USAID HIV/AIDS E-Newsletter - Year-End, 2005

The U.S. Agency for International Development's Office of HIV/AIDS is proud to be a partner in The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. This e-newsletter is a regular update from USAID and its partners on programs that prevent and mitigate HIV/AIDS across the developing world.

We encourage you to circulate this publication to colleagues.

Table of Contents

• A. New Partner Spotlight
  • International Youth Foundation
    
    
• B. News
  • President Bush Welcomes HIV-Positive Family to the White House on World AIDS Day
  • India Campaign Results in Fewer Casual Partners
  • New Program Uses Video to Inform About Abuse and Discrimination
    
    
• C. Recent Events
  • Asian Media Leaders Step Up to the AIDS Challenge
  • Stories of Hope Told on Air: Women Widowed by AIDS Get Back Their Land
  • Mauritania Launches First PMTCT Services
    
    
• D. Publications
  • Lunchboxes Carry HIV/AIDS Prevention Messages to Workers
  • Paper Discusses Engaging Local Organizations in the Fight Against AIDS
  • Document Publicizes Methods for Evaluating Youth Health Programs
  • USAID Focuses on “Telling Our Story”
    
    
• E. Online Resources
  • New Cameroon HIV/AIDS-Related Information
  • The Synergy HIV/AIDS Resource Center Highlights What’s New

A. New Partner Spotlight

• International Youth Foundation
  The International Youth Foundation (IYF) works in nearly 70 countries to improve conditions and prospects for young people. As part of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, IYF's “Support to HIV/AIDS Prevention through Abstinence and Behavior Change for Youth” program will work through the Empowering Africa's Young People initiative, which involves 16 indigenous subgrantees in Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

B. News

• President Bush Welcomes HIV-Positive Family to the White House on World AIDS Day
  At the White House on World AIDS Day (December 1), President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush complimented the courage of HIV-positive Thandazile Darby of South Africa; her two young children, also HIV-positive; and their physician, Dr. Helga Holst, McCord Hospital Medical Superintendent. With Emergency Plan funding through USAID and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and under the coordination of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, the family receives treatment, care, and support at the Sinikithemba (Zulu for “place of hope”) AIDS Center.
  
  
• India Campaign Results in Fewer Casual Partners
  A communications campaign in India that took on one of the most critical and difficult aspects of behavior change − motivating partner reduction in high-risk populations − has produced significant increases in risk perception and partner reduction. Research data from Population Services International/India show that the proportion of the target population who believed that reducing the number of partners would lessen HIV risk increased from 11 percent in 2002 to 75 percent in 2004, and the proportion reporting sex with a non-regular partner in the past 12 months declined from 24 percent to 19 percent.
  
  
• New Program Uses Video to Inform About Abuse and Discrimination [PDF, 428KB]
  USAID/South Africa supports gender activists through EngenderHealth and its affiliated Men as Partners (MAP) network. On December 8 in Johannesburg, 10 activists introduced their personal stories via brief three-minute digital videos. The videos present the incredibly powerful experiences that prompted each individual to become active in promoting gender equality.

C. Recent Events

• Asian Media Leaders Step Up to the AIDS Challenge
  Influential media leaders from across South Asia met in Bangkok on December 7 to accelerate the media response to HIV and AIDS. The regional summit, sponsored by USAID, was the initiative of the Asia Pacific Leadership Forum on HIV and AIDS and Development, a program spearheaded by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
  
  
• Stories of Hope Told on Air: Women Widowed by AIDS Get Back Their Land
  On December 1, Kenya marked World AIDS Day with stories on seven radio stations about women widowed by AIDS who were at first disinherited but then managed to get back their deceased husbands’ land. The broadcasts followed a two-day training program on the issue in Nairobi funded by USAID and organized by Internews and the POLICY Project for senior journalists.
  
  
• Mauritania Launches First PMTCT Services
  With support from the Action for West Africa Region (AWARE) HIV/AIDS Project, Mauritania opened its first site for prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) services on December 1, World AIDS Day. The decision to create these services was inspired by a tour to Cameroon sponsored by AWARE for Mauritanian health providers to study PMTCT programs. Family Health International manages the AWARE Project with funding from USAID.

D. Publications

• Lunchboxes Carry HIV/AIDS Prevention Messages to Workers
  When office workers in Mumbai (Bombay) opened their lunchboxes on World AIDS Day, they found a variety of HIV/AIDS prevention messages in addition to their meals. With funding from USAID, the Health Communication Partnership is implementing this innovative workplace program, together with a lunch delivery practice unique to Mumbai, that will ultimately reach about 200,000 offices.
  
  
• Paper Discusses Engaging Local Organizations in the Fight Against AIDS [PDF, 2.3MB]
  Pact has released Engaging Local NGOs in the Response to HIV/AIDS, an analytical study of local nongovernmental and faith- and community-based organizations, which have been driving forces in the response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
  
  
• Document Publicizes Methods for Evaluating Youth Health Programs [PDF, 12.9MB]
  MEASURE Evaluation is pleased to announce the publication of A Guide for Monitoring and Evaluating Child Health Programs. This guide collects 130 indicators that standardize ways to chart the impact of child health programs on diseases and conditions and explain how to track progress in child immunization, newborn health, nutrition and growth promotion, treatment of diarrhea and pneumonia, prevention of HIV in infants and young children, and malaria control. Many of these indicators are already used extensively in the child health field, but compiling them into a single volume makes them more readily available to program managers. It will also promote the use of consistent terminology across programs, countries, and donor agencies.
  
  
• USAID Focuses on “Telling Our Story”
  USAID’s Telling Our Story project documents the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic, bringing successes and challenges to life through the voices of those on the frontlines of fighting this deadly disease.

E. Online Resources

• New Cameroon HIV/AIDS-Related Information
  The most recent findings on HIV/AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes and behavior, as well as data on HIV prevalence, are now available from the 2004 Cameroon Demographic and Health Survey (DHS). Data are broken down by international monitoring and evaluation indicators from UNAIDS, the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, as well as indicators for orphans and vulnerable children.
  
  
• The Synergy HIV/AIDS Resource Center Highlights What’s New
  The Synergy HIV/AIDS Resource Center, implemented by Social & Scientific Systems, Inc., currently contains more than 3,900 documents on HIV/AIDS project management, research, and reproductive health issues, most of which are available for download. Users can refer to “What’s New in the Synergy Resource Center,” which provides links to new publications, or search the entire online database.

The Synergy Project, implemented by Social & Scientific Systems, Inc., publishes this newsletter on behalf of USAID's Office of HIV/AIDS.

Access earlier editions of the HIV/AIDS E-Newsletter.

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