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Africa: Access to Life
AFRICA ACTION
Africa Policy E-Journal
August 17, 2003 (030817)
Africa: Access to Life
(Reposted from sources cited below)
This posting includes an eloquent speech - "My Access to Life" by
Mrs. Morolake Nwagwu of the Treatment Action Movement, Nigeria,
given at an NGO symposium in Japan in preparation for TICAD III
(The Third Tokyo International Conference on African Development),
which will take place on September 29 - October 1, Also included is
a note on TICAD III from Action Civile pour TICAD 2003 and the
Africa-Japan Forum. The English-language website of the Africa-Japn
Forum is at http://www.ajf.gr.jp/english
The NGO statement from TICAD II in 1998 is available at
http://www.africafocus.org/docs98/tica9811.htm
The official TICAD III website is at
http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/africa/ticad3/
Another posting today contains two new reports, one a case
study from Uganda by Human Rights Watch on the impact of domestic
violence in increasing the threat to women from HIV/AIDS, the other
a report from a conference of NGOs and health experts in Southern
Africa on how to engage men in the response to the HIV/AIDS
pandemic.
+++++++++++++++++end summary/introduction+++++++++++++++++++++++
Note from E-Journal Editor:
Today's two postings are the last for this month. The E-Journal
will resume in early September, shortly before the World Trade
Organization Ministerial Summit in Cancun (September 10-14). The
summit, which takes place every two years, comes four years after
Seattle and two years after Doha. While demonstrations at the site
will be dominated by groups from Mexico and other countries in the
Americas, African and other developing countries have made strong
statements opposing the undemocratic procedures and positions
adopted on many issues by the U.S. and European countries. For
summaries of recent developments and the positions of African
countries, see in particular updates from the Third World Network
[http://www.twnside.org.sg and http://www.twnafrica.org]
- William Minter
My Access to Life
Morolake Nwagwu
Treatment Action Movement Nigeria
Email: tam@nigeria-aids.org
Posted August 13, 2003 on the Nigeria-AIDS eForum, a project of
Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS) Nigeria. For more information,
see http://www.nigeria-aids.org To subscribe, send a blank email
to: subscribe-eForum@nigeria-aids.org View message archives at
http://www.nigeria-aids.org/eforum.cfm
[The NGO Symposium for the 3rd Tokyo International Conference on
African Development (TICAD III) was held in Tokyo, Japan from 3rd
to 4th August 2003. One of the sessions was devoted to discussing
HIV/AIDS in Africa, and was addressed by Mrs. Morolake Nwagwu,
HIV-positive speaker and coordinator of the Treatment Action
Movement (TAM) Nigeria]
I want to start by thanking UNDP, Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and all organizers of the TICAD III-Voices of African NGOs
symposium, for sincerely committing to this process, for expending
so much time, energy and resources. Bringing us from ten different
African countries all the way to Japan is highly commendable - and
the only reason this happened is because there is genuine sincerity
on the part of the organizers and all collaborating NGOs to make
the Tokyo Initiative to TICAD process work. The reason we are here
is to partner and dialogue with Japan about your Initiatives on
African development.
Development is absolutely impossible without human beings and HIV
is about People. HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, is a human
virus. It doesn't live in dogs or monkeys. It lives in human
beings; it lives in my blood stream. When statistics say 70% of
people living with HIV are in Africa, when they say that 30 million
of the world s 42 million people living with HIV and AIDS are in
Africa, when you hear that 3.47 million Nigerians have HIV, the
reality of these figures is Myself, Rolake. I am not a figure or
a statistic, I am a human being. I am this supposedly healthy,
tall, big, black, beautiful woman standing here before you.
If your thinking does not transcend figures and all your efforts
are focused only on prevention programs that excludes care, support
and treatment, then in three, five or maybe 10 years, I would
become the frail, dying, skeletal image you're used to seeing on
your TV screens popularly called AIDS victims.
Right now, I am not a victim. I am a woman with brains and skills,
a woman with the will and zeal to live. But if nothing is done, if
we all sit down, fold our hands and the only thing we think and
talk and encourage is prevention and Voluntary Counseling and
Testing (VCT), then I would become a victim. If I do not have
access to life-saving medicines, to prophylaxis to prevent TB, to
prevent transmitting this virus to my baby, if I have no access to
essential drugs to treat my opportunistic infections and
antiretroviral drugs to fight the virus in my blood stream, then I
would become a victim of injustice, a victim of inequality, a
victim of neglect. I would become a victim of bad policies; a
victim of AIDS.
The TICAD II principal document adopted in this very same city of
Tokyo, Japan in October 1998 talks extensively about ownership and
global partnership. It says that priorities for Africa should be
determined by Africa itself. TICAD II Initiative supports these
priorities and I quote Ownership is derived when development
priorities as set by Africans are pursued . This sounds to me like
He who wears the shoes knows where it pinches . On the issue of
AIDS, it means that People Living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) play a
great role in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa. If this is so,
then we need to keep them alive so we can work hand in hand.
We need Greater (and meaningful) Involvement of PLWHA (GIPA). We
need for our preventive measures to encompass treatment because for
me and about 30 million others in Africa, prevention is too late.
HIV is here already. That was the doctor's report in 1998 and the
last time I checked 3 years ago, it was still there. GIPA will help
make HIV prevention a reality. By working with PLWHA at home here
in Japan and abroad in Africa, we will have a comprehensive package
that will help stop new infections and prevent needless deaths.
One of the goals and objectives of TICAD II is that by 2015, to
reduce mortality rates for infants and children under the age of 5
to one third of the 1990 level. In 2003, 13 years after 1990 and 12
years to 2015, more children are dying. Our babies are dying
because there isn't enough support for PMTCT. Our children are
dying from Malaria, from opportunistic infections like TB. One way
to strengthen preventive measures and integrate cross-sectoral
HIV/AIDS strategies TICAD talks about is to educate and empower
women, who in my country are six times more vulnerable than men
are. The way is to go beyond VCT and move on to care, support and
treatment, to enhance assistance for the prevention and treatment
of parasitic and infectious diseases like TB and malaria. We can
only create the much desired behavioral change through providing
information and improving community activities for HIV prevention
and treatment in local languages.
There is a need for the poor, especially women, to access microcredit
and employment opportunities. If we are committed to this
goal, how come PLWHA are excluded from accessing micro-credit to
eradicate poverty? How come the developing partners say we cannot
get credit because we have HIV? They say we cannot repay the money
because we will soon die. We do not need to die if we have access
to treatment!
TICAD as development partners says it is committed to assisting
strengthening of training programs that enhance the capacity of
communities to plan and manage their developmental activities. That
is to say, there is the will to assist and strengthen people
(regardless of their HIV status) to make right and informed
decisions about their lives and health. Treatment Education
programs should be strengthened and this isn't just about ARVs. A
comprehensive Treatment program incorporates Good nutrition,
Positive Living, use of supplements and prophylaxis, drugs to treat
opportunistic infections and, ARVs which is the only class of drugs
that fight HIV directly.
The Nigerian government provides ARV for ten thousand adults. My
president has taken the first step, but we cannot do it alone. We
need to scale up and include subsidized medical tests, and
treatment education. If we are more than partners, if we have
become friends like was mentioned on this podium today, we need
your help to expand and strengthen this program and others like it
across Africa, and this is where you can help, this is where the
Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM) comes in.
For the very first time, there is a global body, a Global Fund
created specially for PLWHA, a fund to save our lives. GFATM has
started work, money has been disbursed twice now, but the Fund is
broke. Japan is the world's second largest economy, fourteen
percent of the world's wealth resides in Japan, but where is the
money? I make an appeal as an affected person to the government of
Japan to please fund the Fund. Japan has committed $200m. This is
highly commendable and it is a very big step, a step other rich
nations can adopt and follow, and for this, we say: Thank you
Japan, but more can be done. 14% of the Fund s 2003 budget is
$815m, and Japan has given $200m. That means we need $600m more
from Japan and subsequently at least $800m in the next years.
I asked in Nigeria and JICA says the government of Japan cannot
support consumables because of its existing policies. OK then, give
the money to GFATM and they will support consumables and invest in
our lives. The Global Fund has no strings attached, their
principles support treatment and training. JICA supports VCT, but
so does every other group.
Japan should dare to be different from the crowd. The more VCT is
promoted and new centers opened, the more people will want to know
their status. This is brilliant and we support VCT because the
woman who is more likely to pass HIV to her baby is an untested
one, and when you know your HIV status, you can take steps to
ensure you remain healthy and live a qualitative life. However, if
you encourage me to get tested, what then in the world do I do if
my test comes out positive? Where is the back-up and support
service? Where is the care, the support, the treatment? VCT can
never stand alone. It will cause more problems. It will lead to
despondency and make people lose the will to live. It leads to
suicide and insanity. We need VCT, but in addition to that, we need
the back-up of care, support and treatment. Policies are man-made
so the government and people can revise those laws and policies.
Finally, what can we do? What can those of us in this room do? What
can the NGOs, Business Conglomerates, Researchers, Development
Partners, Government workers, Media, Private Consulting Companies,
African Diplomats, JICA, and PLWHA do? We can break the silence.
HIV is not an African health problem; it is a global developmental
issue. It is not just my problem, it is our collective problem.
Thanks to the technology of great countries like Japan, the world
has become a global village: all walls, barriers and boundaries
have been broken down and HIV needs neither a visa nor a permit to
come in.
Let us all join in the international fight and advocacy. Our babies
are dying, our sisters, mothers, brothers, fathers, friends and
communities are dying. Let us wake up, raise awareness and money to
stop needless deaths. In my country Nigeria alone, there were
170,000 reported deaths caused by AIDS in 2001 alone. That means
that more than 465 people died everyday from an AIDS-related
disease. I do not want to be a figure. I do not want to die or pass
this virus on to my baby. I want to live; I want access to
treatment, access to unrestricted travel, access to life. What we
need in Africa isn't quarantining, stigma or discrimination but
support to live a meaningful qualitative life and contribute our
quota to the development of our country, our continent and the
world at large.
Thank you. Arigato.
Background on NGO Symposium for TICAD III
excerpts from posting on Healthgap listserv by
Masaki Inaba (pinktri@kt.rim.or.jp), Board Member, Africa Japan
Forum; Coordinator, HIV/AIDS and Infectious Diseases Division, ACT
2003
"The NGO Symposium for TICAD III", which was held in Tokyo on
August 3-4, was organized by "ACT 2003" (Action Civile pour TICAD
2003), the Japanese NGO coalition for the coming TICAD III (The
Third Tokyo International Conference on African Development), and
partly sponsored by Ministry of Foreign Affairs Japan. TICAD III
itself will be held in next month, September 29-October 1 in Tokyo.
The NGO Symposium for TICAD was held by the coalition ACT 2003 to
involve African/Japanese NGOs and grass-roots level voices and
opinions to the main conference of TICAD III. ACT 2003 invited 9
panelists from African NGOs who work for various issues (peace
building, agricultural development, debt, HIV/AIDS and infectious
diseases). As for the HIV/AIDS and infectious diseases, we invited
Ms. Morolake Nwagwu of Treatment Action Movement Nigeria, Ms.
Asunta Wagura of Kenya Network of Women with AIDS. And also, we
invited Ms. Kate Thomson of GFATM. HIV/AIDS and other infectious
diseases is one of the 11 prioritized agendas of TICAD III. Besides
the NGO Symposium, we held another 2 satellite symposia for
Japanese civil society and staffs of Japanese international
cooperation NGOs.
The concept and principle of GIPA (Greater Involvement of PHA) have
been often neglected and not recognized enough in Japan, especially
in its governmental policy on international cooperations on
HIV/AIDS. Also, Japanese policy on international cooperations on
HIV/AIDS has been still very prevention/VCT centered one and until
now it doesn't take positive attitudes to scale up comprehensive
care/supports and treatment. Also, it has not shown its positive
attitudes to scale up its contribution for GFATM. We have to show
the government the importance of GIPA, scaling up access to
treatment/care/support in Africa, and also we have to emphasize the
importance of GFATM, and let the gov't and co-organizers of TICAD
involve these indispensable and important points for the results of
the TICAD III. That's the main reason why we invited Rolake and
Asunta, Africa's leading PHA activists, to the TICAD NGO Symposium.
Rolake and Asunta's speeches in the NGO Forum were so great. They
successfully made great impacts for Japanese civil societies which
work on African and HIV/AIDS issues. On the next day of the
symposium, August 4, we, African and Japanese NGOs, had an
opportunity of "dialogue with Japanese gov't" and in the afternoon,
we had another discussion to finalize NGOs' recommendation paper
for TICAD III. ... I hope you get certain interests on the coming
TICAD main conference in Japan and join our movement to make Japan
better contribution for world's fight against HIV/AIDS and
infectious diseases. If you would like to ask something about TICAD
and Japanese policy on HIV/AIDS, please feel free to send me your
question.
+++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Date distributed (ymd): 030817
Region: Continent-Wide
Issue Areas: +health+ +economy/develoopment+
The Africa Policy E-Journal is a free information service
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commentary and reposted documents. Africa Action provides this
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international policies toward Africa that advance economic,
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