For a comprehensive response to AIDS, developing additional HIV prevention methods and tools to prevent HIV – such as HIV vaccines and microbicides -- is a key component.

The continuing research and development of such prevention technologies relies on adequate and efficient funding and spending – and supporting this, high quality, detailed data on investment in this area of the AIDS response is critical.

In 2004, UNAIDS, the Alliance for Microbicide Development (AMD), the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC) and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) established a collaborative project to track funding for HIV vaccines and microbicide research and development.

The HIV Vaccines and Microbicides Resource Tracking Working Group was created to generate and disseminate high-quality, detailed and comparable data on annual investments in preventive HIV vaccine and microbicide research and development and policy and advocacy activities.  These data can be used to monitor current levels of effort; identify trends in investment, spending, and research focus; identify areas needing more resources and effort; assess the impact of public policies aimed at increasing investment in new prevention technologies; and provide a fact base for policy advocacy on research and development investments and allocations. 

The collaboration aims to monitor progress in the implementation of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, adopted at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on HIV/AIDS in 2001. This declaration contains a number of global and national indicators that are being monitored on an annual basis by UNAIDS and others. The second of the global commitment and action indicators, is the “Amount of public funds available for research and development of vaccines and microbicides.”

In August 2007, the Working Group released a summary of the resource tracking efforts – the most up to date available data on sources of global funding and its allocation. These figures are produced to support larger resource needs estimations for the global AIDS response as a whole, which will be published in the later half of 2007

Among findings within the 2007 Working Group estimates on research and development are that while the current levels of funding are significant, there is a critical need to sustain and increase research and development investments for preventive vaccines, microbicides and other new options to optimally accelerate the development of and ensure eventual access to these HIV prevention tools.

As stated in the latest estimates report from the Working Group, in 2006, total global investment in preventive HIV-vaccine research and development was an estimated US$933 million, a 23% increase over 2005 funding levels. This increase in funding can primarily be attributed to new research initiatives funded through the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), Canada, the European Commission (EC) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

However, financing needs are likely to remain substantial in the coming years, as funding is needed to explore new approaches to vaccine and microbicide design; bring novel candidates into the pipeline; support clinical trials to test the safety, immunogenicity and efficacy of new products; and translate research results, such as those for adult male circumcision, into policies and programmes.

“The HIV Vaccines and Microbicides Resource Tracking Working Group group has systematically documented the amount of financial resources needed and the actual expenditures from public sources in research and development. This is a notable example in the resource tracking world because of the good quality of its results combined with a very dynamic group that is able to translate the financial estimates into a powerful advocacy tool”, said Jose Antonio Izazola-Licea, UNAIDS Senior Adviser, Resource and Finance Analysis. 

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Links:

Read the full document on latest estimates on research and development investment and spending
Visit the Working Group's web site

As part of her work as UNAIDS Special Representative, AIDS activist, public speaker, author and artist Mary Fisher visited Lusaka, Zambia in August to promote AIDS awareness and increase support for various AIDS initiatives within the country. Traveling with a group of US-based health, business, and foundation leaders Mary visited sites throughout the capital, including a shelter for street children, a community school, and a training centre for young girls.

While in Lusaka, Ms. Fisher visited several shelters for street children and vulnerable girls, including Fountain of Hope and the Umoyo Training Centre. These organizations provide information on HIV, free health services, HIV prevention materials, and educational assistance to members of local communities.

At the Chikumbuso Women and Orphans project, Ms. Fisher and her colleagues joined single mothers and widows to find out more about their income-generating activities such as bracelet-making to support their families. Women at Chikumbuso also collect plastic grocery bags and weave them into purses and handbags that are sold at a weekly curio market in Lusaka. According to Ms. Fisher, the income generated from such a project “not only helps [the women] sustain themselves and their families, but provides a source of pride and hope.”

As part of the mission, Ms Fisher also met with Maureen Mwanawasa, First Lady of Zambia and founder of the Maureen Mwanawasa Community Initiative at a State House event. During the event, the First Lady affirmed her support for Mary Fisher’s advocacy work and made it clear that Zambia’s political leaders are “committed to halting the spread of HIV”. As Chair of the Organisation of African First Ladies, and founder of its national chapter in Zambia, the Maureen Mwanawasa Community Initiative, Mrs. Mwanawasa has been particularly active in raising awareness and initiating programmes addressing HIV, not only in Zambia, but throughout Africa.

HIV prevalence rates in Zambia remain high at 18%, however the country has made significant progress in recent years, increasing the number of people receiving antiretroviral treatment and strengthening HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support programs in urban and rural areas.

Mary Fisher has been a UNAIDS Special Representative since May 2006. She works to raise awareness on HIV prevention, treatment, care and support with an emphasis on women and children. Fisher is also the founder the Mary Fisher Clinical AIDS Research and Education (CARE) Fund at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and is an active member of the leadership council of the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS.

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Links:

More information on Mary Fisher's activities as a UNAIDS Special Representative

A new national initiative from UNAIDS in Pakistan aims to ensure that communities and the government listen to the experts - people living with HIV - when making decisions about treatment, care, support and prevention.

Twenty-four year old Masood is the newest recruit to one of UNAIDS’ latest initiatives: the“Association of People Living with HIV and AIDS in Pakistan”.

The association was launched on World AIDS Day 2006 with the support of UNAIDS and its UN co-sponsors, and the Pakistan government. The aim is to make sure that people living with HIV are consulted when decisions about prevention, treatment, care and support are taken at federal and provincial level.

In keeping with the principle of greater involvement of people living with HIV, all the executive board members of the association are HIV positive. Now, it is establishing the first network among people living with HIV in Pakistan to provide a platform for them to speak in unison.

“In my experience, most HIV positive people here have difficulty conveying their needs, often because of poverty and because the literacy rate is low and information provided is limited,” says Masood.

“Here in Pakistan HIV is not seen as a priority and people have many issues surrounding their treatment, care and support, stigma and discrimination and society’s attitudes.” Stigma and discrimination is specifically associated with children and women from rural areas of Pakistan. These women have been infected by their husbands; most of them were migrant workers who have been deported by certain countries without being told about their HIV positive status.

The Association has already begun to bring the small number of NGOs and self-help groups together. The objective is to provide training in leadership skills and health information, including adherence to anti-retroviral treatment.

With a Masters in Business Administration from University in Lahore, Masood is working with them to organize themselves strategically, to develop policies and to raise funds.

There has been a three-day workshop on capacity building already, focusing on the issues for people living with HIV in Pakistan and how to operate an effective positive self-help group. Another two-day workshop focused on HIV literacy helped pre-testing and collecting feed back on the newly developed booklets and other information materials produced in Urdu and English for people living with HIV (PLHIV).

UNAIDS will be supporting more workshops across the country and is planning to do this activity in collaboration with Association of PLHIV, provincial and federal Government and civil society organizations working on AIDS issues.

“We aim to contribute to improving people’s lives, give them a sense of belonging, political empowerment and strength of spirit,” says Masood.

At the same time the Association aims to contribute to the national goal – to “prevent a generalized epidemic in Pakistan by containing the spread of HIV and AIDS and elimination of stigma and discrimination against those infected and affected” .

*The country's epidemic is concentrated and intensifying. Pakistan has one of the highest rates of injection drug use in the world (4.5 per capita per annum), and 64% of injecting drug users report use of non-sterile needles. Frequent use and reuse of unsterilized and contaminated needles contributes to a high transmission rate of HIV among injecting drug users (10%). The World Health Organisation and UNAIDS estimate the actual prevalence may be as high as 85,000 (46 000- 210 000).

During the Launching ceremony of Association of PLHIV in 1 st December, 2006 Dr. Aldo Landi, UNAIDS Country Coordinator said:

“This is the first step as a breakthrough in the fight against stigma and discrimination”. He further expressed the need of involvement of PLHIV at both federal and provincial level. Most importantly PLHIV should be treated in full respect of human rights.

Masood is a hemophiliac who contracted HIV through infected blood. In Pakistan, about 50 per cent of blood products are screened for HIV before blood transfusion – and 1.5 million blood bags are transfused every year. About 18 per cent of people living with HIV in Pakistan were infected in this way.

“I am very ambitious because I am facing and feeling the pain,”says Masood. “I want to make a real difference by encouraging people living with HIV to realize how important it is for them to be involved at every level.

“They themselves will bring about change. I am happy to be the first drop of rain.”

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Links:

More information on Pakistan
Visit UNAIDS Pakistan web site
Read the report - Implementing the UN learning strategy on HIV/AIDS: Sixteen Case Studies

What will it take to reach universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support in Myanmar ? This was the central discussion of a satellite meeting held as part of the 8 th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) on Monday 20 August.

Over the past year the response to AIDS in Myanmar achieved significant progress: a new National Strategic Plan was developed, including the completion of the costed Operational Plan; and in late 2006 the 3-Diseases Fund was launched and became operational in early 2007. “With these key developments, in 2007 there is a real and tangible opportunity to continue to expand the AIDS response in Myanmar with the aim of reaching universal access,” said UNAIDS Country Coordinator, Brain Williams.

Organized by the United Nations Theme Group on AIDS in Myanmar, the satellite session presented an overview of the current epidemic situation; outlined recent gains in the response to AIDS in Myanmar; and highlighted the needs for, and opportunity to, support a further expansion of the response.

Myanmar ’s Deputy Minister of Health Prof. Mya Oo highlighted the country’s commitment to respond to AIDS and outlined efforts underway including the production of a multi-sectoral National Strategic Plan emphasizing reaching out to people most at risk. The Deputy Minister thanked the Three Diseases Fund for their investment in HIV care and prevention services in Myanmar and called for increased resources to be made available to Myanmar to fully enable the response to expand and succeed.

The second keynote speaker, representative of people living with HIV Ms. Naw She Wah, spoke of the needs of people living with HIV to have access to treatment, the need for self-help groups to have expanded support including official recognition from the authorities, and called on international organizations to increase their financing to expand coverage beyond the mere 10% of HIV positive people in need of treatment who are currently receiving it.

Technical presentations were made by the National AIDS Programme Manager Dr. Min Thwe, Dr Wiwat Peerapatanapokin an epidemiologist from the East-West Center and recently participated in an HIV prevalence workshop in Myanmar, and Dr. Frank Smithius , Country Representative, MÉdecins Sans Frontières Holland (AZG), Myanmar.

“The session underscored the progress that has been made over recent years in Myanmar in demonstrating that services can be delivered to people in need, but highlighted that low coverage requires increased financial support from international and domestic sources in order to achieve Universal Access,” Brian Williams said.

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Links:

Read presentation by Dr Min Thwe, Programme Manager National AIDS Programme Ministry of Health - 'Service coverage for HIV and AIDS Myanmar'

Read presentation by Dr Smithuis, Medicins sans Frontieres Country Representative - 'Prevention and treatment of HIV in Myanmar'

Read presentation by Dr Wiwat Peerapatanapokin, epidemiologist from the East-West Center - 'Progress of HIV Epidemic in Myanmar 2007'

The 8th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) takes place in Colombo, Sri Lanka on from 19 - 24 August. The conference brings together more than 3,000 delegates from some 60 countries to discuss critical issues on AIDS in the region such as stigma and discrimination, access to HIV prevention and treatment and the importance of sustained political commitment on AIDS.

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All photo credit: UNAIDS/Noel PELEGRIN

Links:

More on ICAAP

Hope for success at ICAAP close

The 8th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) closed with messages of hope for success on moving towards universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support in the region. Speaking at the conference close, UNAIDS Director of the Asia Pacific Regional Support Team, Prasada Rao, acknowledged key progress areas and underlined the need for sustained commitment to AIDS in the region.

Read closing remarks by UNAIDS Director of the Asia Pacific Regional Support Team, Prasada Rao

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From Kobe to Colombo: Overview of Epidemic and Response in Asia and the Pacific

At the plenary of the 8th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, UNAIDS Director of the Regional Support Team for Asia and the Pacific, Prasada Rao gave an overview of developments in the region’s AIDS epidemic and response, examined recent debates that have over strategies and outlined challenges for the future in the region.

Read plenary speech by UNAIDS Director of Asia/PAcific Regional Support Team Prasada Rao
Read press release

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Myanmar: Towards universal access

What will it take to reach universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support in Myanmar ? This was the central discussion of a satellite meeting held as part of the 8 th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) on Monday 20 August.

Read more

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8th International congress on AIDS in ASIA and the Pacific

The 8th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) takes place in Colombo, Sri Lanka on from 19 - 23 August. The conference brings together more than 3,000 delegates from some 60 countries to discuss critical issues on AIDS in the region such as stigma and discrimination, access to HIV prevention and treatment and the importance of sustained political commitment on AIDS.

 

Read UNAIDS' opening speech
View photo gallery

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Perspectives on Asia Pacific AIDS conference

In the run up to the 8th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) which takes place in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 19-23 August 2007, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, Deborah Landey and UNAIDS Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, Prasada Rao, share their hopes and expectations for the conference.

Read more
Listen to interview with UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, Deborah Landey

The eighth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) takes place in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 19-23 August 2007. In the run up to the event, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, Deborah Landey and UNAIDS Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, Prasada Rao, share their hopes and expectations for the conference that will host an expected 3,000 participants from some 60 countries throughout the region.

 

Visions for ICAAP8: Deborah Landey, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director

 

Why is this conference important?

I think this conference is extremely important for the world and it’s very important for Asia. Many of the countries in Asia and the Pacific have relatively low prevalence and it’s an opportunity for us to take stock of what’s happening in the region and to come out with the goal of keeping Asia a low prevalence area of the world in terms of AIDS.

What are the focus areas for UNAIDS at this conference?

We are very concerned to emphasize the importance of leadership in responding to the epidemic at all levels—from governments to civil society, all players, actors must be involved.

It’s absolutely vital for countries to ‘know their epidemics’ – and by this we mean really having the most recent, developed data on what is going on with the epidemic in order to be able to use relatively scare resources effectively. In particular we are interested in understanding what we call the ‘drivers of the epidemic’ – the underlying systemic issues such as gender inequality, stigma and discrimination—and getting at these issues so that countries can make fundamental changes to get ahead of their epidemics.

We also want to emphasise that AIDS is going to be with us for a long time to come and therefore the long term agenda and all the issues we need to be thinking about for future generations are extremely important for us to consider here at this meeting.

 

What can this conference achieve?

If we can get a good analysis and understand what is happening in the region in terms of the epidemic so that we ‘know’ this epidemic in the region, what would be one outstanding outcome. Secondly – we want to know what is happening on the ground, what is working and what is not working? What are the lessons learned, where are we having successes and how can they be replicated? Establishing where the major challenges are will also be a goal.  

Visions of Colombo: Prasada Rao, UNAIDS Asia Pacific Regional Director

 

What’s make the 8 th ICAAP an important meeting?

ICAAP has always been the rallying point for stakeholders such as civil society, people living with HIV, experts, national programme managers, UN partners and donors to focus world’s attention on the special problems of this large region which is home to the 60% of world population. AIDS need to be understood in this specific Asia Pacific context and ICAAP has always provided the best platform for it.

 

What are the most important issues that are going to be raised and discussed at ICAAP this year?

This ICAAP will specially address the changing AIDS scenario in the region. Recent revision of numbers in some countries has led to a great deal of public and media attention and this is an opportunity to look at the issues squarely and give clarifications. ICAAP will also look at some controversial issues of the moment, such as condom promotion, sex education at school and voluntary testing and counseling, within the Asian context. There will also be clear message about universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support and the need for increased provision of second generation antiretroviral drugs. The Conference also provides a platform for launching two important regional networks of men who have sex with men and sex workers.

 

What can you tell us about the AIDS epidemic in this region?

The AIDS epidemic in Asia and the Pacific is still increasing and there were approximately 1 million new infections in the last 2 years. Country like Papua New Guinea, Viet Nam Indonesia, Bangladesh and Pakistan are showing an increasing trends of new infections. However, there is good news in some countries. In addition to from Thailand and Cambodia we are seeing a reversal of the epidemic in the southern part of India which has a large population at risk. Infection has remained low in countries like Philippines and Sri Lanka despite large movement of workers for employment outside these countries.

 

How are countries of Asia and the Pacific scaling up towards universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support?

The universal access agenda has given a great push to the effort of the countries in this region. Based on the political resolution on universal access adopted in UN in June 2007, countries in this region have initiated grassroots planning for setting ambitious target for prevention and treatment. Civil society groups have also enthusiastically participated in this exercise. Today, as many as 16 countries have set universal access targets and nine have prepared national strategic plans and identify resources for implementing them. Asia and the Pacific region can set high standard of achievement for the universal access process.

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Links:

Listen to interview with UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, Deborah Landey

8th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific – official web site

As part of the international scout jamboree held in Britain over the summer, UNAIDS ran workshops on HIV prevention, personal responsibility in HIV transmission and respect for the human rights of positive people.

This summer, residents of Chelmsford, a town in eastern England, woke up to an unusual array of sights and sounds.

The banging of early morning drums and excited screeches of hundreds of teenage boys and girls filled the air – this was the international scout jamboree, and the 40,000 teenagers attending from all over the world wanted to make sure everyone knew it!

For UNAIDS staff attending the jamboree to run special workshops on HIV prevention, personal responsibility in HIV transmission and respect for the human rights of positive people, it was a bit of an eye opener. “We would look at each other and think: ‘Are you as lost as I am?’ ” laughs Bhatupe Mhango, coordinator of UN Plus – the UN system-wide group of staff living with HIV, who took part in the event with Alex McLelland, an intern with UNAIDS, in the Civil Society Partnerships Unit. “But we became hooked on those sessions every morning. I still hear them drumming and humming in my ears,” she says.

This was a particularly significant jamboree, as it marked the centenary of scouting and 40,000 teenagers attended from all over the world. UNAIDS had an area in the Global Development Village, a section dedicated to workshops on human rights and the work of UN agencies.

“The scouts as a movement has so much potential to mobilize towards the HIV response,” says Alex, who is studying for a degree in International Development at York University in Toronto, Canada . “They are eager to get further engaged. With approximately 28 million young people as members you can see the possibilities.”

Bhatupe and Alex planned and ran five workshops on the topic “HIV Sensitisation and Safeguarding Human Rights.” One of the UNAIDS objectives was to initiate a dialogue on the need for a policy to work with HIV positive scouts, and for UN Plus to look for possible partnerships.

“We established that there are some Positive scouts in several countries, particularly Africa, and UN Plus could foster a partnership with them,” says Bhatupe.

Over three days, he and Bhatupe spoke to youngsters from Norway , Germany, Italy, Chile, Brazil, Denmark, Britain, Turkey and Finland.

In spite of the big subject, it was all very informal. “Most of the workshops took place outside because the young scouts wanted to lie on the grass,” says Bhatupe. She and Alex shared their personal stories as people living with HIV. Scouts asked questions about stigma, treatment, nutrition guidelines and human rights issues for people living with HIV.  

Bhatupe also did a live radio interview with the jamboree radio station, to promote the workshops and encourage scouts to be aware of the means of protecting themselves from HIV transmission. 

There were the obvious drawbacks of talking about sex to teenage boys: “A memorable moment was watching young, Italian boys laughing hysterically at a UNFPA-led workshop we participated in, demonstrating male condoms using bananas,” says Bhatupe.

But many of the scouts showed real insight and understanding into the issue – Alex and Bhatupe were delighted by a group of 14-16 year old girls from Chile, who were well informed about HIV, AIDS and sex, having studied the subject at school. The girls held a debate on abstinence versus early sex.

“The maturity of the debate convinced me that the message on HIV prevention and empowerment of young girls is getting across,” says Bhatupe.

The girls were evenly divided - indicating that no one method is the obvious solution to managing yourself as a young woman in a relationship. 

The views expressed included:

“If I love my boyfriend and I trust him…and if he has gone for an HIV test and tells me he is HIV negative, why should I not express my feelings for him and have sex with him?  If that is what I want to do, I will just go ahead…if you love someone, you can not put controls on what you can do with that person.”

“For me I say no. I have to wait until I am married before I have sex. It is scary. I am scared of getting HIV or falling pregnant so the best thing to do is to wait.”

For Bhatupe and Alex, the UNAIDS messages were getting across: prevention, personal responsibility in HIV transmission, the need for more support and less stigma for positive people.

Alex was encouraged to see so much focus on AIDS at the jamboree.

“There were other workshops from UNFPA, UNICEF, UNESCO, as well as the South African and Ugandan Scout associations. The Girl Guides did a big presentation about HIV. The ILO discussed child labour and vulnerability to HIV.

“There’s a quite a lot of awareness among the Scouts. It was gratifying to see so much going on,” he said.

 

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Links:

Visit the world scout jamboree web site
More information on young people and HIV

 

For the latest news, views and reviews on HIV coverage in the scientific literature – log on to http://hivthisweek.unaids.org !

This newly launched UNAIDS' blog offers up-to-date insight into scientific developments within the AIDS response as covered in specialist and general medicine journals. The blog includes accompanying editorial notes and also gives visitors the opportunity to make comments about the blog’s issues and contents.

Created in 2006 as an internal e-newsletter for UNAIDS staff, HIV This Week is collated by the Chief Scientific Adviser to UNAIDS, Catherine Hankins, and her team.

“In the HIV field, and particularly for people on the ground in countries across the world, there can be an overload of information. What we aim to do is make people’s lives easier by searching the literature and selecting key articles that they can access to easily keep abreast of the latest scientific discussions and developments,” said Hankins.

“We’ve been putting together and circulating tables of contents from scientific journals internally since 2002 but decided to expand the service and make it more reader-friendly by selecting a few scientific abstracts each week,” she explained.

“No one really knew the extent of the thirst out there for scientific information on HIV. Initially we sent this out to UNAIDS staff only but the feedback we got was incredible. People started spontaneously forwarding the e-newsletter outside to external colleagues and partners, and responding to us with comments. We realised the potential interest and decided that the interactive nature of a blog would fit perfectly for HIV This Week,” Hankins said.

Now available online, the HIV This Week blog features select abstracts of key publications on HIV featured in leading scientific journals in the preceding weeks. From basic science to community resilience, TB/HIV to stigma, and male circumcision to gender issues – HIV This Week  covers a wide range of thematic areas in every edition.

“We feature about ten different themes in each edition, providing the abstracts of relevant articles, and, we hope, some enlightening editorial comments. These analyse and help contextualize the findings within the context of the response to AIDS and underscore, where relevant, what UNAIDS is doing in the various fields,” Hankins said.

Readers can click on keyword links to find all current and previous information on specific themes and issues covered in the blog. A search function also gives users an additional tool for browsing the site. Previous editions are available in the archive as pdf files, with the html files being uploaded now.

The blog also gives details of how to access journal articles depending on where you are. “We have included all the steps that people in different parts of the world need to follow to get access to articles, as our readers come from many different countries and contexts,” Hankins explained.

And your opinion counts. With the interactive feedback feature, the team hopes to receive comments and questions from fellow bloggers. “We are excited to get people’s reactions to the blog and its content – this way we can spark new dialogues. The picture we’ve used on the homepage of the blog shows people discussing and interacting—we want to get people talking about HIV!” Hankins said.

For anyone working in the HIV field, HIV This Week provides a mine of information that is easy to digest, simple to use and a critical tool to provide background on the latest scientific developments on AIDS. Log on to HIV This Week today!

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Links:

Visit the 'HIV This Week' blog

Dawn has just broken in Cairo, Egypt, but Ahmed is already out on the street. But unlike other children Ahmed is not on his way to school. Ahmed is 12 years old and left home when he was just six because his father in law didn’t want him in the house. After wandering from one house to another, he found that it was easier for him to live on the streets. At that time he didn’t realise that it was far more dangerous too. When the social workers of Hope Village found him, he had been beaten up, robbed many times and raped twice. Hope Village provided him with a safe place to stay and offered him much needed shelter, care and support. “We also enrolled him in an HIV session where he learned how HIV is transmitted,” said Nawara a sociologist at the Hope Village. “After what’s happened to him he is very worried that he could be positive himself,” she added.

 

Hope Village Society was initially created to provide shelter and support to orphaned children from one of Cairo’s poorer neighbourhoods. However, a fter two years, they realized that the local street children also needed a safe place to go where they could receive care and support so they opened a day care center. The inauguration of this centre in the Shubra district of Cairo was soon followed by many others including one in the district of Sayeda Zeinab where Ahmed and other young boys come to seek refuge and comfort when the streets of Cairo become too much for them.

 

Twenty three year old Nawara has been working at Hope Village for about a year. She said that although her job is very tough it is also very rewarding, “these boys really need our help” she said. “The most difficult case I encountered, she recalled, was one of an 11 year old boy whose father threw him off the window because he was being too loud. I go with the kids when they have their medical examinations and I am shocked by what I see on their bodies–– bruises, cuts, infected wounds––It’s difficult to imagine what these kids go through,” she said.

Khalid Dawoud has been working with Hope Village for the past 17 years. He set up the Sayeda Zeinab day care centre. “I know the story inside out and I know what those kids are subjected to,” he said. 

 

During his experience with Hope Village, Khalid noted how interested the children were in knowing more about HIV because of the dangers they face, from sexual assaults to drugs, violence and prostitution. Sex, both forced and voluntary often takes place at and other deserted places. The girls are usually more at risk because they are abused by the older street boys, by the police and others. Some girls accept to have sex for a sandwich, others do it to ensure protection in return. “It’s critical…” said Khalid “…that they know how to protect themselves from HIV. When we announced that we would open a testing centre soon, all of the kids wanted to be tested to make sure they are not infected with HIV.”

With help from UNICEF and other sponsors, the Hope Village Society undertakes a wide range of activities from providing boys and girls with care and shelter to offering them psychological support, training and behavorial skills to help them reintergrate into society.

 

“Working with such initiatives is one of our priorities in Egypt,” said Maha Aon, UNAIDS Country Coordinator in Egypt. “We know how important and effective it is to focus interventions on people who are most likely to be exposed to HIV infection. One of the ways to protect street children is to help them understand where the risks are and how they can protect themselves in a way that they understand and which helps them care for and respect themselves.”

UNICEF, in collaboration with UNAIDS provides training on AIDS issues for the social workers at Hope Village . Nawara, who did the course in March said that the information she received and the methods of participatory teaching helped her a lot with the children. “We learned to use games to communicate information about HIV and about the dangers of life on the street, from an HIV perspective,” she said. AIDS awareness has become an integral part of the work carried out by Hope Village to help the children.

Dr Erma Manoncourt, Chair of the expanded Theme Group on HIV and UNICEF representative in Cairo said, “We need to mainstream HIV into existing programmes and develop programmes and interventions which focus on reducing the vulnerability of marginalized groups, including HIV prevention and impact mitigation,” she added. “We are reaching out to the private sector and other civil society entities and working with NGOs and community-based organisations, and at the same time, we collaborate with and support the Government. All these efforts are needed to make a difference for those who have no one else to care about them,” she concluded.

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All photo credits: UNAIDS/P.Virot

Links:
Hope Village Society (Egypt)