Clippings

BOTSWANA
An umbrella body of civic organizations hosting its biennial world assembly in Botswana next month plans to open a dialogue on the plight of the country's bushmen, also known as the Basarwa.

CIVICUS, the World Alliance for Citizen Participation, said on it was hoping to play the role of a "neutral mediator" in a dispute that pits the governnment against human rights groups.

Kumi Naidoo, the secretary-general of CIVICUS, said his organisation would hold a session on the Basarwa on 16-17 March in the capital, Gaborone, ahead of the world assembly from 21-25 March.

Most of the major role-players involved in the Basarwa issue – the Botswana government, the lobby group Survival International (SI) and Debswana, a mining company jointly owned by the government and De Beers - are expected to participate in the two-day dialogue. (Source: IRIN)

DRCongo
Troops of the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) have rescued 133 people from a sinking boat on the River Congo, UN News reported on 10 February.

The accident occurred on Saturday near Maita in the western province of
Equateur. All but 50 of the people rescued, who preferred to remain with
their belongings, were taken to Mbandaka, the main town in the province 56
km from Maita.

UN news said seven people suffering from lumbago and malaria were admitted
to Mbandaka Hospital.

The barge had left the nation's capital, Kinshasa, for the city of Kisangani, some 1,700 km to the northeast along the river.

This was the third riverboat accident since January. In the last accident, on 16 January, MONUC rescued some 280 people from a burning boat near the village of Lukolela, 150 km southwest of Mbandaka. That boat had been carrying some 500 people from Makoti Mpoko, in the Republic of Congo. (Source: IRIN)

EAST AFRICA
Firms ignoring threat of HIV/AIDS on employees, says
study

NAIROBI, 11 February (IRIN) - Although HIV/AIDS is considered the most
serious health and development issue in East Africa, the scourge is yet to
become a major issue for leading business firms in the region.

Only a few firms in the region have a formal HIV/AIDS policy, and just
over half have HIV prevention programmes for their employees, a new survey
conducted in four countries by PricewaterhouseCoopers, a leading audit
consulting firm HAS found.

The 2003 survey examined the private sector's responses in the context of
curbing the pandemic. Entitled "HIV/AIDS: What is business doing?", it was
based on interviews conducted between July and September last year with
managers of 216 companies in various sectors in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania,
and Zambia.

The findings showed that most companies had not attempted to establish the
prevalence of HIV among their staff. Those prepared to hazard a guess
tended to be overoptimistic with regard to the prevalence of HIV/AIDS
among their staff, the study noted.

Maputo

Mozambican Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi on Monday declared that it is urgent to develop new information and prevention strategies, to halt the spread of the AIDS epidemic among the youth of the country.

Speaking at the opening of a seminar on education and AIDS, Mocumbi said that both the government and civil society are well aware that the main way in which the HIV virus that causes AIDS is transmitted is through unprotected sexual relations.

Mocumbi warned that, just as it affects the human body, so HIV/AIDS is damaging the country's education system - with each passing day, more teachers are failing to show up at their classes because they have fallen prey to AIDS-related illnesses. Children are missing school because they are looking after parents or other relatives who are dying of AIDS.

"Thus many children in Mozambique have already begun to act as heads of households", said Mocumbi. "They begin to work at a tender age, in order to attend to the needs of their relatives, or to spend all their time supporting them. And so they are obliged to leave school".

In order to reduce the impact of AIDS, and protect the education system from the epidemic, it was crucial to educate young people about how the disease can be avoided, the Prime Minister stressed. Ignorance was the main reason why AIDS continued to spread.

"Education for prevention should bring as its result the adoption of responsible behaviour and attitudes towards sexuality, and which will help halt the contamination of young people by the virus", Mocumbi said.

He warned "If we are not capable through education to ensure that young people know how to avoid the disease, then all other efforts we make will be meaningless".

Mocumbi informed the meeting that preliminary estimates show that about 17 per cent of the country's teachers are HIV-positive (considerably higher than the national average of 13 per cent HIV prevalence among people aged between 15 and 49).

This will lead to the death of 1.6 per cent per year of the country's teachers.

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Mozambique
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Mocumbi said AIDS will impose profound changes on the education system, since sickness and death will cut a swathe through teachers and managers, who cost a great deal to train.

Schools, he added, must also prepare to cope with large numbers of children who have lost one or both their parents to AIDS, as well as children who are infected with the virus, and who need special care against the opportunist diseases associated with HIV.

SUDAN
First HIV/AIDS voluntary testing and counselling centre opens
in Juba

NAIROBI, 11 February (IRIN) - Sudan's first free voluntary counselling and
testing (VCT) centre for HIV/AIDS is being established in Juba, a southern
garrison town.

The centre would be fully up and running by the end of March, with
possible testing available before that, Simona Seravesi, the HIV/AIDS
inter-agency focal point in Juba, told IRIN. Meanwhile, the centre is
being equipped, and guidelines written for six local counsellors, all of
whom will have to be trained.

The initial emphasis would be on prevention, she added, with an emphasis
on researching high-risk groups around Juba, as well as customs and
beliefs helping to spread the virus. "There will not only be counselling
within the VCT. We want to reach the whole community and outlying
villages," she said.

If people tested positive they would be given information about health,
nutrition, not spreading the virus, and be referred to local health
centres and a support group for people living with HIV/AIDS, she said.

Supported by the Sudanese federal health ministry, UNAIDS and the World
Health Organisation, the VCT centre was officially opened on 28 January as
part of the "Juba Initiative", which, it is hoped, will become a model for
the whole of southern Sudan.