World AIDS Day: Staying sober amidst promising strides

There is a lot to be thankful for this year in terms of the AIDS epidemic, specifically the recent strides made in HIV prevention research. The CAPRISA 004 trial results and the recent results from the iPrEx PrEP effectiveness trial (which showed that once-daily Truvada reduced risk of HIV infection in gay men, transgender women and other men who have sex with men by an average of 43.8%) are something to be celebrated!

Unfortunately, despite these landmarks, UNAIDS reports that an estimated number of children living with HIV or AIDS in 11 Asian countries has increased by 46 percent between 2001 and 2009; that for every one person starting HIV treatment, there are two new HIV infections; that new HIV infection rates have increased by 25% in countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia; and, that the global economic struggle has resulted in a massive decline in international funding for AIDS programs.

Sigh.

But – everyone likes a challenge, right?

What’s next?

Banyana Banyana Comes Up Short

When I get older, I will be stronger...

Over the course of two weeks, South Africa hosted the 2010 African Women’s Football Championship, where sixteen matches were played and 58 goals (3.63 per match) were scored. This tournament was especially important as it influenced with teams would qualify for the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup to be held in Germany. For South Africa, it was do or die. In order to advance to the World Cup, they had to win this tournament. A loss? No chance for the World Cup.

Prior to the semi-final match between South Africa and Equatorial Guinea, a team of Show Me Your Number ambassadors, including myself, engaged with game-goers about safe sex. Handing out material is always an interesting experience. Unlike Americans, who do pretty much anything to avoid handouts on the street, South Africans take everything with pleasure – and come back for more.

Banyana Banyana warming up

Condoms tend to be a little bit more difficult to get rid of. People tend to be shy about taking them – well, the women anyway. The men, they’d take 50 if they could. In the end we handed out over 1000 condoms in under 20 minutes.

Once we ran out of materials, we went to watch the game, where South Africa dominated in the first half (without being able to score a goal) and fell apart in the second half, even accidentally scoring on themselves within the last few minutes of the game. It was pretty disappointing, especially since we are friendly with the captain of the team (who scored the accidental goal)

In the end it was Nigeria that beat out Equatorial Guinea for the title.

Vuvuzelas making an appearance

Saturday Morning Haven

Dance class with Vera!

After a few weeks of sitting in the office every day, writing proposals, going to meetings, and running trainings, we finally got out of the office and into the community on 11 September. In partnership with the ANC Youth League Mzala Branch, SMYN participated in a day of volunteerism at Nkosi’s Haven in Johannesburg.

Nkosi’s Haven is an NGO offering holistic care and support for HIV/AIDS infected mothers, her children, and AIDS orphans (not necessarily infected, but certainly affected).

Nkosi’s Haven is named after Nkosi Johnson, who was born HIV-positive in 1989 and was subsequently separated from his mother when she was no longer able to care for him. He was adopted by Gail Johnson, and first came to public attention when his primary school refused to accept him as a pupil due to his HIV-positive status. It was this incident that catapulted Nkosi into the limelight as it caused action at the highest political level. The South African Constitution forbids discrimination on the grounds of medical status, and the school later reversed its decision, paving the way for HIV positive children around South Africa to attend school. Together with Gail, Nkosi began to actively fight against stigma and discrimination, and was ultimately a keynote speaker at the 13^th International AIDS Conference, where he encouraged people with HIV/AIDS to be open about the disease, to seek equal treatment, and to support the introduction of the mother-to-child transmission prevention program (PMTCT).

He died on International Children’s Day, June 1, 2001, at the age of 12.

For Nkosi, it was important for children to be able to stay with their mothers, and with Gail, he opened Nkosi’s Haven, a place where HIV/AIDS infected mothers and children could live freely together, receive care, pursue education, and build their capacity through various activities.

Our involvement with Nkosi’s Haven came at the request of the local ANC Youth League, which asked us to provide soccer coaching clinics to the children who lived at the Haven. Thus, on Saturday, a team of 15 SYMN staff members and ambassadors spent the day at the Haven, preparing meals, doing laundry, conducting soccer clinics and dance classes, and doing yard work.

Somebody needed a break from dancing and came over for a hug instead

Luckily (and hilariously), I helped to conduct the dance clinics with my friend, Vera, who is an award-winning dancer. I take her afro-fusion dance class on Tuesday evenings, and she was gracious enough to volunteer her time on Saturday. Additionally, I allowed the girls to do my hair, which, well, thank goodness I experienced my fair share of tangles when I was a kid because I don’t know how else I could have withstood what happened to my scalp that day.

The volunteer event was a total success, and we’ll be conducting soccer and ball-juggling clinics and dance classes once a month from now on.

On that note, I want to leave you with the final words of Nkosi’s keynote address at the 13^th International AIDS Conference, hosted in Durban:

Care for us and accept us- we are all human beings. We are normal. We have hands. We have feet. We can walk, we can talk, we have needs just like everyone else- don’t be afraid of us- we are all the same!

You can read the rest of the address (which he wrote himself) here:

Nkosi’s Keynote Address

In Honor of Women’s Month

In honor of Women’s Month, which takes place in South Africa in August, SMYN brought together female football legends, a panel of distinguished guests, and young up and coming female footballers for a community dialogue to discuss the social ills women are faced with in South Africa. Given the fact that the majority of the work we do is with men (both young and old), it was a nice change of pace to do something for the young women in the community.

At the community dialogue, the MC interacts with the young women in the crowd.

Over the course of two hours, young women from Mohlakeng, Orange Farm and Mamelodi engaged with panelists regarding issues relating to inequitable gender relations, education, women’s susceptibility to HIV and AIDS and their powerlessness in society. To be honest, I’m not sure how much these young women really embraced what was being shared with them, but I don’t think that’s abnormal given the fact that they were between 14-17 years old. I don’t remember being too keen on addressing issues like this at that age either.

Ladies kicking butt on the pitch.

In addition to the dialogue, we hosted a 5-a-side tournament between four female teams. Dona’s Mates excelled in all of their games, and at the end of the tournament, a select team played in a game against the SA female legends representing Show Me Your Number. Whilst the legends won the game (7-4), the young women enjoyed the opportunity to play with and learn from their idols. Overall, despite the fact that we were hoping for more people to attend the event, those who did attend enjoyed what we had to offer and everything ran smoothly.

“We are almost there”

For those of you who work in the field of HIV prevention, you’ve likely heard the news coming out of the 2010 International AIDS Conference in late July regarding microbicides. I’m a little late myself reporting on this, but given that I worked in the field of HIV prevention research, I’m pretty excited and wanted to share with those of you who don’t know.

Over the course of two years (2007 – 2009), a clinical trial testing a microbicide gel in women in South Africa took place. This trial, the CAPRISA 004 clinical trial, assessed the effectiveness and safety of 1% tenofovir gel in preventing HIV infection in women. Results showed that when used up to 12 hours before sex and 12 hours after sex, that the gel provided moderate protection from HIV infection for women. At the end of the trial, researchers found that tenofovir reduced HIV infections by 39% (and up to 54% in individuals who showed high adherence).

There are a lot of technical things that go into clinical trials and what these results mean, so feel free to email me to ask questions. I’ll do my best to answer them, or at least refer you to the right people. You can also check out the Global Campaign for Microbicides, AVAC,  and The International Partnership for Microbicides for a more comprehensive explanation of what microbicides are, how they work, why they’re necessary, and what these trial results mean in the grand scheme of things.

Basically, what this means is that women, who due to gender inequities and powerlessness in relationships, may now have a new mode of protecting themselves from HIV infection. Some might ask why these women don’t use condoms – the fact of the matter is that many women in developing countries (heck, in developed countries) don’t have the ability to negotiate condom use with their partners. This leaves them susceptible to all sorts of infections, including HIV.

These encouraging results are only the beginning of a long road to providing a safe and effective HIV prevention product to women, but given more discouraging results released later last year, this is a great step forward. These results add fuel to the already burning fire and will eventually help to provide effective HIV-prevention products to the millions of women worldwide who most need them.

In the words of an advocate I met last week: “Doctors and scientists – please don’t stop your research. We are almost there.”

Fun Day

I realize I’m a bit late in posting about this event, but seeing as my digital camera was stolen during the World Cup,

Ball skillz

I had to wait the film to get developed before I could post any pictures. It might also be due to the fact that I’ve been consumed with watching the West Wing series DVD set my mom bought me, and that all of my free time is spent falling in love with the Bartlet administration (ahem, Josh Lyman) all over again.

The likeliest story is just that I’m a lazy blog writer.

On that note…

In addition to the work we did with FIFA during the World Cup, Show Me Your Number also prepared a “fun day” with ECHO, Enhancing Children’s HIV Outcomes. ECHO is an organization that does work throughout the Gauteng

The counter-attack

district with infants, children and adolescents who are HIV positive. They approached SMYN to facilitate a soccer tournament between 4 of their centers, invite our ambassadors to coach, and give the kids a day of fun away from the reality of their daily lives. The kids had a great time, and so did the coaches.

It turned out to be a “fun day” for me as well as I (smartly) did not go out the night before with all my World Cup visiting friends and went to bed like a good girl.

The Liverpool Football Club: Empowering Children One Coaching Clinic at a Time

Looking good even after 2 hours of soccer clinics

Upon my arrival in SA, the Liverpool Football Club expressed interest in playing a part in the Fair Play for Africa campaign by conducting coaching clinics with kids.  Fair Play for Africa is a pan-African advocacy campaign aimed at building the awareness of African people about their health rights and promoting access to quality health and HIV services for all African citizens. My boss is the Chairperson, so sometimes we end up doing activities with them.

After a slight delay in Europe due to volcanic ash, the LFC flew down to SA for about 5 days to engage with the campaign, do some PR, and conduct coaching clinics in the Gauteng and Northwest provinces. Using these clinics, the LFC promoted messages on healthy living and HIV and AIDS prevention and awareness to the kids, specifically girls.

One of the things this campaign is trying to do is address the gender inequities that lead to increased health risks for women. As previously discussed, women are often the most adversely affected in the HIV epidemic, and the LFC used this opportunity to engage with the girls about staying in school, being active participants in their communities and overall healthy behavior.

They also added in a little song and dance to the mix.

The Global Fund Visit Numero Uno

A few weeks back, the media team at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria contacted us asking for the opportunity to see what sorts of activities South Africa, and specifically, the Sport and Entertainment Sector, are engaging in for the World Cup.

Waiting to get tested

The Global Fund, which claims to have saved an estimated 4.9 million lives since 2005, needs to mobilize 13 to 20 billion dollars for 2011-2013 this year from government and private donors. The global economic crisis creates a new context in which to mobilize the international community to filter money into the Fund, and is proving to be difficult. But to be honest, this funding crisis has been going on for a while. Just ask my former colleagues at the Global AIDS Alliance.

In an effort to create a push for funding, the media team contacted us in order to document the results of previous funding in South Africa and inspire donors to build on these results. Certainly, the Global Fund has aided in improving both prevention campaigns and access and availability of treatment, and it’s important to build on these achievements in order to reach the health related (UN) Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

Other than being interviewed by several media outlets (let’s just hope I didn’t say anything stupid), the event, which included HIV Counseling and Testing (we tested over 100 people), ball juggling, as well the presence of many former footballers, was a blast.

Sex Talk

I feel like I should take the time to let any readers (are you there?) know that there will be a lot of sex talk on my blog. Since the work I do here revolves around HIV awareness and prevention, I can’t really help it. I know that some of you won’t care, but that others will, and for that I am sorry. I’ll try to balance the HIV-related posts with those about my adventures in exploring South Africa.

But not this time.

14 Days: So far, so good.

Well, I made it!

After packing up my life in D.C., a quick (ish?) drive up to MA with Michael to see Mom, Molly, Geoff and Meghan, and one long 18-hour plane ride where I actually slept over 7 hours (!!), I’m in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Many of you have asked me how all of this came about, what I’m doing here, and how I could possibly move to Africa in 3 weeks???

So first thing’s first: Back in December, a pal of mine told me about an awesome opportunity coming up with the Volunteer Health Corps of  her organization, the American International Health Alliance (AIHA). The email went something like this:

Kate, cool opportunity doing HIV and AIDS work in South Africa during the World Cup coming up. I’ll let you know when we post. You should apply.

And so I did. One month and a few interviews later, I was in!

What am I doing? Well, I’m working for the Sport & Entertainment Sector (SES) of the South African National AIDS Council as the World Cup Campaign Manager. I’m here to help the SES leverage key HIV and AIDS messages in the build up to and during the 2010 FIFA World Cup and to provide a lead in terms of the HIV and AIDS work and activities leading up to this monster event.

So far, this includes a multitude of things, including but not limited to writing a lot of proposals, going to lots of meetings, battling the traffic in Jo’burg, attending both soccer games and gala events and trying my best not to freak out when I meet the Minister of Health in South Africa, legendary Football stars, or have to drive on the left hand side of the road.

Oh, and there is the always ever popular language/accent barrier, which gets easier and easier to navigate every day. I’m determined to learn a South African language before I leave, but so far the only word I remember without stumbling, is ubuntu, which basically means knowing that you belong to a greater whole, and that you can’t exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about interconnectedness, sharing, and knowing that when you do well, it is for the whole of humanity.

So how is it that I can pack up and move to Africa in three weeks?

Ubuntu.

So far, so good.