem Okello; the Ugandans Minister of State for Foreign Affairs was quoted as saying:

We have decided that at this particular time, we should not go to Somalia.

The Minister went on by saying:

The situation has deteriorated rapidly — it risks all-out war.

This is a great victory for the Somali people. No country should help facilitate Ethiopian invasion of Somalia. I hope other countries will act wisely and follow Uganda’s lead.

Click here to view the article on the Reuters’ Alertnet.

Matt Damon; American Actor and political activist went to Africa. Following are few extracts from his remarks after the trip.   

Each day, I saw the devastating impact of AIDS and extreme poverty, but I also saw the incredible work being done to save lives and give people the tools to provide for themselves. I visited a facility that reduced, by half, the chances of a mother transmitting HIV to their child. I met a 24 year old woman who told me that there was a good chance the anti-retrovirals she was taking would save the her baby’s life. The next day, I met a widow who had become self-sufficient thanks to a micro-finance loan. With her new financial freedom, she was not only able to take care of her children, but also began caring for local orphans. The biggest lesson I took home from the trip was that folks in these countries can turn things around if given the basic resources that we take for granted here every day. That’s why I was shocked to learn from the ONE campaign that within the next 2 weeks the U.S. Senate is poised to slash billions of dollars from President Bush’s plan to fight AIDS and poverty.This is an outrage - and it can be stopped. Please join me in speaking out right now!

Louis Michel; EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Development was quoted as saying: 

I am proposing to you a regional pact for stability, security and development in the Horn. This pact would revitalize and complement agreed common programs to address the regional cross-border dynamics and ensure that such programs are fully effective. (…) This strategy should focus, in particular, on regional governance, natural resources management, food security, border control and nonproliferation of small arms,” he told eastern Africa leaders in Nairobi. (…)The history of the EU can be a source of inspiration for the region. The EU has thrived and flourished because it has overcome long-standing rivalries and hatred.

Louis Michel went on by saying:

Nowadays, your regional political forum, IGAD, has become a central part of the political and security architecture of the Horn of Africa. It needs to be utilized to its full potential. Butthis requires genuine political will and commitment.

 Well, I will need to study the full strategy text before I can make an educated judgment. However, my gut-feeling tells me that this “strategy” is nothing more than Europe’s covert way of trying to curb immigration from the Horn of African countries. I don’t think this is something that will have positive impact in terms of security and economic development for the countries concerned. It is an old anti-immigration strategies sugar coated with a gentler political rhetoric. It will not work!

Click here to view the dispatch on the Xinhuanet.

The African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF) says:

At least 1.4 million people are facing a humanitarian emergency in southern and central Somalia and if sufficient food and water is not provided urgently, there is risk of an all out famine. The failure of both rainy seasons in 2005 has led to minimal harvests and acute lack of water and pasture. This, combined with ongoing civil strife for more than 15 years, has led to the worst food security situation the country has ever faced. One of the most affected regions is Gedo in the south of the country, where the African and Medical Research Foundation (AMREF) works. Cattle carcasses are strewn along the roadsides and on the edge of villages, and it is estimated that 80% of the cattle will perish by April. This is particularly disturbing, as more than half of the population are nomadic cattle herders.

Click here for full report on the AMREF website.

The World Health Organization (WHO) released its annual “The World Health Report 2005 – Make Every Mother and Child Count” and says:

(….) this year almost 11 million children under five years of age will die from causes that are largely preventable. Among them are 4 million babies who will not survive the first month of life. At the same time, more than half a million women will die in pregnancy, childbirth or soon after. The report says that reducing this toll in line with the Millennium Development Goals depends largely on every mother and every child having the right to access to health care from pregnancy through childbirth, the neonatal period and childhood.

I am sure Yalaxow, Qanyare and the other destructive warlords could not care less about this but the child mortality rate in Somalia is 222 per 1000 for males and 228 per 1000 for females; one of the highest in the world. The sad thing is that the tragic demographic changes in Somalia continues unabated while the warlords are bickering endlessly among themselves. We need leadership with vision for our country and people not wolfes succking the blood out of their own!

Click here to view the full WHO World Health Report for 2005. The statistical health annex is here.

You may also like to click here and then select somalia from the list for more health statistics for somalia.

The United Nations says:

HIV/AIDS will soon become a major health problem in war-wracked Somalia without concerted efforts to contain the factors fuelling the epidemic such as low rates of education, transfusion of unsafe blood, and prostitution…… The survey covered multiple groups, including pregnant women attending antenatal clinics, and tuberculosis patients with sexually transmitted diseases, among others. Along with factors such as poor education and commercial sex, the report notes that high mobility, long distance truckers and transporters and negative cultural practice, such as female genital mutilation also contribute to the spread of the disease.

The full report is available on IRIN.