Tag: UNAIDS

Rainforest Rubbers Save Lives

Post author By David South Consulting
Post date 31/10/2022
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By David South, Development Challenges, South-South Solutions

Two development goals are being achieved with one innovative business in Brazil. By using natural rubber tapped from trees in the Amazon rainforest to make condoms, Brazil is able to afford the cost of distributing condoms to tackle its HIV/AIDS crisis. Brazil currently imports more than 120 million condoms every year from China, Republic of Korea and Thailand, making it the world’s biggest single buyer of condoms. The government gives them away for free as part of a national campaign to combat HIV. More than 620,000 people in Brazil are living with HIV out of a population of more than 186 million (UNAIDS, 2005).

The Natex company, co-owned by the public health ministry and the north-western state government of Acre, has established a factory to turn rubber from the world’s biggest rainforest into condoms. The business has created 500 jobs at the factory and 150 jobs for the local indigenous population – the Xapuri – who are traditional rubber tappers.

The factory hopes to produce 100 million condoms a year from local rubber – just 20 million shy of all the condoms the country currently has to import – and could even reach 270 million at full capacity.

“This product will allow people to make love with security and to better plan their futures,” said Raimundo Barros, vice president of the local agricultural association.

The 15,000 Xapuri people who live on the Chico Mendes reserve – named after a conservationist and rubber tapper murdered by ranchers in 1988 – tap seringai trees, which produce rubber that is said to be a more effective barrier to the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), than synthetic rubber condoms.

The factory’s 500 employees will earn a total of Reais $2.2 million (US $1.3 million) while the tappers will see their income increase by 250 per cent as demand goes up for the rubber, according to Natex.

“Because of this I’ve managed to buy a few cows and give my family a better life,” rubber tapper Hugo Paz de Souza, 43, told local newspaper Pagina 20. Paz de Souza said the factory will double his income to US $394 a month.

The fact the trees will be saved because of their value as sources of rubber is a great boon to the world’s environment. The trees in the Amazon rainforest – the “world’s lungs” as some call it – face the threat of being chopped down to make way for Brazil’s booming agricultural economy. Official figures released in January 2008 showed that between August and December 2007, about 2,700 square miles were chopped down illegally in the Amazon rainforest. It was the first increase in deforestation after three years of declines and coincided with a rise in global food prices.

Marina Silva, Brazil’s environment minister, told the Guardian newspaper the Natex condom would help create “a new pattern of production and a new process of inclusion that would value the forest being left standing”.

Published: May 2008

Resources

The Brazilian health ministry –
Website: http://portal.saude.gov.br/saude/
More news on developments in the state of Acre –
Website: http://www.agenciadenoticias.ac.gov.br/
An article on Brazil’s booming economy.
Website: http://www.independent.co.uk

Lamas Against AIDS

Philippine Conference Tackles Asia’s AIDS Crisis

Development Challenges, South-South Solutions was launched as an e-newsletter in 2006 by UNDP’s South-South Cooperation Unit (now the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation) based in New York, USA. It led on profiling the rise of the global South as an economic powerhouse and was one of the first regular publications to champion the global South’s innovators, entrepreneurs, and pioneers. It tracked the key trends that are now so profoundly reshaping how development is seen and done. This includes the rapid take-up of mobile phones and information technology in the global South (as profiled in the first issue of magazine Southern Innovator), the move to becoming a majority urban world, a growing global innovator culture, and the plethora of solutions being developed in the global South to tackle its problems and improve living conditions and boost human development. The success of the e-newsletter led to the launch of the magazine Southern Innovator.

Southern Innovator Issue 2

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ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5311-1052.

© David South Consulting 2022

Tags condoms, David South Consulting, Development Challenges, development challenges south-south solutions, Issue 2, May 2008, public awareness, public health, rainforest, Rainforest Rubbers Save Lives, SDG3, SDGs, SDGSInnovators, sexual health, South-South Solutions, Southern Innovator Issue 2, Southern Innovator magazine, UNAIDS, UNDP

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Philippine Conference Tackles Asia’s AIDS Crisis

Post author By David South Consulting
Post date 17/12/2020
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Mongolians attend for first time

By David South

UB Post (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia), October 28, 1997

Manila, Philippines – More than 2,500 delegates have gathered in the steamy hot Philippine capital to renew the fight against HIV and AIDS.

Working up a sweat alongside other participants at the Fourth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific are nine Mongolians – a first that isn’t going unnoticed.

The Congress opened Saturday (October 25) to the pounding beat of a theme song performed by teenagers, championing defiance of death and celebration of life.

That tone was echoed by Dr Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. He said the epidemic can be slowed down with the right public health measures – a positive message for Mongolia as it grapples with an STD crisis that many believe leaves the country at risk of an HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The magnitude of that epidemic outside Mongolia is startling. Around the world, 23 million people are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Between 5 and 7 million of them live in the Asia/Pacific region.

“The point is that prevention is feasible,” Piot told the Congress. “The results can be seen in those countries in the Asia-Pacific region where the epidemic has stalled or is in retreat.

“A good indicator for unsafe sexual behaviour is the STD rate. I am impressed at the sustained decline in STD rates in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand over the past decade.

“But I am concerned actual declines in HIV in this region have occurred only in Australia, New Zealand and Thailand.”

The countries to Mongolia’s immediate south and north are experiencing exploding health crises. In China, HIV/AIDS is increasing at a rapid rate due to factors including growing prostitution, drug use and travel – all by-products of a booming economy. The infected population is estimated at 400,000 and is expected to reach 1.2 million by the year 2000, according to China’s national AIDS committee.

To the north in Russia, a complete collapse in the public health system has dramatically slashed life expectancy and led to an upsurge in many diseases, including tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

With many Mongolians doing business in both these countries, there are numerous opportunities for AIDS to enter the country.

A wide range of topics is under discussion at the gathering, with women, youth and STD-control measures of particular interest to the Mongolian delegates.

For the Mongolians, the Congress is an opportunity to learn from other countries’ successes and failures in the fight against AIDS.

Mongolia’s nine-member delegation includes four doctors – Dr K. Davaajav, head of the AIDS/STD Department of the Research Centre for Infectious Diseases, Health Ministry representative Dr S. Enkhbat. Medical University director Dr Lkhagvasuren and Dr Darisuren from the United Nations Population Fund.

Also in the team are Democrat MPs B. Delgermaa and Saikhanbileg, UNICEF’s B. Bayarmaa and two representatives from women’s NGOs: S. Tsengelmaa from the Women’s Information and Research Centre and N. Chinchuluun, executive director of the Mongolian Women Lawyers Association.

On Sunday, several presentations focused on the difficulties of getting people to use condoms.

In Fiji, studies found the majority of the population was aware of AIDS and had access to condoms, but still chose not to use them.

Lisa Enriquez, a Filipino woman who is HIV-positive, gave a sobering speech on the epidemic.

“One of the most important things I’ve learned from the epidemic is human nature. AIDS is such a humanizing disease. It reminds us of being human, complete with all the weaknesses and imperfections of being human.

“Let us not kid ourselves: changing behaviour is not easy. One doesn’t change because somebody tells him or her to do so.

“We will need to get our act together, institutionalize our efforts and continue working harder with passion and perserverance.”

The Congress continues until October 30.

More on the Congress here: Fourth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific

“The Fourth International Congress on AIDS and Asia in the Pacific convened 3,000 scientists, people working in the communities, and people living with HIV/AIDS to discuss the state of AIDS in Asia and the Pacific and how the problem is being addressed now and into the future. The following topics addressed at the Congress are explored: the extent of the HIV epidemic, HIV risk behaviors, women and HIV, clinical manifestations of HIV infection, antiretroviral therapy, and perinatal HIV transmission. HIV is spread differently among these countries and a nation’s wealth largely determines its ability to execute prevention programs and patient access to therapy. Most patients in Asia pay for their own medications. It is hoped that more prosperous and technologically advanced nations will demonstrate stronger leadership and commitment in the fight against AIDS in the region.” Phanuphak P. Fourth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific. J Int Assoc Physicians AIDS Care. 1998 Feb;4(2):22-5. PMID: 11365085.

More on HIV/AIDS:

Feds Call For AIDS, Blood System Inquiry: Some Seniors Infected

Lamas Against AIDS

Mongolian AIDS Bulletin

Rainforest Rubbers Save Lives

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5311-1052.

© David South Consulting 2023

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Lamas Against AIDS

By David South

UB Post (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia), November 5, 1997

Manila, Philippines – Since HIV is contracted through sex, the disease has always been a difficult subject for the world’s religious leaders. When there is sex to be discussed, no religion can do it without bringing up morality.

This moral debate about bedroom behaviour has tainted discussion of AIDS in many countries. At the extreme end of the spectrum, some evangelical Christian leaders in the US have painted AIDS as an apocalyptic disinfectant for humanity.

Not surprisingly, this attitude has not helped in educating the faithful that AIDS can happen to anyone and its victims should be treated like any other ill person.

The Philippine conference heard that the standoff between the world’s leaders and public health authorities must stop. Dr Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, pointed to the numerous delegates from the world’s religions and called on others to follow their example.

“In Myanmar, the Myanmar Council of Churches, the YWCA and other community-based organizations have joined hands with local authorities, health workers and Buddhist groups for community-based prevention, care and support programmes,” he told the assembly.

“This is the best practice in action.”

Mongolian delegate Dr Altanchimeg thinks a similar approach could work in this country.

“Now every Mongolian goes to see lamas. It’s a good channel to advocate for AIDS education. In Thailand, lamas are very experienced at this. People believe in lamas.”

Like their colleagues in Thailand and Myanmar, Cambodian lamas have been in the forefront of AIDS education.

Lamas there use festivals and ceremonies to raise the issue.

You Chan, a 30-year-old lama from Tol Sophea Khoun monestary in Phnom Penh, likes to raise the issue delicately, by referring to diseases in Buddha’s time.

“I feel it is difficult to speak about sexual methods with a large audience – I will not speak to sexual methods.

“At first, it was very difficult. People would ask why a monk would say such things. But I tried and tried and the people understood who is helping them.

“My message to Mongolia’s lamas is this: you have a moral responsibility to educate the people about AIDS, that it is happening all around the world and there is no medicine to cure it.

“You have to take care in the name of Buddhism to help people in this world.”

You Chan teaches lamas at 15 temples in Cambodia, who pass the message along to other lamas and congregations.

Update: Interestingly, two decades after this story was written, it seems the other kind of llama’s antibodies can “neutralize a wide range of circulating HIV viruses”. From ScienceDaily: How llamas’ unusual antibodies might help in the fight against HIV/AIDS

More on HIV/AIDS:

Feds Call For AIDS, Blood System Inquiry: Some Seniors Infected

Mongolian AIDS Bulletin

Philippine Conference Tackles Asia’s AIDS Crisis

Rainforest Rubbers Save Lives

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5311-1052.

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Sex Workers’ Savings Help Make a Better Life

Post author By David South Consulting
Post date 04/12/2020
1 Comment on Sex Workers’ Savings Help Make a Better Life

By David South, Development Challenges, South-South Solutions

SOUTH-SOUTH CASE STUDY

Prostitution is called the world’s oldest profession, and can be found in one form or another in every country and society. And where poverty is rife and women have few economic choices, it flourishes. But it also flourishes in societies and economies undergoing rapid change, and where people move around more and more, as in the South’s fast-growing cities.

The money to be made trafficking people for the sex trade is huge. Sex trafficking is organized crime’s fastest growing business, with up to two million people worldwide – mostly women and children – trafficked into the sex trade every year (UN). Approximately 80 percent of today’s trafficked people around the world are female, and up to 50 percent are under the age of 18 (The New Global Slave Trade by Ethan B. Kapstein).

It is difficult to gauge the total number of prostitutes in the South: often, many women drift in and out of the profession for economic reasons. In Cambodia for example, Oxfam (http://www.oxfam.org.uk/) has put the number as high as 300,000 to 500,000, with one third of the sex workers below the age of 18. In India, there are more than 7 million prostitutes (UNICEF). It’s thought more than a third are forced into the sex trade, and most are under the age of 18. Many are between 12 and 15 years old.

In India, Mumbai’s Kamathipura (http://www.netphotograph.com/viewset.php?id=23) area is called Asia’s biggest home to brothels: over 150,000 prostitutes work there. The women can make as little as 10 rupees (US 23 cents) per customer, and many have been sold by sex traffickers. But prostitutes in Kamathipura are being helped to get out of the poverty trap that leads them into sex work. Population Services International (www.psi.org) has set up bank accounts for the women working as prostitutes in the area so they can start saving to be able to buy their way to a better life. By saving as little as 10 rupees with each deposit, the women are able to set aside money and keep it safe from theft and from the pimps and madams who run the brothels.

“It has helped a lot,” Reena, who moved to the area from Calcutta, told the Independent newspaper. “Now no one can steal the money.”

“I was tricked here. I was in love with a man and came here with him. But when I got here he sold me,” said Simla, 42, from Nepal. Simla has two children outside the red light district and the money she saved was for school fees. Simla wants her children to avoid her fate: “I was fooled into this. I will not allow my children to do it,” she said.

The bank accounts work like this: one of the women walks around the area with an envelope and a notebook. She gathers money from the sex workers, which is then deposited into a single bank account under the Sangini co-operative. When one of the women wants to get some money, it is returned by the cooperative. To date, over 2,500 women have deposited more than US $157,477.

How does this money-saving help the women? Apart from slowly building up some wealth, it also gives them power; the power to say “no” to a customer who refuses to use a condom or who is abusive. It takes away a bit of the daily desperation that forces so many women to do things they don’t want to just to survive another day.

And it is important their savings grow if they are to have a better future: competition is getting fiercer as the crisis in India’s rural areas drives more women to the cities. And more turn to prostitution to survive. This has its own market dynamics: younger women become the desired commodity and older prostitutes see their incomes go down – a young woman can charge 100 rupees (US $2.31) for sex, while older women only get 30 rupees (US 69 cents).

Resources

Coalition Against Trafficking in Women – Asia Pacific: international network of feminist groups, organizations and individuals fighting the sexual exploitation of women globally. Website: http://www.catw-ap.org/
UN.GIFT: Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking: this website is packed with resources, including an anti-trafficking toolkit. Website: http://www.ungift.org/
Anti-Trafficking Alliance: A charity founded in 2005 to prevent, tackle and eliminate forced abduction and trafficking into sexual slavery and to empower survivors. Website: http://www.atalliance.org.uk/
Trading Women: a documentary about sex trafficking of women in the Thai sex trade narrated by Angelina Jolie. Website: http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2003/issue2/0203p37.html

More on the role played by sex work in an economic crisis (especially as a survival and/or resilience strategy), or when there are high levels of poverty present in a country: