World AIDS Day - how Network for Africa is fighting AIDS

More than 33 million people worldwide are living with HIV. As we mark World AIDS Day, it is worth remembering the 25 million people who died as a result of the virus between 1981 and 2007.  That’s twice the population of London.

Countries in Africa have particularly suffered from HIV/AIDS. Uganda is an example. Until recently northern Uganda was gripped by a brutal conflict between the Lords’ Resistance Army and the Ugandan Defence Forces, lasting more than two decades.   The war decimated the healthcare system, and forced millions of people into extreme poverty, causing HIV to spread like wildfire, especially in the north.  During the war it was estimated that 11.9% of the population were HIV+ in northern Uganda – almost double the already high national average.

In Patongo, a small town in northern Uganda where Network for Africa works, the effects of AIDS are hard to avoid.  Young people in Patongo are especially at risk of contracting the virus, and the rates of infection show little sign of reducing.  People in the community are finding HIV diagnosis hard to cope with, often becoming depressed.  Many turn to alcohol, resulting in family conflict and even suicide.  The situation has become desperate for many.

But change can happen in Patongo.

Our network of Outreach Counsellors counsel and comfort vulnerable people who need HIV testing or who have already tested positive.  If people are reluctant to visit the health clinic for testing, our Outreach Counsellors visit them in their villages.  In some cases, their support has prevented suicide, and their involvement has strengthened community solidarity and reduced both the stigma and trauma associated with being diagnosed as HIV+. And most importantly, it encourages people to get tested, reassuring those who are HIV+ that they can live relatively normal lives.

Our Outreach Counsellors offer advice about hygiene so people can avoid opportunistic infections.  They can provide treated mosquito nets and training, and reduce the incidence of malaria, which debilitates people weakened by HIV.  They explain the importance of drinking clean water; they distribute condoms and talk about safe sex.

Our demonstration vegetable gardens will provide people with the skills and knowledge to grow the healthy food that is so badly needed by those taking anti-retroviral medication, and whose immune systems are depressed.  It can halt the negative cycle caused by lack of nourishment that leaves people too weak to cultivate crops.

These small interventions are chipping away at HIV’s stronghold in Patongo. People in Patongo, even those living with HIV, now have hope.

You can make a difference, too. Please consider giving to help support Network for Africa's projects. For example:

• £4 ($6.50) could pay for a treated mosquito net.
• £55 ($88) could pay for a bicycle for an Outreach Counsellor.
• £50 ($80) a month could pay for 100 people to have HIV counselling each month.

Please donate here.