Friday 31 August 2007

Wealthy men, not poverty, fuelling AIDS in Asia: study

Wealthy men, not poverty, fuelling AIDS in Asia: study
http://www.mediaforfreedom.com/ReadArticle.asp?ArticleID=4067

The HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Asia is being fuelled by the sexual behaviour of wealthy men and not by poverty as is widely believed, says a new study by UNAIDS and the Asian Development Bank

Rich men who often have unprotected sex with commercial sex-workers are behind the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Asia, according to a revolutionary new study that reports that HIV does not necessarily spread under conditions of poverty.

“Clients of sex-workers account for most HIV cases in Asia. Typically, they are wealthy men,” said Ross McLeod, an economist, while presenting the findings of the study to delegates at the Eighth International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) held recently in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

In Cambodia, for instance, 12% of the richest men in the country were responsible for spreading the HIV virus, says the joint study by UNAIDS and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The study pinpoints men who have sex with multiple partners, including sex-workers, and do not use condoms.

McLeod added that HIV infections among wealthy Asian women too were on the rise. “Seventy per cent of cases in Asia are male, but this is beginning to change.”

The multi-nation study has important lessons for many governments in Asia that victimise consenting adults, many of them underprivileged, who practise safe sex, while several wealthy men are passing the virus on to their unsuspecting wives.

The study also turns the long-held and widespread belief that poverty fuels HIV/AIDS on its head. “Poverty does not seem to increase the risk of infection in the first place. But AIDS increases the risk of poverty,” says Jacques Jeugmans of the ADB.

A number of UN health experts told the conference that a majority of HIV-positive women in the region are married women who have only had sex with their husbands, leading them to conclude that these women contracted the virus from husbands who had had unprotected sex outside marriage. This is certainly true in a country like India, which has the third highest HIV caseload in the world and the highest one outside Africa.

Indian epidemiologist Swarup Sarkar, regional director of UNAIDS for South Asia, says that although the joint UNAIDS-ADB study is an ongoing project it already holds out major policy implications for the way HIV/AIDS ought to be tackled in Asia.

For instance, one important new finding is about the way the virus has spread in countries -- it usually started among Injecting Drug Users (IDUs) in the 1990s, moved on to sex-workers, and from there to male clients and their faithful wives. Homosexuals and men who have sex with men were infected well before the epidemic took root among the general population.

“Therefore, early intervention among IDUs is essential,” says Sarkar, pointing out that Bangladesh, Malaysia and Pakistan were now at the stage where they could benefit from making such an intervention, whereas the priority group for a country like Cambodia would be commercial sex-workers.

“But resource allocation (funding) is disproportionate,” says Sarkar. Whereas “condoms and clean needles avert most infections,” money from a US presidential fund for AIDS -- known by its acronym PEPFAR, which is the largest such channel of aid to fight HIV/AIDS -- was going into programmes to promote abstinence and faithfulness.

Compounding the problem is the fact that far from adopting focussed health initiatives, many countries in the region -- including India -- instead criminalise sex-workers, drug users and people with alternative sexual orientations.

Source: InfoChange http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/152778/1/

Trust, Lust and Latex

Trust, Lust and Latex
http://www.plusnews.org/InDepthMain.aspx?InDepthId=42&ReportId=71019&Country=Yes

Sexual relationships are complicated enough as it is, and become even more so when a piece of latex is added to the equation, but when love appears things tend to become even more difficult.

Just ask a group of 15 young professional women gathered at a party in a stylishly decorated lounge in Sunninghill, an affluent suburb in Johannesburg, South Africa's economic hub.

A "Naughty Knickers" party - a private affair where women can purchase sexy underwear and sex toys, and swap sex stories - seemed to be the perfect place to broach the topic of condom use in relationships.

However, after the women had oohed and aahed over the colourful wares, and regaled each other with their sexual triumphs and disasters, the humble condom had yet to make an appearance in conversation or during the saleswoman's exhibition.

Hardly surprising, noted business analyst Mpho, 26, (last name withheld) as many of the women were in love, trusted their partners, and thought that it no longer necessary to use condoms.

"It's fine [to use condoms] when you're in a fling and you don't know where it's going. But once it starts getting serious, you always associate condoms with suspicious behaviour and all sorts of questions arise," she told PlusNews.

Dr Catherine MacPhail, of the adolescent programme at the University of Witwatersrand's Reproductive Health Research Unit (RHRU), admitted that this was a "huge issue" when addressing HIV/AIDS prevention and behaviour change, particularly among young people.

Although condom use in South Africa has increased over the past few years, getting people to use this method of protection regularly is still a major challenge.

In 2004, the largest representative survey of South African youth aged between 15 and 24 conducted by RHRU found that although 33 percent of youth who had sex in the past 12 months reported always using a condom, double that number - 67 percent - were still not using condoms consistently.

In a country where an estimated 5.3 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, can people still afford to attach negative connotations to regular condom use?

However, MacPhail said HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns were starting to realise the importance of contextual factors feeding people's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS and were no longer conveying messages such as 'you're stupid if you don't use a condom'.

Angela Stewart-Buchanan, media manager for LoveLife - South Africa's largest youth HIV/AIDS awareness campaign - warned that prevention efforts could no longer ignore these factors.

"It's not as easy to pinpoint why people are engaging in unsafe sex, it's multi-faceted, and this must be taken into account. Self-esteem, lifestyle, values and trust - they all play a role," she told PlusNews.

TRUST NO ONE?

In her previous relationship, Mpho and her boyfriend did not consciously make a decision to stop using condoms, "it just happened".

"I loved him and I wanted to show him that I trusted him absolutely. We knew each other quite well, we were exclusive but we never tested [for HIV]," she admitted, despite the fact that he was a doctor.

Which is one of the reasons the government's awareness campaign, Khomanani, has launched a series of print, radio and TV advertisements urging young couples to get tested together. All the young women in Sunninghill agreed that the idea of couple-testing had merit, and they would definitely do it before they got married - but not now.

"They make it look so easy and it's not, especially when you supposedly trust someone enough not to use a condom. It's difficult to revert to all of that mistrust," said Mpho, who is preparing herself to bring up the issue in her latest relationship.

MacPhail remarked on how young people often mentioned the notion of trust, which made "absolutely no sense", as it had very little to do with how their partner behaved.

"It's a complete mismatch ... saying you trust someone but at the same time you admit your partner has other sexual partners," she added.

Goretta, 27, (not her real name) is aware of the tension that arises when emotions and condoms mix. Her sister has been in a relationship for five years and does not use condoms, even though she is aware that her partner has been cheating on her.

"After five years she needs to trust him [because] she needs to hold on to him," she observed. But the ambitious IT analyst is not taking any chances - with two of her family members living with HIV/AIDS, she has learnt to be more careful.

"I've never reached a point where I trust, or even love, someone enough not to use a condom," Goretta stressed.

For young women who are empowering themselves economically, the bedroom remains the final frontier.

Deep-rooted gender inequalities and social norms that require them to be passive about sex, and submissive to the will of men in determining the terms of sexual relationships, remain prevalent - more so with poorer women.

Although Dinga Makohliso (not his real name) pointed out that his current motto was "trust no-one" and that condoms were a necessity in his sexual relationships, he admitted that this was not always the case.

"With guys my age ... once you've been out with a girl for at least six months, that's when you decide to stop using condoms. You trust her to stay on the pill and leave it up to her. If she insists on using condoms, your initial reaction would be: 'Why, who've you been sleeping around with?'" the 20-year-old student commented.

CHALLENGING THE STEREOTYPES

Men are frequently criticised for being in denial about the disease, and blaming women for "bringing the virus into the home". They are also accused of refusing to take responsibility for their health, and failing to practice safer sex.

Women bear the brunt of the epidemic, and for physiological, economic and social reasons find it extremely difficult to negotiate condom use in their relationships.

With the odds stacked against them - including poverty, abuse and violence, lack of information and coercion by older men - many mainstream prevention strategies are untenable, for example, those based exclusively on the 'ABC' approach - "abstain, be faithful, use a condom".

Where sexual violence is widespread, abstinence or insisting on condom use is not a realistic option for women and girls, nor does marriage always provide the answer. In many parts of the developing world, married women have higher rates of HIV than their unmarried, sexually active peers, usually because their husbands have several partners.

But women are not entirely blameless. In her book, 'Letting them die: How HIV/AIDS prevention programmes often fail' researcher Catherine Campbell found that young women "argued particularly strongly that if a steady partner were to insist on condom use, this would indicate a lack of respect".

"If a boy wants to use a condom, a girl will say this is because he disrespects her - because he wants to use 'a plastic'," a teenage girl was reported was saying.

According to Campbell's findings, based on the evaluation of a pilot project on community-based HIV/AIDS prevention in a South African mining town, young people believed that condoms were unnecessary when having sex with their "steady" partner, and should only be used for casual sexual partners.

Young women told the study researchers it was important to appear unavailable for sex by not carrying condoms, to protect their reputations.

MacPhail agreed: "Often many young women don't want to use condoms and be associated with connotations surrounding condoms."

Until a few months ago, before she became involved with "a 24/7 condom user", Mpho would "never be caught dead" buying condoms or carrying them in her bag. "I wouldn't mind someone finding a tampon in my bag but I would be mortified if they found a condom ... it would have looked like I was asking for it," she said.

Mpho was not alone - a chorus of agreement greeted her comments. "I always get shocked when I hear my friends - all well-educated people - say they would rather use the morning-after pill than the condom because they don't enjoy them," Goretta said.

"By the time you put on the condom it can be a passion killer," acknowledged Goretta, "but at what price?"

While condoms admittedly robbed people of a "heightened sense of closeness", there was no reason not to enjoy practising safer sex. "I enjoy sex but I don't want to be thinking about all the risks when I'm doing it. That's why I've learned how to put them on and even have my own," she added.

BEING FAITHFUL

Apart from condoms, there is another way to curb the spread of HIV once people become sexually active: reducing casual sex and multiple sexual partnerships - the B in the ABC - which has so far been an afterthought.

"While most of the often polarised discussion surrounding AIDS prevention has focused on promoting abstinence or use of condoms, partner reduction has been the neglected middle child of the ABC approach," Daniel Halperin, prevention expert at the United States Agency for International Development, and his fellow researchers noted in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) in 2004.

The BMJ article went on to point out that in Zambia, HIV prevalence reportedly fell among urban young women during the 1990s. At about that time, there was a large reduction in casual sex and having multiple sexual partners as a result of faith-based and other grassroots efforts to promote the delay of sexual debut among young people and monogamy for those who were sexually active.

However, Mpho and the rest of the partygoers were not entirely convinced. "I guess that's the ideal," she said, "but I'm not sure if that can work in real life."

Child Health, aug 07

Traffic and childhood asthmahttp://www.news-medical.net/?id=28959Children who carry variations in specific genes that metabolize vehicle emissions are more susceptible to developing asthma, particularly if they live near major roadways, a study led by researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) suggests.

Problem of undiagnosed hypertension in childrenhttp://www.news-medical.net/?id=28962In a study of children and adolescents with hypertension, only about one in four had been previously diagnosed with the condition, according to a study in the August 22/29 issue of JAMA .

Exhaust fumes increase risk for asthma in genetically susceptible childrenhttp://www.news-medical.net/?id=28957Exhaust fumes heighten the risk of asthma in children who are already genetically susceptible to respiratory disease, indicates research published ahead of print in the journal Thorax.

Non-medicinal interventions for young children with ADHDhttp://www.news-medical.net/?id=28968Non-medicinal interventions are highly effective in preventing the behavioral and academic problems associated with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), according to a five-year study led by researchers at Lehigh University's College of Education.

High blood pressure in children not being diagnosedhttp://www.news-medical.net/?id=28945According to a study by researchers in the United States, children and adolescents with high blood pressure are not being diagnosed.

FDA says cough and cold products used irresponsibly with childrenhttp://www.news-medical.net/?id=28918The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States says it is concerned that cough and cold products sold over the counter (OTC) are being irresponsibly used particularly with children under the age of two.

Breast feeding mothers warned of risks of Codeine for babieshttp://www.news-medical.net/?id=28916The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) in the United States has issued a warning to nursing mothers regarding the pain-killer codeine.

Men have evolved to fall for younger women

Men have evolved to fall for younger women
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/lifestyle/2007-08/29/content_6065743.htm
(ANI)Updated: 2007-08-29 15:56

Ever wonder just why men fall for women young enough to be their daughters or women tend to hook up with men far older than themselves? Well, that’s just the question researchers at Vienna University have found that answer to.

The researchers say that men choose younger wives, and women choose older husbands is because they have evolved this way.

The researchers also state that the reason behind why men evolved this way is because of progeny, as younger wives maximize the chances of producing offspring.

The theory is based on the findings of a study that involved more than 11,600 Swedish men and women aged 45-55, and their partners.

They found that couples where the man was six years older than the woman had the most number of kids – an average of 2.2.

The researchers also noted that the reason why women fall for older men is because the latter represent resources and stability.

Study leader Martin Fieder said that the finding may help explain why men fall for younger women and vice versa.

"These findings may account for the phenomenon that men typically prefer and mate with women younger than themselves, whereas women usually desire and mate with men older than themselves," the Telegraph quoted him, as saying.

"We conclude that the age preference for the partner increases individual fitness of both men and women and may thus be an evolutionarily acquired trait," he added.

The researchers also noted that this trait is even visible in a second marriage where men and women both tend to choose younger partners.

Women however, choose men who are younger than their first partners yet slightly older than themselves.

"These findings support the reported age preferences of ageing men for increasingly younger women as well as of women for a partner just a little older than themselves," Mr Fieder said.

"We attribute the shift to a younger partner to a potential compensation for the fertility loss caused by the individuals' increasing age," he added.

Monday 20 August 2007

Human Rights August 2007

Saudi Arabia: Migrant Domestics Killed by Employers Brutal Beatings and Killings Symptomatic of Wider Abuse The killing of two Indonesian domestic workers by their employers in Saudi Arabia highlights the Saudi government's ongoing failure to hold employers accountable for serious abuses, Human Rights Watch said today. The brutal beatings by these employers also left two other Indonesian domestic workers critically injured.
Press Release: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/17/saudia16699.htm August 17, 2007
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China: Media Chokehold Tightens Before Party Congress Crackdown on 'False News' a Direct Threat to Reporting Freedom The Chinese government's announced crackdown on "false news" and "illegal news coverage" could be yet another direct threat to media freedom in China, Human Rights Watch said today.
Press Release: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/17/china16700.htm August 17, 2007
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Russia: New Campaign to Silence Rights Activist The Russian government's latest attempt to silence a leading human rights advocate reflects a deepening crackdown on critical voices in Russia, Human Rights Watch said today. A court in Nizhni Novgorod will today rule on whether to impose tougher terms on Stanislav Dmitrievsky, who was convicted in 2006 for publicizing human rights abuses in Chechnya.
Press Release: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/17/russia16702.htm August 17, 2007
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Jordan: Government Pledges to Grant Iraqis Education, Health Rights Iraqis Still Denied Refugee Status The Jordanian government in a welcome step has pledged to provide public health care and education to Iraqis living in Jordan regardless of their legal status, but continues to refuse to recognize them as refugees, Human Rights Watch said today. Press Release: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/16/jordan16687.htm August 16, 2007 ----- SCO Summit: Crackdown Highlights Failings on Human Rights Shanghai Cooperation Organization Should Not Undermine Rights in Name of Security Members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization missed a key opportunity to implement the organization's human rights principles when they met on August 16 at the SCO summit in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, Human Rights Watch said today.
Press Release: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/16/kyrgyz16698.htm August 16, 2007 -----
Jordan: Rights Groups to Visit Intelligence Agency Prison First Visit by Independent Experts The Jordanian intelligence agency has agreed to allow independent human rights monitoring organizations to visit prisoners at itssecretive detention facility for the first time, Human Rights Watch said today.
Press Release: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/15/jordan16673.htm August 15, 2007
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UK: Terrorism Powers Should Not Be Used Against Heathrow Protesters The British authorities should not use terrorism powers against protesters at London's Heathrow airport, Human Rights Watch said today. In a demonstration against global warming, hundreds ofprotesters have set up a tent camp next to the airport to pressure the government to halt the airport's planned expansion.
Press Release: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/14/uk16684.htm August 15, 2007
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Darfur Needs Most Efficient, Trained Troops Immediately Letter to African Union Chairman and the Under-Secretary-General for UN Peacekeeping Operations The nationalities of troops should not impede the urgent establishment of the most effective peacekeeping force possible for Darfur, Human Rights Watch said today in letters to the chairman of the African Union Commission and to the United Nations under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations. The new African Union-United Nations hybrid peacekeeping force must have military and civilian components, including police, that are experienced, well-trained and well-equipped if it is to deliver on its promise to protect civilians in Darfur.
Press Release: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/15/darfur16695.htm
Letter: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/15/darfur16694.htm August 15, 2007
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SADC: Take Action to End Zimbabwe Rights Crisis Send Human Rights Monitors to End State Brutality Government leaders gathered this week at a summit in Lusaka, Zambia should urgently press Zimbabwe's government to end its broadscale attack on human rights, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today. Human Rights Watch called on the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to deploy human rights monitors to Zimbabwe to assess the situation.
Press Release: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/08/zimbab16615.htm August 14, 2007 -----
Libya: Men Face Possible Death for Planning Peaceful Demonstration Two Others 'Disappeared' for Nearly Six Months The Libyan government should drop charges against 12 men, one of them a Danish citizen, on trial for planning to hold a peacefulpolitical demonstration in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, Human Rights Watch said today. Two other men have "disappeared" since their arrest in connection with the case nearly six months ago.
Press Release: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/14/libya16638.htm August 14, 2007
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Rwanda: Investigate 'Disappeared' Businessman Confer Due Process Rights to Arrested Generals Rwandan judicial and police authorities should account promptly for the whereabouts of Assinapol Rwigara, a prominent businessman, and should assure due process rights to arrested generals Frank Rusagara and Sam Kanyemera, Human Rights Watch said today.
Press Release: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/14/rwanda16668.htm August 14, 2007 -----
Somalia: War Crimes in Mogadishu UN Should Address Civilian Protection Ethiopian, Somali and insurgent forces are all responsible for rampant violations of the laws of war in Mogadishu, causing massive suffering for the civilian population, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch urged the UN Security Council during its current deliberations on Somalia to include a strong civilian protection mandate in any peacekeeping mission.
Press Release: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/06/somali16599.htm
Report: http://hrw.org/reports/2007/somalia0807/ August 13, 2007

Saturday 18 August 2007

HEALTH-ASIA: 'Tackling HIV/AIDS Goes Beyond Morality'

HEALTH-ASIA: 'Tackling HIV/AIDS Goes Beyond Morality'
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38940
By Lynette Corporal

COLOMBO, Aug 18 (IPS/TerraViva) - On the second day of the three-day Interfaith Community Forum ahead of the 8th International Congress for AIDS in the Asia-Pacific (ICAAP) here, different religious groups gathered together to share their experiences dealing with HIV and AIDS -- once a controversial, taboo issue for many of them.

Buddhist monks, Catholic priests and nuns, Christian pastors, Muslim imams, and Hindu religious leaders all took part in discussing ways to prevent the spread of the pandemic without resorting to judgments and stigma, and responding in a way relevant to the everyday lives of their communities.

"Before, the discussion used to centre around what AIDS is and what to do about it. But now, we are sharing experiences about how different sectors of society are providing support to people with HIV. Whereas before when it was all talk, we are seeing more action now," said Abdus Sabur, secretary-general of the Bangkok-basd Asian Muslim Action Network that helps coordinate the activities of 45 Muslim participants from 15 countries at the community forum.

This is a good sign, he added, because Muslim religious leaders or imams are now participating in the dialogue and exploring ways on how to lessen the stigma of and support the people with HIV.

But, he conceded, there are still many misconceptions. "There is still some stigma and prejudice, with some people thinking it is not a priority issue, or that HIV-positive persons are a deviation from Islam," he said a day before ICAAP went underway in the capital of this South Asian island nation.

But thanks to the actions of various groups, support for HIV-positive persons is becoming wider and bigger in the Muslim community, a far cry from the situation in previous years.

For HIV-positive Adam Yulius Sarijoan, field coordinator of the Indonesia-based non-government organisation Yakita, this says a lot about the growing maturity of the community. "Before, HIV-positive persons had a bad image in the religious community. We were ostracised and couldn't do anything about it. But now, I see the acceptance and support pouring in," said the 30-year-old field coordinator of Yakita, which provides assistance to former drug dependents.

For the Hindu community, dealing with the HIV and AIDS pandemic is best approached in an organised manner. Hindu participants agree that they need to have a good network if they want to make an impact in the prevention of the spread of the virus.

"This is why we are here, to see how we can move forward from just talking about religion to really addressing individual problems. It is important to change the attitude of religious leaders, especially those who are still in denial that the issue of the pandemic is a real and grave threat if ignored," said Padmini Perera of Sarvodaya, the oldest and biggest NGO in Sri Lanka.

Perera believes that religious leaders, being powerful opinion makers, will be very effective messengers about HIV infection and AIDS at the grassroots level. "What we really want is to find out the ways to take this forward and to really make a difference in effecting change. Both religious leaders and the faithful need to work together," said Dr Lalith Chandradasa of Sarvodaya.

Knowing the complex levels of understanding and acceptance among the faithful, Sagarika Chetty, executive secretary for justice, peace and life of the National Council of Churches in India, says it will take some more time to have a single voice about the whole issue.

Like the others, she believes that progress has been made and built on the early concerns of giving care and support to people living with HIV and AIDS. "Now, we're talking about such things as universal accessibility (to medicine) and ethical dilemmas. It's very advanced thinking," said Chetty.

For the Buddhist monks who took part in the meetings, the faithful must use the Buddhist way to solve the problem -- to first look for the cause and second, to find the solution. To do this would mean engagement in discussion with the community.

Burmese Buddhist monk U Ponnyananda said, however, that discussion should always be followed by action. The monk from Mandalay practises what he preaches in his Phaung Daw Oo Monastic Education High School, which is involved in the training of novice monks to become peer educators. These young monks, in turn, teach the youth about health matters, the perils of drug use and sex education.

In efforts to educate people about HIV and AIDS, U Ponnyananda identifies the language barrier in Burma, which is home to many ethnic groups, as a major stumbling block. "Discussing sex education with parents, children and even monks is also quite difficult," he said.

Linda Hartke of the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance added: "The key is to find effective ways for both religious leaders and the community to take active part in the whole process. Yet, they need to use different strategies." But for all the participants, it all boils down to how their respective faiths will figure in HIV-positive people's quest for healing in all levels -- physical, emotional, spiritual. Often, a religious community's support and acceptance will make or break this process.

Said Sabur: "We always emphasise that religious teachings are very helpful in the way we conduct our way of life. At the same time, people have different levels of understanding, so deviation is possible. If we stick to the morality question, then people with HIV will have already been judged. But if we keep in mind the teaching that to serve a sick person is to serve God, and accept that person as part of the community, then we are on the right track."

Anthony Perera, a Catholic priest from Sri Lanka, shares Sabur's sentiments, saying that communities need to have an "education of the heart". "This is what is lacking, a spiritual formation that will give meaning and hope to a person's life," he shared.

(*Terra Viva is an IPS publication) (END/2007)

HIV/AIDS-affected women take woes before “court”

HIV/AIDS-affected women take woes before “court”
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/070819/News/nws18.html
By Nadia Fazlulhaq and Isuri Kaviratna. Pix by J. Weerasekare

Twenty women infected with HIV, who were accused, abused and expelled from their marital homes narrated their tales of woe when they appeared before the First Asia Pacific Court for Women on HIV and inheritance and property rights. The ‘court’ came into session at the BMICH yesterday as part of the 8th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP).

The women from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Papua New Guinea and South Africa giving their testimony said how they were dispossessed of their inheritance and property rights by their families and by society because of their infection. A mother of two, the Sri Lankan representative of AIDS victims said it was in 2001 that she found out she was HIV positive and this was the beginning of her agony.
Ms. Caitlin Wiesen HIV/AIDS team leader with Ms. Madhu Bhushan of the Asian Women’s Human Rights Commission

“After my husband returned from Germany and began working in a hotel at Piliyandala in 2001 he often fell sick and it was then that the doctors confirmed he was HIV positive. The folks in the village didn’t know about the HIV except that he was suffering from a severe disease,” the Sri Lankan representative said.

She said her life took a turn for the worse when a minor employee of the hospital exposed the truth about her husband to the villagers.“Our daughters were expelled from school and the villagers ignored us while insisting we leave the village without spreading AIDS in the village,” the woman said.

She said her husband left her leaving behind a letter and a few days later, he was found near a temple in Colombo.“He had taken poison. The doctors couldn’t save his life,” the woman said.
She said the village had by now turned hostile with the villagers who had gradually became strangers compelling the now broken family to leave home.“My two daughters and I could not to step outside the house for fear of being assaulted by the villagers and for four days we were virtually starving without any food in the house.

“On the fourth day the villagers, roused up by my husband’s brother who was eying our property, set the house on fire,” the woman alleged. She said that we now live in a room provided by the Salvation Army while her brother-in-law occupied the house and property that were registered under the name of her husband and her.

“I wanted to go to courts but lawyers were reluctant to take up my case” the woman lamented. The HIV-affected woman from India relating her tale of woe said she was well educated and from a respected family in Chennai. She fell in love with her fiancé and married him. Now a mother of one she later came to know that her husband had many illicit love affairs.

Sri Lankan representative of AIDS victims addresses the court of women at the BMICH yesterday

“I miscarried several times and after five such miscarriages I checked myself for HIV because at school I learnt of some of its symptoms. I found I am HIV positive. “My husband and I thought the whole family should commit suicide but when we checked whether our child was HIV positive and found out she was not we decided that for the child’s sake we must live,” the woman from India said.

She said in three months her husband died and her in-laws blamed her for his death.“I handed over my daughter to an orphanage fearing that she may get infected and without a job I had no way of providing her with food either. I starved for many days as nobody was willing to give me a job or any food” the woman said.

She said sometime later she got a job through the Positive Network as an ICTC counsellor and now lived with her daughter. The woman said her father filed a case against her relating to property inheritance and had refused to support her daughter in providing for her education.
The AIDS victim from Nepal said she was forced into marriage at the age of 12 and was exploited at her husband’s house and unable to put up with it any longer she escaped and returned to her parent’s home but her parents forced her to go back to her marital home.

State must recognise the rights of the suffering

UN Special Rapporteur Miloon Kothari who was a member of the jury of the Court of Women on HIV told The Sunday Times that the testimonies were powerful as well as disturbing as it reflects the stigma, brutalities and discrimination that society bestows on these stricken women.
“The right for Housing and Property is an internationally recognised right. The state should recognise the rights of the AIDS-affected and it’s important the Government was obliged to implement Human Rights” he said.

Mr. Kothari said Economic and Social policies of a country should also be served even at the lower levels of the society and not only for global imperatives.

“Though the constitution speaks of equality, we clearly see no such quality for the HIV affected.” he added. Justice Shiranee Tilakawardena speaking a few words on the present situation said Sri Lankans were refusing to admit that AIDS was prevailing in the country.
The Jury for the Court of Women included Miloon Kothari, UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, Justice Shiranee Tilakawardane, Marina Mahathir of Malaysia, Justice Kalyan Shrestha of Nepal, Cherie Honkala of United States, Lawrence Liang of India and Farida Akthar of Bangladesh.

“On the way, I managed to escape and a kind lady helped me. She said her sister was working for a factory in another part of Nepal and I can join and all that need to be done was to sell the clothes from the factory,” she said. On the way the two of them had been drugged and taken to India.

“It was then that I got to know that I was sold for 15,000 Indian rupees. I was beaten when she I refused to be a sex worker. “For one year I was trapped in the brothel and later the police raided the house of ill-fame and I was rescued and sent back to Nepal. By then I was 14 years old,” the Nepali woman said.

She said her parents refused to her accept her as she was by now found to be HIV positive, a second check up found the initial diagnosis was wrong and later she got married and had a child but recently another test had found her to be HIV positive.“My husband and my daughter don’t know I’m HIV positive or else they will chase me and make my life miserable” she said.
A recent UNDP socio-economic impact study and the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) done in India show that 79 % of the AIDS widows in the country were denied a share of their husbands’ property and 90 % were expelled from their marital homes with indignity, humiliation and discrimination. The “court” brought to the public’s atention the challenges faced by women in the context of HIV/AIDS.

Sri Lankans also vulnerable to AIDS

The HIV/AIDS practice team leader and regional coordinator for Asia & Pacific, Ms. Caitlin Wiesen-Antin told the Sunday Times that vulnerability to HIV/AIDS in Sri Lanka was high although the rate of infection was low.

One of the participants at the International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific held at the BMICH on Saturday

“The increasing number of migrant workers (depending on the condition under which they migrate), the internally displaced due to conflict and also drug users who inject themselves are among the high risk groups in Sri Lankan society,” she said.

Ms. Wiesen said monogamic women whose husbands were clients of sex workers ended up as victims of this disease and added that homosexuality too was a contributing factor in the spreading of HIV.

“There is a feminisation of the epidemic in the Asia pacific region. Most of the young girls are trafficked through undocumented and illicit migrations. “Even if the disease is inherited from the husband, women are victimized in their marital homes as well as native homes, especially when the woman becomes a widow.

“The age limit of contracting the disease has come down and we see that the disease is now spreading among youth. We want to educate young adults to have safe sex as a precautionary measure,” she said.

Ms. Wiesen said open discussions should be conducted not only on prevention but also on the removal of the stigma and discrimination associated with the disease. She said those most respected in society such as religious leaders should approach the general public in addressing this issue and encourage people to indulge in safe sex with the use of condoms.

According to the National STD and AIDS Control Programme of the Health Service, as at June this year some 886 people were known to be infected with HIV/AIDS and of them 41% were women with 10 deaths being reported. As at end of 2006 some 26 paediatric cases of HIV were recorded in Sri Lanka.

Sweat it out to stay healthy

Sweat it out to stay healthy
http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/08/18/10147413.html
The Telegraph Published: August 18, 2007, 00:05
London: Public health experts have warned people need to take "vigorous" exercise for at least 20 minutes three times a week to stay healthy.

Just taking the odd stroll is not enough to "maintain and improve health," according to the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association. They now want vigorous exercise to be "explicitly" recommended.

They fear their original guidance from 1995, which recommended adults aged 18-65 should engage in at least 30 minutes' moderate exercise on most days of the week, has been "misinterpreted".

Writing in Circulation, they stated: "There are people who have not accepted, and others who have misinterpreted, the original recommendation. Some people continue to believe that only vigorous intensity activity will improve health while others believe that the lightest activities of their daily lives are sufficient to promote health." The experts' original advice was adopted in 1996.

In the UAE, a cardiologist said the local weather poses a handicap for outdoor sports and the high cost gym membership deters some people from exercising.

"Twenty per cent of the UAE adult population has diabetes and only half of them really exercise," said Dr J.V. Sebastian, head of cardiology department at Welcare Hospital. "People should choose a sport or exercise they can do easily and enjoy and then stick to it," he said.
With additional inputs from Emmanuelle Landais/Gulf News Staff Reporter

Are Abortion Pills Better Than Surgical Procedures?

Are Abortion Pills Better Than Surgical Procedures?
http://www.newslocale.org/health/hnews/are_abortion_pills_better_than_surgical_procedures?_20070817402.html
Written by Neil Simmons
Friday, 17 August 2007

Using an abortion pill to terminate an unwanted pregnancy appears to be a safe method and does not affect the health of women who choose it, according to a large study by researchers at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Medical termination of pregnancy posed no danger to future successful pregnancies and did not elevate the risk of having an ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage, preterm birth or low birth weight babies in future.

Pregnancy can be terminated by two methods; medical and surgical. In the medical option, three methods are available. A medical abortion is undertaken from the time a woman suspects and confirms pregnancy until nine weeks from the last menstrual period.

Some of the common drugs used for medical abortions are mifepristone and misoprostol. Misoprostol is a drug that can be used alone to terminate a pregnancy medically. Additionally methotrexate is used first followed by misoprostol or mifepristone followed by misoprostol is used as per the suggestion of the doctors.

Mifepristone is also known as "Mifeprex" or "RU-486." It works by blocking progesterone from acting on the uterus thus causing the lining to shed and stopping pregnancy from progressing further. On the other hand Misoprostol (Cyotec) causes cramping and bleeding by contracting the uterus.

The most commonly used medical method to terminate a pregnancy is a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol, background information in this study appearing in the August 16 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine revealed.

The researchers used data from Denmark's national registry and involved 12,000 women who had had an abortion in the first three months of pregnancy for for non-medical reasons. These abortions took place between 1999 and 2004. Among them 2,710 women had opted for a medical abortion, while 9,104 had undergone surgical abortion.

Researchers found that in future pregnancies, 2.4 percent of women who had undergone medical abortion experienced tubal or ectopic pregnancies as compared to 2.3 percent in the surgical abortion group. Some 12.2 percent of women in the medical abortion group had a miscarriage in their future pregnancies, while 12.7 percent for the surgical group experienced miscarriages.

They found no statistical difference in the number of adverse events in future pregnancies in both groups.

Previous studies have highlighted the safety of surgical abortions, which are thought to be 98 percent effective. However this is the first study to focus on the effectiveness and safety of medical abortions.

Mifepristone was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2000. The drug also called as RU-486 has been involved in considerable controversy. In the three years from 2003 to 2006 seven women died after consuming Mifepristone and misoprostol, or misoprostol alone. But 360,000 American women were able to safely use it by 2004, the background information in the NEJM article stresses.

An earlier study conducted in France and published in the American Journal of Epidemiology four years ago had found a three-fold increase in risk of ectopic pregnancy following a medical abortion. However this study found no such association.

"We were kind of concerned, and we wanted to either confirm or refute these previous findings," said study co-author Dr. Jun Zhang, a senior investigator and epidemiologist at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Reacting to the findings, Vanessa Cullins, vice president for medical affairs for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said Mifepristone was generally safe for medical abortions. "The data from this study shows health care providers and women that medication abortion compares very well with surgical abortion for safety and effectiveness for women who want to plan healthy pregnancies in the future," she added.

Despite the drop in the number of abortions each year, doctors still perform about 1 million surgical abortion procedures annually. The so-called abortion pills offer an alternative to women to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. However no decision must be taken without consulting your doctor who is in the best position to advise you.

Illegal Exaction Ceased Medicine Supply to Indian State

Illegal Exaction Ceased Medicine Supply to Indian State
http://www.medindia.net/news/Illegal-Exaction-Ceased-Medicine-Supply-to-Indian-State-25117-1.htm

Medicine shipments to a revolt-hit state in India's northeast have dried up after pharmaceutical firms were told to pay 250,000 dollars in extortion money, officials said on Thursday.

Separatist rebels in Manipur ordered all pharmaceutical companies operating in the state to pay militants a total of 10 million rupees (250,000 dollars).

The extortion demand was telephoned in to local newspapers in Manipur in early August and appeared as news reports.

The reports did not specify in detail who made the extortion demand, gave no deadline for payment and did not specify the consequences if no money was paid.

However, the state's top health official said the government was taking the demand seriously and was working with drug companies to encourage them to resume supplying Manipur.

"We're negotiating with companies to resume supplies very soon and have assured them of full protection and security," Manipur Health Minister Parijat Singh told AFP by telephone from state capital Imphal. "

There's no need to panic and in a day or two we shall ensure supplies of drugs," he said.

Among the thousands affected as drugs became scarce were many people living with AIDS in a region where HIV-infection rates are high.

"I have been without ART (anti-retroviral therapy) for the last four days -- there are no medicines available," Bimla, an HIV-positive woman, told AFP.

Pharmacy stores reported they were running low on many drugs and basic materials like syringes and bandages.

Illegal Exaction Ceased Medicine Supply to Indian State

Illegal Exaction Ceased Medicine Supply to Indian State


Medicine shipments to a revolt-hit state in India's northeast have dried up after pharmaceutical firms were told to pay 250,000 dollars in extortion money, officials said on Thursday.

Separatist rebels in Manipur ordered all pharmaceutical companies operating in the state to pay militants a total of 10 million rupees (250,000 dollars).


The extortion demand was telephoned in to local newspapers in Manipur in early August and appeared as news reports. The reports did not specify in detail who made the extortion demand, gave no deadline for payment and did not specify the consequences if no money was paid. However, the state's top health official said the government was taking the demand seriously and was working with drug companies to encourage them to resume supplying Manipur. "We're negotiating with companies to resume supplies very soon and have assured them of full protection and security," Manipur Health Minister Parijat Singh told AFP by telephone from state capital Imphal. "There's no need to panic and in a day or two we shall ensure supplies of drugs," he said. Among the thousands affected as drugs became scarce were many people living with AIDS in a region where HIV-infection rates are high. "I have been without ART (anti-retroviral therapy) for the last four days -- there are no medicines available," Bimla, an HIV-positive woman, told AFP. Pharmacy stores reported they were running low on many drugs and basic materials like syringes and bandages.

LET’S NOT DO IT

LET’S NOT DO IT
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070818/asp/opinion/story_8203061.asp

Can coyness be taught in the classroom? The Centre thinks it ought to be, as part of Adolescent Education. The ministry of human resource development will be clearing a manual that would be used to teach students, from their mid to late teens, how to say no to a variety of risky proposals without actually saying no. The proposals have been thought up as vaguely sexual ones (let’s watch porn/go to a night show/ spend some time alone), or else they are invitations to smoke or drink. The manuals offer templates for classroom discussion in government schools, although the teachers who use them are advised to adapt the situations to specific social and cultural contexts. It is significant that almost all these propositions are imagined as being made by boys to girls. All of them assume that the boys are up to no good when they make these suggestions, and good girls — who naturally feel like initiating none of these forms of behaviour — ought to be taught how to resist these temptations without sounding unnaturally dour. The aim is prohibition, but achieved through lessons in evasion and indirection. The fundamental principle is one of denial.

This manual proves that, in India, before children are taught about sex, it is the adults — teachers, textbook-writers, policy-makers, ministers — who must be educated. These adults have to be taught several things. First, they must be made to confront and overcome their embarrassments and awkwardnesses about sex, things they have been taught never to put clearly into words, and hence, never to think through properly. Second, they have to be taught to remember their own adolescence so as to understand how sexuality is experienced by ‘children’ from puberty until legal adulthood. Third, they have to be persuaded about the urgent need for sex education — given the frightening reality of HIV/AIDS and of the sexual abuse of children in India. Finally, in spite of the immediate context of danger, disease and death, the educators must also accept that sex is something most people enjoy, and it is an experience often associated with pleasure, with love, with spontaneity and even a kind of innocence. The spirit of sex is therefore inimical to Thou-shalt-not grimness, although sex taps into almost every area of moral and ethical behaviour. Also, openness and candour does not mean divesting sex of its natural need for privacy and reticence.

Although sex education is, at a crucial level, about information, imparting it properly is bound to take both teacher and student well beyond mere technicalities of health and hygiene. Almost every aspect of human life — private and public, physical and metaphysical, pleasurable and painful, serious and frivolous — is implicated in thinking through sexual attitudes and behaviour. The art of saying no is perhaps the wrong way to approach something that most people enjoy imagining saying yes to.

Welcome to Agnihotra.org

Welcome to Agnihotra.org!
http://agnihotra.org/

Home of the Satsang Publication
Para Español, presione aquí
On this website you will find:Information on Agnihotra
Ayurvedic healing fire- how to perform it- International contacts- Agnihotra timings- Scientific experiments with Agnihotra- Orion Excerpts on the Environment- Pranayams: Breathing exercises- If you would like to help- Homa Therapy

This website is maintained by Fivefold Path Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to the propagation of Agnihotra and the Fivefold Path all over the planet.

Satsang is the newsletter of Fivefold Path Inc. It contains articles on Agnihotra and the experiences of Agnihotra practitioners from around the world.To see back issues, click here

WHAT IS AGNIHOTRA?

Agnihotra is the process of purifying the atmosphere through specially prepared fire. This healing fire comes from the Vedas, the most ancient body of knowledge known to man.
Agnihotra has three inputs:

- Specific organic substances burned in a copper pyramid
- Timings Agnihotra is performed at exact sunrise and sunset
- Vibrational input in the form of a short Sanskrit mantra

Agnihotra heals the environment. It can be used for personal healing, gardening and farming, and in psychotherapy.

By doing Agnihotra,thousands of people around the world have experienced improved health, more energy and less stress.

Agnihotra takes only a few minutes per day to perform.
Agnihotra is the first aspect of the Fivefold Path.

For instructions on how to perform Agnihotra, click here

WHAT IS THE FIVEFOLD PATH?

The Fivefold Path is a guide for happy living:

1. Perform AGNIHOTRA for purification of the atmosphere which leads to automaticpurification of mind.
2. Practice DAAN (sharing of assets in a spirit of humility to reduce attachment to worldlypossessions).
3. Practice TAPA (becoming better managers of our energy expenditure by training thebody and mind to react to all circumstances in life with Total Love).
4. Perform KARMA (every action for self purification only and thus no expectationswhich bind us to the material world).
5. Practice SWADHYAYA (Self-study) for liberation. Who am I? Why am I here? Mywork on this planet is to learn to react with total LOVE with each opportunity given to me.

This is the Fivefold Path for happy living on the planet. By practicing the Fivefold Pathyou become better members of your society, group, religion, community, etc.
Questions or comments may be directed to:
Fivefold Path Inc. 278 N. White Oak Drive, Madison, Virginia 22727 USA E-mail: info@agnihotra.org 540-948-5463

Senses and Soul - A Sexuality Handbook by Sakshi

Senses & Soul- A Sexuality Handbook by Sakshi
http://www.indianng%20os.com/pressrele%20ases/sakshi.%20htm

Sakshi is pleased to present its two volume handbook entitled "Senses & Soul- A Workshop on Sexuality". This rich resource pack is a creative inspiration for potential sexuality educators or for individual readers. The pack is equipped with a handbook of experiential exercises supported by six one minute films and a facilitator's guide on how to use these films. In addition the pack includes a documentary film by Sakshi called Mirror Mirror on the Wall… Who am I After All?, a 29 minute film which captures the positive and healthy spirit of one school's experience with Sakshi's sexuality education program.

Most Sexuality Education being delivered at present is anchored in information sharing that protects rather than empowers and informs. It is also exclusive and circumscribed. Equally, the language of AIDS and HIV has tended to place sexuality within a negative and at times unhealthy understanding. Teenagers along with parents tend to use this approach to limit behaviour rather than expand it through informed and enabling information, language and understanding. Through this handbook, Sakshi's seeks to expand the fabric of natural and healthy conversation as well as sharing around sexuality doing away with myths, taboos, shame and silence. We seek to enroll educators, students, parents and others into the language of sexuality as a natural and empowering process.

Our overarching goal through this handbook is to approach the sometimes uncomfortable messages around sexuality through the more holistic and empowering approach of responsible sexuality.

In the words of Radhika K. Jung UNIFEM, New Delhi :

“Yet, another recommended resource is ‘Senses and Soul’: A wonderful training handbook on sexuality produced by Sakshi through support from the Mac Arthur Foundation and the Resource Centre for Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS. It beautifully describes sexuality as: “Sexuality is not about academicising, romanticizing, theorizing or politicizing reality. Sexuality education is about living an everyday life through the complete experience of my spirit without recourse to stories, myths or conventions. It is about recognizing who or what is in control of my spirit and its choices at different moments of the day”.

About the handbook

The handbook consists of two volumes. The first volume is an accumulation of experiential exercises Sakshi has creatively developed over the years in addressing sexuality. For us the issue of sexuality is a holistic process, contrary to the predominant clinical model and taboos around sex education in India .
The handbook has been divided into three main sections:
1. Denial: This section helps to question/ explore where we are situated and why. It aims to develop a contextual understanding of our existing value system regarding sexuality.
2. The Journey Of Transition: This section contains exercises that form a bridge between first and third sections and describes elements of the journey needed to arrive at self defined paths.
3. Acceptance: This section attempts to arrive at redefining a sexual self to arrive at autonomous sexual realizations.
Each exercise is further divided into:
· A Story/ Reflection; brief description of the concept being explored
· Learning objectives
· Type of exercise
· Material being used
· Time taken
· Process of the exercise
· Points of discussion
· “Voices” which convey some possible responses
· Discussions, anticipated outcomes and some insights

The voices, discussions, anticipated outcomes and insights are those of participants over several workshops. These are only illustrative and may vary from group to group. Insights are those provided by us from our own experience. No doubt you will explore and discover your own. The order in which the exercises have been set out is based on what has worked with groups, but this may be modified and adapted provided the learning objectives and ground rules are adhered to.

Volume two is a facilitator’s guide to six one minute films which are meant as stimuli for discussions on issues such as: the power of "no", menopause, having fun, vagina monologues, turning within.

Each volume is enhance by the colour, texture, and rich artwork to reflect the aesthetics of sexuality as we have presented it here.

"Mirror Mirror on the Wall… Who Am I After All? " is a film scripted and directed by Sakshi based on the experiences of conducting a sexuality workshop with a school situated in a conservative town ( Ghaziabad ). The workshop was spread over the year and carried out with Standard 11 students (16/17 year olds), with all teachers of the school, and through interactive sessions with parents. In the end, the success of approaching sexuality from a positive perspective rather than a biological one was considered unique. The film is an outcome of the workshop. It moves through different issues that were addressed in the workshop eg. information, body talk, eviction of shame, turning within etc. The film was done with the help of a dance troupe to add the element of fun and approachability through the film. It is a 29 min. documentary.

Read more about the Handbook through an Interview with Naina Kapur (Director Sakshi) the following link:
http://www.indianngos.com/pressreleases/sakshi.htm

Health, Sexuality and Reproductive Rights

Gender Guide for Health Communication Programs, 2003John Hopkins School of Public HealthIncluding gender concerns in health communication programs can makehealth messages more effective and stimulate awareness of the needfor equity in gender roles. This guide provides insight into thegender-based roles and responsibilities that are traditionallyattributed within the society. It highlights ways to implement,develop, and evaluate health programs that respond most effectivelyto the needs of men and women. It aims to make health informationmore accessible and to challenge gender roles through deliveringpractical advice on alternative health behaviors, practices andactions. This guide is intended to help program planners clearlyidentify what changes are expected in communication programs aboutaccess to health in order to reach outcomes that foster genderequity and awareness.
http://www.jhuccp.%20org/pubs/%20cp/102/102.%20pdf

Online Courses on Reproductive Health, Sexuality and SexualHealth, Sexually Transmitted Infections, HIV/AIDS and InfectionPreventionEngenderhealthDesigned for use by health care providers, supervisors, students,and trainers around the world, this series of self-instructionalcourses cover issues like reproductive health, sexuality and sexualhealth, sexually transmitted infections, HIV/AIDS and infectionprevention. Each course consists of different modules that includeinteractive exercises and quizzes, case studies, as well aseducational materials that can be printed for use in health-careprograms that focus on the rights and needs of clients and aim toinvolve clients in participatory approaches to program design,implementation, and evaluation. The courses can be ordered on CD-ROMs as well.
Take a look at:http://www.engender%20health.org/%20res/onc/index.%20html

Training in Gender and HealthFocusing on gender and women's health, these courses cover varioustopics such as domestic violence, masculinities, men's role inreproductive health, women and communicable disease and integratinggender into development. The role and impact of gender on access tohealth are defined within these situations. The training also notesthe ways in which gender stereotypes impact health access and givespractical strategies for overcoming these stereotypes so thatcontrol of resources and health care can equally and specificallybenefit both men and women. This practical training offers modulesand case studies to guide health providers and gender equalityadvocates to cerate more equitable and empowering health programsfor women and men.
http://www.paho.%20org/english/%20hdp/hdw/gendertr%20aining.htm

Sisters for Life: Gender and HIV Training ManualJ. Kim and M. MotseiThis curriculum is based on participatory learning and covers abroad range of issues that have been identified as priorities forrural women. Topics include: gender roles, gender inequality, andculture; the body, sexuality, and gender based violence;communication and relationships; and HIV transmission andprevention. Sessions are structured to give participants anopportunity to strengthen confidence and skills relating tocommunication, critical thinking and leadership. Moreover, they aredesigned to complement microfinance values and principles such asmutual respect, personal responsibility, and group solidarity.Throughout Phase 1, participants are encouraged to identify bothobstacles and opportunities for engaging with men and youth in theircommunities.
http://www.wits.%20ac.za/radar/%20PDF%20files/%20SFL%20Manual.%20pdf

Advocating for Abortion Access. Eleven Countries Studies, 2001The Women's Health ProjectThe result of work undertaken in an international project ofcapacity building for advocacy on expanding abortion policy andaccess, this book offers a comparative analysis of strategies inabortion advocacy based on the experiences of activists in 11countries.
http://web.wits.%20ac.za/NR/%20rdonlyres/%2088FB7645-%209C48-4804-%20B938-8B9D3CF27C26/ 0/Advocatingabor tionAccess. pdf

Can mosquitoes transmit Aids?

Can mosquitoes transmit Aids? http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Aug182007/living2007081719735.asp
Dr Chittaranjan Andrade

We live in a mosquito-infested part of the world, and even if all the experts reassure us, we want to know why mosquitoes cannot transmit Aids. So, consider three situations in which concerns arise.

In the first scenario, you are in a room with a bunch of people and a cloud of mosquitoes. It is dinnertime, and one of the mosquitoes sups on a gentleman who has Aids. The mosquito wobbles off in search of dessert and chances upon you. Now, without washing its mouth parts, it chooses to feast on your blood. You worry that its fangs are blood-stained; you remember that Aids can be spread through contaminated syringes; you panic: when that mosquito bites you after biting an Aids host, is it injecting Aids-containing blood into you?

In the second scenario, you have just been bitten by a mosquito. You wonder: has this mosquito fed on an Aids host recently? If yes, has the mosquito become a flying host to the Aids virus? Has the virus multiplied inside the mosquito and migrated to the insect's salivary glands? And, has the virus been transmitted to you in the mosquito's saliva during the course of the bite, just as happens with the classical mosquito-transmitted diseases?

In the third and what, to you, seems to be the worst-case scenario, the mosquito has gorged itself on an Aids-infected crowd of people. It can fly no longer and settles down on you to rest. You resent being treated as a landing zone; so, you swat at it. Hooray, for the first time that evening you manage to kill one of these pests. Alas, you are aghast to discover that there's Aids-blood splattered all over your skin in the very place that you have a cut. What are your chances of getting Aids?

Scientists have studied each of these scenarios with a variety of blood sucking insects and here, in a nutshell, are the reasons why mosquitoes do not transmit Aids. As an Aids-infected individual actually has very little Aids virus actively circulating in his bloodstream, estimates suggest that Aids transmission through contaminated mouth parts would require being bitten by ten million mosquitoes that have just fed on Aids-infected individuals.

So, the chances of this form of transmission are virtually nonexistent.

For the same reason, the chances are negligible that a mosquito will ingest sufficient Aids-virus particles in its tiny meal to transmit Aids even if the mosquito is killed directly over a cut on the skin immediately after feeding on an Aids-infected person.

Then, mosquitoes digest the virus that causes Aids. As the virus does not survive to reproduce and later migrate to the salivary glands, the mechanism that most mosquito-borne parasites use to get from one host to the next is not possible for the Aids virus.

Lastly, mosquitoes take in blood through one channel and inject saliva into you through another channel. This is different from the syringe and needle analogy wherein the same channel draws in and flushes out fluids. So, if the mosquito bites you after feeding on an Aids host, it does not flush out Aids blood into your bloodstream. In other words, the syringe and needle analogy is not applicable to mosquitoes. So, although mosquitoes may transmit diseases such as malaria, they do not transmit Aids.

Workshop puts students on guard against human trafficking

Workshop puts students on guard against human trafficking http://www.hindu.com/2007/08/18/stories/2007081861030500.htm
Staff Reporter
“It is a shady industry spanning several countries”
For a cause: Students taking a pledge to create awareness of and prevent trafficking, at CSI Bain’s School in Chennai on Friday. —

CHENNAI: Upturned faces alternated between horror and laughter at CSI Bain’s School in Kilpauk on Friday, as students listened in rapt attention to a presentation on human trafficking, which was interspersed with games.

Organised by the Madras Christian Council of Social Service (MCCSS), the workshop focussed on several issues, including the magnitude of the problem in Tamil Nadu and the modus operandi of traffickers. “It is a social evil. Adolescent girls especially are targeted. They are lured into commercial sex, pornography, sex tourism, begging or domestic work,” a representative of the MCCSS explained to the students.

Discussing the problem in the State, MCCSS executive secretary R. Isabella said that procurers targeted poor families and lured away young boys and girls with a promise of getting them highly paid jobs in the city. “It is a huge network and so it is difficult to catch them,” she said.
According to the MCCSS, the menace is a $8-billion industry and spans several countries, with India being both a source of victims as a well as a transit destination. “Women in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are especially vulnerable,” another representative of the MCCSS said, adding that HIV/AIDS, drug addiction and pregnancies were caused in many cases of trafficking.

Ponni, a transgender and representative of the MCCSS, highlighted the problems faced by her community when it came to trafficking by describing her experiences.

To demonstrate a common lure used by traffickers, a few members of the MCCS then performed a skit that had the children laughing while at the same time showing them how vulnerable people were to the wiles and charm of people involved in trafficking.

A poster-drawing competition was then held. Around 100 students of the CSI Bain’s and CSI Ewart’s Schools participated in it. In a resultant riot of colour, the students painted on the theme ‘Stop Trafficking’.

Jeff Pankratz, a representative of Justice Ventures International, an organisation that supports the MCCSS, administered an oath to the students. They pledged to do their best to create awareness of trafficking and do their utmost to prevent it.

P. Manorama, chairperson, Child Welfare Committee, and Beulah Azariah, south regional coordinator of Initiatives: Women in Development, judged the competition in which Josephine Vanspall, a student of CSI Bain’s School, won the first prize.

Nearly 70,000 children living with HIV virus in India

Nearly 70,000 children living with HIV virus in India
http://www.spiritindia.com/health-care-news-articles-12404.html

Indian Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Panabaka Lakshmi said paediatric antiretroviral ARV drugs are available at 127 centres across the country.

She said as per the revised estimates, there are 70,000 HIV infected children in the country and nearly 21,000 new infections occur in children every year.

"Following the launch of paediatric ART initiative in November 2006, more than 18,000 infected children have been identified and currently nearly 6,500 eligible children are receiving ARV paediatric drugs," she said.

Denying that there was any shortage of ARV drugs, she said about 17,000 children are availing them.

The minister said the estimates for the year 2006 recently released by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), supported by UNAIDS and WHO, indicated that there are around two million to 3.1 million people living with HIV in the country.

Noting that the epidemic has stabilised at 0.36 per cent prevalence level during the last four years, she said in 2006 and 2005, the HIV figure in the country stood at 2.47 million.

By using the new method of estimation, she said the number of HIV infected persons in 2004 was found to be at 2.44 million.

Andhra Pradesh, which has a prevalence rate of 1.6 per cent, has around 4,79,866 people infected with the virus, while in Manipur, having a prevalence rate of 1.68 per cent, the figure stands at 22,010.

In Nagaland with a prevalence rate is 1.27 per cent, around 15,277 people have been infected with the virus.

Friday 17 August 2007

UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women - Application Guidelines

UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women - Application Guidelines

The UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women is accepting applications for its 12th grant cycle (2007) related to one of the following areas of work:

Implementation of existing laws, policies and plans of action to address violence against women.
Reducing the twin pandemics of HIV/AIDS and violence against women.

Please read the following region-specific guidelines for information on how to apply for a Trust Fund grant in your region, including application deadline.

Note: These guidelines are in PDF format and/or ZIP archive. To be able to open them, you will need to have Adobe Reader and/or an archive decompressor installed on your computer, respectively. Recommended archive decompressors (free): IZArc or 7-Zip.

Africa

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Thursday 16 August 2007

Empowering Men Who Have Sex With Men to Fight AIDS

Empowering Men Who Have Sex With Men to Fight AIDS2007-08-15
http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=15784
In 85 countries of the world, it is illegal for men to have sex with other men. Male-male sexual relationships are stigmatized, driving men to hide their activities from friends, family members and health workers, according to a recent report by the International Lesbian and Gay Association. Because these men are forced to live part of their lives underground, they often lack access to basic services and, as a result, are at increased risk of HIV/AIDS.

Men who have sex with men ( MSM ) is a term that applies to those who identify as “gay,” but it also includes many MSM throughout the world whose gender and sexual identities defy Western categorization. For instance, in India there are at least three designations: “Kothis” are effeminate MSM who may nonetheless be married to women and have families; “panthis” are masculine men who have sex with kothis; and “hijras,” who are often castrated, are often considered to be a third gender altogether.

While these groups often do not identify as a cohesive community, they share a vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. Men who have sex with men are among the most vulnerable populations to HIV transmission worldwide, and yet they continue to be one of the most underserved. Today, fewer than one in 20 MSM has access to basic HIV education, prevention services or care. Many will die of AIDS simply because appropriate programs to support them do not exist.

The numbers tell the story. Studies in Uruguay and Ukraine have shown prevalence among MSM to be between 20 percent and 30 percent; in Kenya, the number is a staggering 38 percent. These statistics are comparable to the parts of sub-Saharan Africa with the highest rates of HIV infection. Around the world, these epidemics threaten to take an even greater toll unless something is done.

We have learned many lessons in the fight against AIDS in the West, where the gay community was among the first to be severely affected by the disease. Responding to the epidemic in the early 1980s, grassroots gay organizations arose to combat homophobia and fight for increased funding for AIDS research and social services.

Just as grassroots organizations led the fight against AIDS in the West, they are vitally needed in the developing world. Grassroots organizations work because they understand the obstacles facing the communities they serve. They know who to reach, how to reach them, and what to say to move this issue to the forefront. Today’s challenge is how to learn from our past successes to support burgeoning grassroots movements in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

In response to this global challenge, amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, is launching a new initiative this week that will provide seed grants to grassroots organizations doing innovative work with MSM groups on the ground in the developing world.

These grants will be designed to fight stigma and discrimination; provide AIDS education; fund prevention efforts, treatment and care; and generate visibility and resources for these groups. For too long, squeamish and homophobic governments have failed to provide even the basic tools for MSM to protect themselves from HIV. We must have the courage to stand side by side with the grassroots organizations on the front lines of this epidemic delivering services and demanding greater action from governments and the global institutions charged with protecting vulnerable populations from HIV.

Collectively, we have learned many lessons over the last quarter century in the fight against AIDS. One of these lessons is that, in any culture, the people who can make the biggest difference are those who have personal experience on the front lines of the epidemic. To effectively fight the AIDS epidemic among MSM, we need to enable community-based groups to design and implement their own programs. The AIDS-activist movement owes its success to its grassroots heritage and its ability to empower the disenfranchised. As we move forward, let us remember the lessons of our earlier success.

Kevin Frost is the interim CEO and vice president for global initiatives of amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research. Dr. Chris Beyrer is the director of the Center for Public Health and Human Rights at The Johns Hopkins University.

Imparting Sex-education in schools

Imparting Sex-education in schools
http://www.nagalandpost.com/Leisuredesc.asp?sectionid=45403

Imparting Sex-education in the schools of India is a highly complicated and delicate subject. Some scholars and educationists are of the opinion that it should be introduced in the syllabi or curriculum of the schools. Some educationists are quite against it. So, it has become a subject of debate. Due to the rapid development in the field of science and technology, the children of modern age know more about many things than what their parents, grandfathers and grandmothers knew at the same age. Adoption of liberal views by youths has been increasing day by day. It is a result of the mass media and onslaught of the foreign channels. Now, parents and guardians of the children feel that the foreign media is fostering negative impact in the minds of youngsters. Survey conducted by many NGOs express that on an average, every urban student watches television for 2 (Two) hours daily. The overdose of vulgarity and crudity shown in Indian cinema and videos has been causing adverse and harmful affect on youths.
HIV and AIDS are dreaded and lethal diseases. Healthy person is infected with this dreaded disease mostly as a result of having physical relationship with the victim of AIDS. So far, science has not invented any cure for this disease. The virus HIV causing AIDS slowly but steadily deteriorates the immune system and ultimately kills the affected person. The person becomes the host of many diseases, such as severe weight loss, weakness, diarrhea, pneumonia. Owing to prejudice members of the family and medical profession generally do not care for the patient. Parents must educate their children about this disease. Parents should also educate their children about upholding moral and ethical values. They should also explain them the significance of having only one sex partner and bad effect of moral degradation caused by pre-marital sex or extra marital sex. One another reason in favour of imparting sex education in schools is spurt in incidents of physical assault on minors. According to the remarks of W.H.O, 10 percent children are sexually abused. Parents feel shy for educating their children against such abuse by the elders, so such incidents occur. Children happen to be naïve, consequently falling victim to the advances of elders. It has been observed that in most of the cases of sexual abuse, guilty of assault are known to the victims. The victims have to live with trauma through out their lives. So, parents should educate their children specially minors to avoid talking to strangers and not to be lured by gifts and sweets. Parents should foster in the minds of children at their early stage simple etiquettes, mannerisms and ideal behaviour. They should also teach their children how to sit, talk and hold oneself in the company of elders. Parents must always strive to guard their children.

During the period of adolescence the children experience mental and physical change.
They are moved or swayed by emotions and imaginations. They behold the world in mature way. At this stage, parents treat them as children where as they want to assert their age. At this stage, at the time of interaction, generation gap between parents and their children widens. Parents hesitate to discuss about the problems faced by their teenaged children. By nature, the children happen to be inquisitive, so, they turn to their friends. They get access to misinformation through cheap pornographic literature or videos. These materials instill in their young minds the perverse ideas. As a result of this, boys seek carnal gratification at the hands of prostitutes or immoral women who care little about personal hygiene. Some girls are also easily duped or ensnared by boys. For carnal pleasure, some shy girls use various types of sex tools and contraceptives. Such gullible teenagers fall victim to sexually transmitted diseases like gonorrhoea, chlamydiasis, syphilis and trichomoniasis. Due to the lack of knowledge about the adverse e1fects of maintaining physical relationship with a boy, some girls have teenage pregnancies and abortions. Many girls are easily duped in to such relationships because of lack of proper guidance at home.

In India, most of the parents hide their love and affection towards each other, in presence of their children. On the occasion of displaying of love for their spouse, they resort to the (stiff upper lip) tradition of the British. The children anticipate and believe that love is taboo and it is perverse to display one's affection in public. It arouses their curiosity to know more about sex, in theory or in practical. Attraction towards the person of opposite increases. It makes the children desirous of developing friendship with the person of opposite sex. Contrary to this, display of proximity by a boy or a girl by shaking hands, walking hand-in-hand or even talking becomes a matter of attention, discourse or ridicule. Parents must strive to understand the psyche of their children. Parents should initiate their children the meaning of love. Parents display love for their children by giving gifts, sharing and caring for them. It can be shown for each other too by behaving like perfectly normal friends. Such a demeanor of the parents toward each other would foster in the minds of the children the sense, that love not only means sharing and caring for each other. But it also means accepting the responsibility of the other.
The period of adolescence is a crucial period of life. Parents should befriend their children to cope up with the changes they under go during this period. Parents must give proper guidance to their children during the period of adolescence. The children will not be vulnerable to immoral acts, if, secure family ambience is created in their growing age. Parents must talk with their children more often in friendly way to provide them with the feeling of security in the family. It will be conducive for children to reveal their problem and help the parents to root out the cause. Some times, parents should interact with the companions of their children. It will help to know their background and understand their mindset or psyche. Time to time, parents must warn their children against developing friendship with immoral persons. The parents should take in their children as confidants. The parents should also divulge some of their misadventures indulged in, when they were young. They should also explain their children that it was because of improper or lack of guidance. To help children to face their life properly, the parents should tell them about the repercussions of such misadventures in later life.

According to the modern trend, the student life remains around 25 years of age, sometimes even more. Parents, guardians and well wishers should tell children that love-life should begin after student life, as higher education would give them awareness and maturity to tackle the problems as well as to shoulder the responsibilities. We should persuade and convince the youths that every stage in life comes at a certain age and stays for a certain period. Life advances in this way - infancy, school life, college life and then pursuit of an occupation. Every stage gives way to next stage because no stage repeats itself. We should not shirk the responsibility in inculcating the true essence of love in children. There would be reduction in several crimes, if we shoulder the responsibility of grooming and educating the children/youths in a proper way.

Imparting of AIDS education and Sex education in schools has become a matter of debate.
Some NGOs tried to introduce training programmes pertaining to AIDS and HIV Awareness, but, this effort was discouraged by Ms. Janaki Rajan, the Director of State Council for Educational Research and Training (New Delhi) and many other educationist and State Govts. It was said that there are other serious and more important issues than these. so these issues must be resolved first. Janaki Rajan said that the mindset of several teachers is such that they punish adolescent students even for minor or trifle reasons. She further added that, in such a scenario where the physical security of a child was not assured, it was of no use to introduce HIV or AIDS related training or syllabi in school curriculum.

Home is the first school for a child and school is the second home for a child consequently school should also realize the responsibility towards children. For child, home is the first place of learning. However, school life remains an integral part of child's development. There are two schools of thought pertaining to introduction of sex education in schools.

The persons who are in favour of imparting sex education in schools assert that, if, parents shoulder their responsibility, the mission of schools in propagating sex education among the students, could be achieved. Parents might find it difficult to teach their children, the lessons related to sex education. In schools, they could be collectively educated with the help of special teachers, psychologists or medical consultants. At the time of imparting sex education in schools, the boys and girls should be divided in to two groups (one for Boys and the other for Girls). Applying this strategy, the children will not feel shy and embarrassed. As a result of this, the students can get clarified their doubts and queries. Sometimes, parents find it impossible to resolve the riddles or complicated questions of their children. Such situation should be tackled by experts. Many of the myths prevalent among children will be dispelled, if sex education in proper way is imparted in schools. It will also be conducive in discouraging access to obscene literature. It will root out many misconceptions prevalent in the society.

The other school of thought is quite against the introduction of sex education in schools.
It asserts that it will deteriorate the situation. It will excite them to develop physical relationship with opposite sex. Their curiosity to know and do will increase; consequently, there are certain chances to fall victim of immoral acts. It is against the culture and tradition of our country. Furthermore, there is galore of medicines and objects meant for birth control and for other sex related matters. Advertisement about all such things is made through television or magazines. So, immoral girls do not worry or hesitate to establish physical relationship with boys, in this way, imparting of sex education in schools will increase sex related crimes. In co-educational institutions, where proximity or access with the person of opposite sex is natural and easy, so, imparting sex-education will be highly detrimental.

After minutely discerning the Pros and Cons, of imparting sex education in schools, I believe that the demerits are more than merits. In my view, the ratio of merits and demerits of imparting Sex Education in Schools will be 10:90 respectively.

G.B.S. Thapa, Assam Rifles School, Kohima, Nagaland.