AIDS In The USA

Posts Tagged ‘Mitigation’

INTRODUCTION

This paper explains the problems that Zambia goes through in the area of disaster management. In section two, different problems have been looked at in terms of poverty, politics, floods, water and sanitation problems, corruption and HIV/AIDS. The last chapter suggests how best the Government of the Republic of Zambia, Non Governmental Organisation and all the relevant stakeholders can be integrated in disaster management mitigation programmes. Conclusion has been made in which the paper strongly recommends networking as the key to successful mitigation of disaster cases in Zambia.

Poverty

Poverty is a cause and effect of disasters. In Zambia, poverty is so severe and widespread that it is difficult to discriminate between disaster victims and the chronically poor. According to the latest census, in 2006, between 70% and 85% of Zambia’s ten million people live on less than a dollar a day. Nearly three-quarters of the country’s children live below the poverty line. This widespread poverty poses special challenges for targeting humanitarian aid, and marshalling community support among very poor people. It is not uncommon in Zambia for food to be redirected from victims of disaster to the equally needy people charged with administering relief. This has undermined the confidence of donors, who have imposed unachievable conditionality and rules on aid in a bid to curb pilfering. Such conditions only hurt disaster victims.

Politics

As touched on above, humanitarian assistance is heavily politicized. The government chooses which events are declared disasters. Stated criteria are of no use: political expedience is all that counts. Elections in particular can be crucial in determining who gets relief, and when. Religious groups also play the influence game, seizing the opportunities humanitarian response offers not only to access donor funding (a major motivation) but also to win disciples for their institutions. Benevolence is a tool of religious influence, especially when it is practiced on a mass scale.

Floods, water and sanitation problems

Floods, water and sanitation problems especially during rain season have been disastrous in Zambia ‘s situation. Over the past three months Zambia was subjected to incessant heavy rains, causing extensive damage and disruptions of life to several districts. Times of Zambia website reported that; “ The Zambia red cross society (ZRCS) in January 2008 responded to a situation concerning a dispute over farm ownership that left 701 families displaced in Zambia with financial support from the southern Africa Regional Declaration, the rains left many people homelessly, destroyed crops, and personal belongings, washed away bridges and contaminated water sources.” As it can be seen from the above report by the Times of Zambia, floods can be disastrous too just as poverty , HIV/AIDS, cholera and other disasters mentioned in this paper.

Corruption

Corruption and bribery are a huge, albeit unacknowledged, cause of ineffectiveness and inefficiency in humanitarian response in Zambia. Of course, there are some genuine NGOs and faith-based organizations, and government policy and the operations manual have recognized the capacity of NGOs and the private sector to do a fair job. But watchdog and security institutions become compromised and irrelevant in the face of corruption. In the Zambian disaster response, community and political leaders short-change the people of what rightly belongs to them. Corruption in the humanitarian business takes place at all levels. The loser is the disaster victim, who cannot pay for eligibility, and very few genuine disaster victims can offer anything as a bribe. Thus, genuine disaster victims usually do not benefit as much as they deserve to from humanitarian assistance, which itself is becoming difficult to come by.

HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS is a huge disaster, with cross-cutting effects on individuals, households and communities. Its economic repercussions include loss of employment, loss of productive capacity, high expenditure on treatment for sick family members and the loss of family property or savings through death. For those dependent on subsistence agriculture, there is an urgent need to increase cash income to pay for the extra commodities needed to care for victims. Children are the worst-hit: HIV/AIDS accounts for three-quarters of Zambia’s one million-plus orphans. Looking after these orphans is a daunting challenge to Zambia’s humanitarian response capacity. Although HIV prevention campaigns are part of health education programmes, Zambian society is still extremely patriarchal, and the limited control women have over sex matters means that efforts to reduce rates of HIV transmission have had only limited success. The role and status of women need to be revolutionized if these campaigns are to be effective. The government’s Disaster Management Unit has developed no mechanism to tackle issues of HIV/AIDS, and neither government policy nor the Operations Manual offer clear guidance on HIV/AIDS and gender concern           ( Mupukwa Kabaso: 2007)

Opportunities for Zambia

In the face of these huge challenges, Zambia can and has made progress in reducing vulnerability in certain sectors. NGOs such as Care, World Vision and Oxfam have delivered a range of services, including water and sanitation, seed multiplication projects, food preservation, livelihood diversification and income-broadening projects. These have had significant impacts on the vulnerability of potential disaster victims, especially in rural communities. One can only imagine how much can be achieved if government departments did the same. The government’s ineffectiveness is compounded by high levels of turnover among staff due to poor conditions of employment and mortality and morbidity from HIV/AIDS. One of the missing links in the whole humanitarian equation of Zambia is the low level of expertise among government operatives, undermining the quality of humanitarian service that government departments can offer.

The enforcement of anti-corruption regulations needs to be given priority in humanitarian programmes. Coupled with this, there should be public education on corruption. Campaigns against corruption should be treated as a vulnerability reduction activity in themselves. Corruption reduces the effectiveness of all services targeted at the poor, and as such is a major factor in high levels of vulnerability in Zambia.

In terms of HIV/AIDS, a lot has been achieved in raising public awareness of the disease. The majority of Zambians are aware of HIV prevention measures. However, the patriarchal nature of gender relations means that women are vulnerable to sexual exploitation and HIV infection. Very strong gender development programmes need to be carried out alongside HIV/AIDS prevention measures. As long as women are economically dependent on men, and men are inclined to exploit women’s economic weakness, HIV/AIDS is likely to remain an economic and humanitarian obstacle in Zambia. Again, this means training of all those in the humanitarian business in gender development and women’s empowerment. Training people at various levels in best practice in humanitarian response will enhance capacity and effectiveness in Zambia. IT is a widely held view that accidents are caused and do not just happen. However, one would argue that it is all situational – depending on which side of an accident one found himself.

For example, in the case of a cyclist who has been hit by a motor vehicle and it is proved that the driver was wrong; would the victim say he has caused or the accident has happened to him?

Such a situation is certainly thought-provoking and could be debated on. In the end however, what would be needed is to take a step to alleviate the suffering of the victim of the accident and, if possible, put in place measures to prevent a similar occurrence in future.

Now take, for example, a flood, an earthquake, volcano or a tsunami. These are disasters purely caused by the forces of nature and, hence, they do not need to be debated on to ascertain who is responsible for them, although modern technology can only determine how they happen.

But one sure thing is that such natural calamities have almost always left behind victims who need aid of one type or another.

According  to Muyunda (2008; 120 “The assistance needed to help victims of either a natural calamity or an accident caused by man or which happened to man depends on the extent of the damage both to human beings, the environment or property. “

However, some disasters that require the intervention of the Zambia Red Cross Society (ZRCS) were caused by man either through war or other activities.

Take for example, the reason that led to the founding of the International Red Crescent of the Red Cross by Henry Dunnant, a Swiss businessman. He abandoned his mission to assist thousands of wounded soldiers in a day-long battle between the Imperial Austria and the French near the northern Italian village of Solferino in 1859.

Unlike disasters caused by man, natural disasters and calamities have for a long time proved to have far-reaching consequences.

For that reason alone, both the Government and humanitarian-based organisations have the mandate to put in place contingency measures to mitigate effects of such disasters and calamities.

In Zambia, the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) under the Office of the Vice-President is responsible for ensuring that victims of disasters are taken care of by giving the necessary aid.

Similarly, the Zambia Red Cross Society (ZRCS), has partnered with Government to give aid in times of need.

Being the largest humanitarian-based organization, the ZRSC has risen to the challenge to alleviate the suffering of disaster-struck people.

In some cases, the organization has managed to reach areas where Government was unable to, which has made it one of the most proactive and admirable humanitarian organizations in Zambia.

But like any other organization, private or public, the ZRCS faces a great deal of operational difficulties in its quest to help disaster victims.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, it can be said that, disasters are as old as mankind on earth are as different in nature as the people on it. They may be natural, like those induced by hazards such as droughts, earth quakes, and volcanoes or human induced. Like many other countries Zambia has had her shares of disasters. In Zambia, HIV/AIDS, poverty, corruption and floods are rated to be on an increase. In the midst of these challenges collaboration and networking among stake holders are said to be the key to disaster mitigation.

BIBILIOGRAPHY

Mupukwa S. Kabaso (2007) Disaster Management Response and challenges for Zambia. Kabwe, KB Association Africa, Zambia. Muyunda Lifuna (2008) It’s 40 years on with Zambia Red cross society, Lusaka, Times of Zambia, Zambia.

Zimba Wilson, (2006) Managing humanitarian programmes in least-developed countries: the case of Zambia, Kabwe, Mulungushi University, Disaster Management Training Centre, Zambia

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HIV/AIDS THE PARADOX OF THE MIND

 

A lot has been said and done to save the human race from the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Media campaigns targeting behavior change, have so far not managed to take way commercial sex workers or so called prostitutes from the streets of cities across the globe.

 

 Neither have the messages stopped infected persons from infecting others or non infected persons from getting infected through sexual activity. The multifaceted fight against HIV AIDS is still on while it may not be a surprise that part of the multitude of individuals involved in planning and implementing strategies against the disease leave offices at the end of the day to find pleasure in some kind of irresponsible sexual activity, or run businesses that are a comfort zone for the sexually irresponsible.

 

It may not be surprising that even some highly respected Judges may spend long hours in proceedings against sexual abusers such as defilers and rapists only to leave office and find comfort in some paid for sexual activity safe and away from the know of the public.

 

They do this while well aware that their action could lead to a new infection or encourage the irresponsible partner to expose themselves to this risk. It is not surprising in many cases to find that the same men and women who leave HIV/AIDS mitigation planning boardrooms by the end of the day walk strait to infect or get infected or risk to get infected.  No wonder the HIV/AIDS pandemic has continued to grow for the last two decades without any cure so far.

 

Messages quoting figures of various nature regarding the extent of the disease continue to flood various media outlets across the globe. We read that 21 percent of new infections of HIV/AIDS in Uganda are as a result of mother to child infection, while sex continues to be the leading mode of transmission of the disease.

 

Then we read that there are adults within the same country who have specialized in making money by operating brothels, despite the fact that prostitution is according to the law of the land, illegal.

 

We hear of anticorruption units, CID units and other security arms all located in the very cities and towns where this illegal business continues to enrich the corrupt, while peddling HIV AIDS like a usual product in the market.

 

We also have lawmakers across the globe who will do everything to convince the voters that they can make responsible laws on their behalf, yet years and years pass without any law being passed to address criminal offenses such as a parent knowingly going for a sexual encounter outside marriage, getting infected with the deadly disease, infecting the mother or father of the children, and even at times the unborn baby, knowingly.

 

As if this is not enough,  no known lawmaker has taken the initiative to address the eventual crime of siphoning the resources of families of such infected persons to the individual expenses of medical care, leaving the innocent children with unmet basic needs. 

 

The fact that rates of infection in developing countries such as Uganda are reported to be increasing now shows clearly that the media campaigns against the disease are far from reaching the mindset of the individual decision makers on matters of sex in a way that brings in a change of attitude towards the sexual act.

 

Obviously lacking is a message that will help the human race to conceptualize safe sexual activity as a high priority in each persons life, and then get a step further by actualizing this right mindset.

 

Now. There is an obvious indicator that the billions of dollars that has been so far spent on HIVAIDS prevention information dissemination has so far failed to stop the HIV/AIDS from increasing across the world.

 

This brings us to the question as to whether there might have been a wrong  approach to the various HIV/AIDS fighting strategies that are so far in place.

 

Time has come for the offenders such as those who choose to break their sexual commitments to one partner to be held liable to the consequences of the problems they create siphoning money that could have been used for development to buy expensive medication and food for them while the demands of the children they bear continue to heavily rely on persons who were not party to their decision to indulge in irresponsible sex.

 

Time has also come to review the reasons why despite the wide knowledge about HIV AIDS basics disseminated through the various partners fighting AIDS across the globe, many people still continue to do the very things that increase chances of contracting the HIV virus. 

 

This should go along with finding the solution to whatever it is so that the HIV/AIDS messages can start yielding reliably positive results. Let us find the best way to approach the mindset of mankind to accept that for instance it is not a prerequisite to enjoy sex at the expense of ones own future or that of a consenting or non consenting.

sexual partners.

 

The big job is in the need for an approach strong enough to help individuals adhere to one sexual partner once started. This means helping to create a generation that willfully buys the idea of retaining sex for marriage and family life.

 

 

 

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In recognition of this year’s World AIDS Day theme “Women, Girls, and HIV/AIDS”, the Government of the District of Columbia’s Department of Health is committed to bringing women to the forefront of the fight against HIV/AIDS; giving voice to disenfranchised women in the District and around the world. Health experts, community activists and politicians discuss the issue at a “live-to- tape” Town Hall Meeting: prevention of new infect, promotion and equal access to treatment, and mitigation of …

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