ABCs and HIV ... teachers need training too

Ruth Kamchacha, Senior Training Officer for the sex workers in Lilongwe who recently protested the bill to criminalize the transmission of HIV, wrote about some of the work the she and others are doing. (See her comment under "Criminalizing transmission," below). I must say that after reading what she wrote, I was so impressed at her commitment toward raising awareness, protecting lives and rights, and bringing individuals and communities together for better health and real social change.

On the show, we've been talking about education and health, and I believe that work that is interactive, honors the stories of individuals involved, and takes place out in the community (such as that described by Ruth Kamchacha) is crucial to the fight against HIV. For another example of some empowering work related to education and health, here is a video by Theatre for Change, which works in several countries, including Malawi. This 12 minute video begins by providing information on the situation of HIV/AIDS in Malawi, including the story of one HIV positive teacher, and moves into clips from a project that is being done with men and women training to be teachers. This project's goal is to both reduce the rates of infection among Malawi's student teachers and train them in tools that they in turn can use to educate their students about subjects such as HIV and sexual rights.

Teacher Training Video

No show tonight

There will be no Tiyeni Tipewe tonight, but count on tuning in (and even emailing or calling in!) next Saturday, April 3. The show will continue to be live on radioyako.com at 6pm eastern time.

Remember to keep an eye on this blog so you don't miss the conversations that go on between shows. As always, your participation is welcome!

2.5 billion condoms

South Africa's trying to get medication to 80 percent of those who need it and cut HIV incidence in half by next year. This April, health workers will begin a campaign that includes testing 15 million people, passing out 2.5 billion condoms (100 per person tested!), treating victims of rape, and encouraging male circumcision.

South Africans to get 2.5 billion condoms during massive HIV testing campaign. (Nastasya Tay, with the Associated Press)

Criminalizing transmission

I saw this Nyasa Times article on a Tiyeni Tipewe listener's Facebook page:

Malawi prostitutes demonstrate against criminalisation of AIDS transmission

There's a lot to talk about. Please read the article, and the responses that follow it. I will be including it in the program on Saturday. What are your reactions to the issues the article brings up? What was not addressed? What do you think about the law that's being proposed? Share your thoughts here and on Saturday! You can do both!

Funding girls to stay in school

Since we've been talking about education and health on Tiyeni Tipewe, my friend Amber sent me these two working papers about a program in the Zomba district of Malawi, one of the world's poorest areas with some of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS.

• Designing cost-effective cash transfer programs to boost schooling among young women in Sub-Saharan Africa by Sarah Baird, Craig McIntosh and Berk Ozler. World Bank publication. 2009/10/01
• The short-term impacts of a schooling conditional cash transfer program on the sexual behavior of young women by Sarah Baird, Ephraim Chirwa, and Craig McIntosh. World Bank publication. 2009/10/01

Amber wrote:

Two papers from a fairly "cutting edge" intervention for schooling and HIV risk among adolescent girls in the Zomba area run by the World Bank. The project gives the equivalent of 10 USD plus school fees to adolescent girls conditional on school attendance. The findings are encouraging, and although there are many many conditional cash transfer projects running in Latin America/elsewhere, this is the first rigorously evaluated that 1) randomizes conditional requirements (attendance rates) and 2) gives cash directly to girls and 3) focuses on HIV prevention as an explicit outcome. This research is fairly high profile and has potential to influence other similar projects being designed and evaluated--for example in South Africa and Yemen by the Bank and partner organizations.

She added that:

Of course, as always, there are people who have issues with this kind of experiment -- namely, how sustainable or what is the scale up potential for this kind of project versus say a school quality improvement. But, good that we are getting some results like this anyway.

Thank you, Amber!

28 Stories of AIDS in Africa

During last week's show, I read a paragraph from page 170 of Stephanie Nolen's book 28 Stories of AIDS in Africa. I just realized that this excellent book also has a really good website with photos, links to organizations working in featured countries, and video clips.

28 Stories of AIDS in Africa

Chapter 13 is about Alice Kadzanja, a Malawian nurse in the Zomba district of the country. Click on "The Stories" and you can find her photo and read a short paragraph about her.

Video: Mary's story - village life in Malawi

A friend sent me a link to this video. Please share your thoughts. Here's the site's description:

Set in rural Malawi, this 6 minute film follows the life of Mary, a widow with 8 children. Her struggles are struggles of millions of women throughout the world. A film from ICRAF* and ILRI** for International Women's Day 2010.

*World Agroforestry Center

**International Livestock Research Institute

HIV and Youth

Those of you who heard the February 20th Tiyeni Tipewe will remember caller Richard Zule- Mbewe, who shared some statistics and a little bit about his experience working with HIV positive children and youth in Lilongwe. I emailed him the other day to see if he would provide some of that information here on this blog.

Please check out the publication below - it's four pages long and has great information, photos, and even an interview with Richard. Oh, and the country profiled is ... Malawi!!

Face AIDS Monthly Theme: HIV and Youth (March 2010)

Missed It?

Thank you to Radio Yako's Paul Ncozana for making the recording of last Saturday's show available! From now on, all shows will be added to the Show Archive page. Some information cited in the show was from UNESCO's 2010 "Education for All - Global Monitoring Report" (see Resource Exchange).

Feburuary 27, 2010: Listen

Theme: the importance of education, especially that of girls and young women.

Interview clips:

• Liknus J, age 16 (interpreter, Mara Banda)
• Nola K, age 19 (interpreter, Arichie Kaliza)