Caribbean

L to R: Dr. the Hon. Jerome Walcott, Minister of
Health, Barbados, Karen Sealey,Director, UNAIDS
Caribbean, and Sen. the Hon. Ann David-Antoine,
Minister for Health, Social Security, the Environment
and Ecclesiastic Relations, Grenada.

To demonstrate commitments and progress made by countries in the Caribbean to addressing AIDS, and to highlight programming challenges , the CARICOM based Pan-Caribbean Partnership Against HIV/AIDS (PANCAP) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) have launched a comprehensive report on national AIDS responses in the region.

For the first time ever, the report—Keeping Score: AIDS Responses in the Caribbean—provides a consolidated analysis of available data on key services being delivered to those in need throughout the region. The report analyzes data from 15 Caribbean nations in conjunction with the 2006 UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS.

Speaking at the publication launch, Director of UNAIDS Caribbean, Karen Sealey, stated, “Today marks another milestone in the Caribbean’s pursuit of demonstrating results towards the collective global goal of halting the spread of HIV.”

Keeping Score for the first time ever allows the region to see levels of performance across programme areas and across countries, towards meeting commitments made as part of the 2001 Political Declaration. The publication offers a crucial opportunity for those involved in national AIDS responses in the region to take stock of lessons learned in time for improved reporting and programming for reporting back in January 2008.

Karen Sealey,Director, UNAIDS Caribbean during
her speech at the launch of the new publication in
Grenada, Eastern Caribbean, 31 May, 2007 

“We see achievements in many areas” Karen Sealey stated. “Responses have been expanded to include many sectors other than health. More funds are being mobilized. Programme reporting is strongest in the areas of treatment scale up and prevention of mother to child transmission.”

Keeping Score provides a quantitative and qualitative analysis of findings by indicator, across all 15 Caribbean reports. Key issues in the implementation and monitoring of national AIDS responses are reviewed and assessed.

However, Dr Sealey also added a cautionary note: “Data on prevention education programmes in general are very weak – more often than not we know numbers reached by various interventions, but we have no idea of coverage in terms of percentage of key populations reached, either by treatment or prevention programmes.”

After two decades, the Caribbean region ranks second in the world in terms of estimated prevalence of HIV infection, surpassed only by sub-Saharan Africa. At the end of 2006, an estimated 250,000 people were living with HIV in the Caribbean. Some 27,000 were newly infected during 2006. HIV infection rates average at 1.2% throughout the region, with the highest rates (2-4%) seen in The Bahamas, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago.

UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director Michel Sidibe
met with the Premier Ministre Haitien, Jaques-
Edouard Alexis during a high-level mission to Haiti.
May 2007.

During a high-level mission to Haiti in May, the UNAIDS delegation headed by Deputy Executive Director Michel Sidibe underlined its support to Fondation SOGEBANK, the Global Fund’s Principal Recipient in Haiti, in helping ensure greater coordination of resources for AIDS and developing a culture of multi-sectoral partnership within the country’s AIDS response.

“Haiti has made significant progress on AIDS – with Fondation SOGEBANK playing a key role in developing the response in the country. Now we must work to ensure that all resources and funding for AIDS in Haiti are reaching the people that need them—to ‘make the money work’— every sector needs to be involved,” Mr Sidibe said.

As a first event in a series of initiatives to help develop multi-sectoral partnerships in the country’s AIDS response, Fondation SOGEBANK and UNAIDS gathered a group of around 40 CEOs from leading Haitian companies to discuss the perception of AIDS among leading managers and ways in which the business sector can become more involved in AIDS issues.

The group was presented with a study launched in Haiti in 2005, in preparation of the UNGASS 2008 report, which examines the response to AIDS by 20 of the largest Haitian companies.

The study, the first of its kind to provide a baseline report on business response to AIDS, shows that the Haitian business sector is becoming progressively more involved in the response and a number of companies are implementing HIV prevention activities. The study found that Haiti’s labour-intensive workplaces such as factories have a greater awareness of, and a more active response to AIDS than do banks and similar work sites.

UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director Michel Sidibe
underlined its support to Fondation SOGEBANK,
the Global Fund’s Principal Recipient in Haiti, in
helping ensure greater coordination of resources for
AIDS.

Emphasizing the need for increased action on AIDS within the private sector, Sidibe urged the CEOs to use the study’s findings to help shape their future initiatives. “This study shows us work needs to be done in the areas of policy, legislation and cooperation within businesses. We therefore have to create synergies between governmental actions and the private sector in order to intensify the response,” he said.

To elicit a greater response from industry, UNAIDS and Fondation SOGEBANK will continue consultations with business leaders, encouraging information-sharing, joint resource mobilization and a continuous and open dialogue.

“UNAIDS will seek to assist the private sector in establishing ways for an effective, open cooperation to ensure business response that addresses the impacts and dangers of AIDS on economic growth and development of Haiti,” Sidibe said.

Haiti has the highest HIV prevalence rates in the Caribbean region: 3.8% among adults between 15 and 49 years old.

South African cricket team fielding coach
Jonty Rhodes (left) and wicketkeeper AB de
Villiers (centre) watch a young cricketer hit.
The cricket team visited the Dorothy Bailey
Health Centre in Georgetown, Guyana.
Phot credit:UNICEF/Wilson

“Every wicket counts in cricket, and it’s the same with the fight against AIDS - everybody’s contribution makes a difference.” These were the words of the UNAIDS Country Coordinator for Guyana and Suriname, Dr. Ruben del Prado, speaking during a visit by members of the South African cricket team to the Dorothy Bailey Youth Health Centre in Georgetown, Guyana.

After their close victory over Sri Lanka in the Super 8 stage of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007, the South African team decided to take some time off and show their support for the health centre and its initiatives for young people living with HIV, the first of its kind in  Guyana.


 Using teamwork to defeat AIDS

Led by Minister of Health Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, UNICEF Guyana Representative Johannes Wedenig and Dr. del Prado, the cricket team was escorted into a crowded hall full of schoolchildren and other guests. Under banners calling people to “Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS”, two local schoolchildren, Murisa and Darren, welcomed everyone and spoke of the need to fight against the spread of the HIV.

Dr. Ramsammy told the assembly that HIV and AIDS was a global problem. “We are all in this together and AIDS can only be beaten if we work as a team,” he remarked.

Mr. Wedenig said it was heartening to see the peoples of South Africa and Guyana joining hands in a common cause. “Knowledge is power,” said Mr. Wedenig. “By empowering children with knowledge to protect themselves, we can win.”

Speaking on behalf of the South African cricketers, the team’s fielding coach, Jonty Rhodes, said that as well-known sportsmen they had the opportunity to highlight global challenges facing society. “ South Africa has a high prevalence of HIV,” he said, and the national cricket team is “committed to doing all we can to raise awareness about HIV, and fight the stigma and discrimination that surround it”.

Through an informal question and answer session with the participating young people and media, the world-famous right-handed batsman reiterated the importance of knowledge, teamwork and endurance in order to successfully fight HIV; similar to the skills needed for winning a cricket match.

Realizing dreams

Saud, a Guyanese student, ties a Band of
Commitment on the wrist of Jonty Rhodes,
the South African cricket team’s fielding
coach at the Dorothy Bailey Health Centre
in Georgetown, Guyana.
Phot credit:UNICEF/Wilson

In a solemn moment, Mr. Rhodes and a Guyanese student, Saud, tied Bands of Commitment on each other’s wrists, as all present pledged to protect themselves and each other against HIV.

South African star bowler, Shaun Pollock, spoke of his three-year-old daughter, “She has dreams just like other kids,” he said. “I need to make sure that she can realize her dreams.”

After the formal ceremony, the visitors toured Dorothy Bailey Health Centre before everyone went outside to play cricket. On a bumpy grass-and-sand wicket next to the centre, Mr. Pollock lobbed soft balls to Minister of Health Dr. Ramsammy, who played a secure, straight bat before being caught in the slips.

The event was one of many taking place across the region on the occasion of the World Cup organized by the partnership between the International Cricket Council (ICC), UNICEF, UNAIIDS and the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership on HIV/AIDS, to highlight the situation of children and young people living with and affected by HIV.

This story first appeared on the special ICC Cricket World Cup section of the Unite for Children Unite against AIDS web site – uniteforchildren.org

Photo credit:UNAIDS/ICC

Amidst celebrations at the opening of the ICC Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean on Sunday 11 March, players and spectators around the world were asked to reflect on the lives of children and young people living with and affected by HIV in the region.

The message came as part of joint efforts between the International Cricket Council (ICC), UNAIDS, UNICEF and the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership on HIV/AIDS (CMBP) to draw attention to the issues facing children and young people affected by HIV and to highlight the need to step-up action on AIDS in the region.

The Cricket World Cup is the highlight of the cricketing year. More than two billion television viewers are expected to tune in over the next seven weeks to watch 16 teams battle it out for a place in the World Cup final, to be held in Barbados on 28 April.

AIDS-awareness activities

Through a number of activities to be held over the next seven weeks, the public, especially young people aged 15-24, will get information on stigma and discrimination around HIV and on how to protect themselves against the virus. The partnership is part of the ICC’s commitment to promoting the ‘Spirit of Cricket’ and its positive impact on society and its commitment to support the Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS campaign launched in 2005 by UNICEF, UNAIDS and other partners.

“The spirit of cricket is a special part of our game and is a concept that stretches beyond the boundaries of the outfield,” said ICC President Percy Sonn. “We hope the range of activities delivered at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 will make a difference to raising awareness and reducing stigma around HIV in the Caribbean and across the ever-growing cricket world,” he added.

A series of video messages supporting the Unite for Children. Unite against AIDS campaign by 28 of the world’s top cricketers, including Australian captain Ricky Ponting and Indian captain Rahul Dravid, will be broadcast on TV and at the matches.

Photo credit:UNAIDS/ICC

Players and officials from each team will wear the red and blue campaign ribbon during their first games and during the final. Players will also visit programmes in the Caribbean supporting children and young people affected by HIV.

As part of the events around the World Cup, the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership on HIV/AIDS – a coalition of over 50 broadcasters in 23 Caribbean countries and territories – is also launching the region’s first media-led, multi-platform campaign on HIV/AIDS, known as LIVE UP! The campaign aims to inspire the people of the Caribbean, especially young people, to consider what they can do to stem the spread of HIV.

"The exceptional reach of broadcast media in the Caribbean gives us a unique opportunity to educate audiences about how to avoid HIV, and how to combat the stigma and discrimination that surround the disease," noted CBMP Steering Committee Chair Allyson Leacock. "By doing what we do best, communicating with our neighbours, members of the CBMP are helping our audience to remain healthy and well-informed, while we all work together to reduce the impact of HIV in our region."

Sport – a force for change

Cricket is popular in many of the countries that are most impacted by AIDS, including India and South Africa. Together, these two countries are home to around 11 million of the 40 million people living with HIV worldwide.

In the Caribbean, UNAIDS estimated that 250,000 people – 15,000 of whom were children under the age of 15 – were living with HIV in 2006.

“Young people today have never known a world without AIDS. Sports stars – such as top cricket players – can act as role models for today’s young generation and reach out to them on AIDS issues,” said UNAIDS Executive Director Dr. Peter Piot. “Sport is a force for change that can break down barriers, build self-esteem and teach life skills and social behaviour. By highlighting AIDS issues, the ICC Cricket World Cup and its cricketing stars are showing exactly the kind of exceptional response needed for the exceptional challenge of AIDS.”

UNAIDS Executive Director Dr Peter Piot meets with the President of El Salvador Elías Antonio Saca González, host of the Presidential
Summit of Central American heads of state in San Salvador,
11 November 2005.
Photo credit: UNAIDS/Carlos H. Bruch

The III Latin America and the Caribbean Forum on HIV/AIDS/STDs (Foro 2005) and the IV Central American Congress on STD/HIV/AIDS (CONCASIDA) closed on Friday 11 November with a gathering of Presidents and other leaders from the Central America region.

UNAIDS Executive Director Dr Peter Piot attended the Presidential Summit and addressed the conference closing plenary.

At the summit, Dr Piot met with the President of El Salvador Elías Antonio Saca González, the host of the conference.

"There is momentum on leadership – made manifest in today's gathering of Presidents and other leaders from this region here today," said Dr Piot prior to the President's Summit. "Now is the time to act.  So that together we can stop the threat of AIDS in our countries."

The President of Guatamela Oscar José Rafael Berger and the President of Costa Rica Abel Pacheco also attended the gathering, as well as the health ministers from Honduras and Nicaragua.

Dr Piot underlined the significant strides that have been made in the region to increase access to treatment. But, he added, these gains in treatment access need to be sustained and extended to the whole region. With more people living with HIV than ever in some countries, Dr Piot emphasized the urgent need to simultaneously increase HIV prevention programmes that reach all people at risk of infection, particularly those most marginalized such as men who have sex with men and sex workers.

"The region must revitalize its strategies to reach people most at risk – and they must address the deeper-rooted factors that affect vulnerability, such as social exclusion and inequalities of all kinds," he said.

Dr Piot urged leaders in the region to renew and reinvigorate their commitments at the highest political level and to agree to specific measures that will translate into concrete actions to reinforce AIDS responses nationally and regionally.

"The history of AIDS has shown us that when we are united, people win. Success depends on each of us truly being committed to tackling this exceptional crisis," said Dr Piot.

As part of the Presidential Summit, a declaration of enhanced commitment to a coordinated regional AIDS response was signed.

Related links:
 

UNAIDS press release: Putting the spotlight back on AIDS in Latin America and the Caribbean

 Speech by UNAIDS Executive Director: The future of the HIV epidemics: leadership for action  

11 November 2005: Declaration of enhanced commitment to a coordinated regional AIDS response signed at CONCASIDA (Spanish only)  

Photos: View photos from CONCASIDA 2005

Foro y Concasida

UNAIDS Regional information: Caribbean

UNAIDS Regional information: Latin America

It is with profound sadness that UNAIDS mourns the death of AIDS activist Wellington Solomon Adderly who was killed at his home in Nassau, Bahamas earlier this week. Mr Adderly was one of the leading figures in the response to HIV in the Bahamas having served for many years as President of the Bahamas National Network of Positive Living. He was also a prominent member of the Bahamas Resource Committee and Administrator of the Bahamas AIDS Foundation.