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8th SWAA Conference report
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| Taking Back our Children |
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| Observations by different parties |
The above conference was held as response to HIV/AIDS child health threatening conditions that afflict Africa, hence the theme, Children and AIDS; Challenges and strategies to cope.
Women and men of Africa, and other regions, stakeholders, scientists, NGOs, donors and Governments had the opportunity to; -
· Review and share experiences of existing interventions for preventing and ameliorating the impact of HIV/AIDS among children in Africa
· Identify areas of collaboration and networking in order to promote regional co- operation in the fight against AIDS
· Advocate for conducive strategies and legislation as well as the promotion and integration of reproductive health and rights, family planning, voluntary counseling and testing, STD case management and HIV/AIDS prevention programmes
· Share in the implementation of the Beijing + 5 and Dakar Platforms for Action
· Focus on the current impact of made by men as partners in the prevention and control of HIV in families
· Draw up a 5–year strategy for SWAA on children and HIV/AIDS in Africa.
Methodology
The meetings were conducted through plenary, breakout sessions and special events. The following themes were covered: -
1. Taking back our children Day1
2. Understanding the perspectives of HIV/AIDS infected/affected children
3. Community and Global responses to HIV/AIDS.
4. Promoting active participation in PMTCT
5. The consensus statement of all the stakeholders
The 8th SWAA Conference was not Scientific paper driven but for experience sharing, get together of grass root people who are actually at the forefront of the fight against AIDS.
What the First Ladies Said at the Conference:
The first ladies of Nigeria, Tanzania, Lesotho and the Queen Mother of Mafeking in S.W South Africa attended the conference and this is what they said
While it is the human and reproductive rights of every infected woman to choose when to marry or to have children of their own, it is very important to:
Support these women through:
v Education to protect them from getting infected and to prevent infecting their partners who may not be infected and do not know their HIV sero-status.
v Those who continue to deliberately infect others should be brought to justice care and support and possibly penalized by law. Mrs. Stella Obasanjo, Nigeria
v Let us all play a role and not wait for donors, NGOs to do it for us. All our efforts are important. Mrs. Florence Mkapa ,Tanzania
The First ladies will continue to network/collaborate in their various countries in the fight against HIV/AIDS
What the Women said at the conference:
v The choice of feeding in most cases is determined by others, not the woman who is supposed to make an informed decision.
v Traditional healers provide accessible and affordable treatment that is actually appropriate on issues like: psychosocial, Health and economic problems, there is need to train traditional doctors to handle HIV/AIDS more appropriately.
v The youth make up 33% of Africa’s population there is need to intensify intervention programmes for the youth: The youth are vulnerable but can be agents of change because thy are dynamic.
v Women though they want healthy babies they also feel it is not fair to cater only for the babies and neglect them as far as ARV treatment is concerned. “When we die who will look after these babies?” they usually ask.
v Fear of stigma and abandonment makes the women to keep their HIV status as a secret from their partners and close friends.
What the policy makers said
In addition to advocating for an increase in the budget, we should emphasize the need to deliver these resources directly to CBOs and NGOs on the ground, as well as to ensure the participation of people living with HIV/AIDS in the design and implementation of programs and decisions about resource allocation
The following were some of the recommendations at the conference:
v Increased accessibility to health care through training of health care workers especially in the rural communities
v Involve children in the dissemination of information about AIDS.
v The administration of anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) during pregnancy, labor and the immediate post partum period can result in significant reduction of Mother to child transmission of HIV/aids.
v Research on how to make breast-feeding safe is still facing a big challenge.
v Initiating action among sections of the community sector that are not yet involved in the responses to HIV/AIDS,
v Community mobilisation for ownership of HIV/AIDS interventions at the community and higher levels.
v Acting as campaigners for prevention, care, human rights issues and positive policies for HIV/AIDS - SWAA International
v Providing support to other actors in program design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and resource mobilisation.
v HIV Testing of children should not be discontinued, until at least, two years after birth.
SWAA General Elections
In the SWAA Biannual elections Prof. Charlotte Ndiaye, a Public Health Consultant from SWAA Senegal was elected new president SWAA-International and Dr. Margaret Muganwa as Vice President. Prof. Ndiaye has been the President of SWAA- Senegal; Dr. Muganwa a Senior lecturer in Public Health at Makerere University was the conference chair.
Countries represented at the conference
Europe Asia Africa North America
Benin
Botswana
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
Central African Republic
Congo-Kinshasa
Ice land India Ethiopia Canada
Ethiopia
Ghana
Guinea
France Japan Kenya Brazil (SA)
Lesotho
Madagascar
Malawi
Mali
Mauritania
Mozambique
Nigeria
Rwanda
Seirra leone
Senegal
South AFRICA
Sudan
Swaziland
Netherlands Tanzania
United kingdom Phillipines
Uganda USA
Zambia
Zimbabwe
The Meeting was jointly sponsored by: -
UNAIDS, Case-Western Reserve University, African Youth Alliance against HIV/AIDS, UNICEF and the Ministry of Health, Uganda Government |
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