 HIV/AIDS |
Issue 102 |
HIV and poverty in El Salvador
The United Nations decided to make the stopping of the spread of HIV/AIDS one of the eight Millennium Development Goals. This is because of its impact on those who contract the disease as well as the members of communities where the disease is a major problem. HIV flourishes in poor communities and makes those communities even poorer. The African continent in particular has been devastated by HIV/AIDS. Chronic illness of any type, but HIV/AIDS in particular, has huge impacts on the welfare and wellbeing of a community. Families need to care for their sick, meaning that there are fewer opportunities for family members to earn an income, grow crops or attend school. Medicines are expensive. So the illness has a combined effect of increasing costs and reducing income. This is a huge blow to families and communities already finding it difficult to just get by. The children are then often not able to attend school as they will need to help support the family by caring for the sick person or by trying to earn an income. This means that they will be less likely in the future to be able to get a job. Not only that, but one of the most effective ways of combating the spread of the AIDS virus is through education and if a child does not attend school they are likely to be more vulnerable to infection themselves.
There are close to 40 million people in the world (98% of them in the poorest countries) who are infected with HIV. So multiply the above story by 40 million and it is no wonder that the United Nations has made the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS such a priority.
The small Central American country of El Salvador has a population of some 6.5 million people. Around half of the population is living in poverty. Over 35,000 adults and children are living with HIV/AIDS, mostly in the capital City of San Salvador. Around 13,000 children have become orphaned because of AIDS since 1984 in El Salvador. This is where a person like Deysi has worked for many years. Deysi is a health worker for an anti AIDS team called Equipo Contra el SIDA which is working in partnership with Caritas Australia. Deysi and her team provide much needed support to those living with HIV/AIDS. They realise the upheaval that this disease causes for the families and communities involved and stand with them to ensure that they get the medical treatment that they need, have access to a healthy diet which includes fruit and vegetables, work to combat prejudice against those living with the disease and support families so that their children will not have to miss out on an education because they have to work to give financial support to their families. This helps to break the cycle of poverty caused by HIV/AIDS.
Despite the efforts of people like Deysi, those living with HIV/AIDS and their families still find themselves suffering much discrimination, often due to a lack of knowledge about the disease among the general population. For example, people who are admitted to hospital often find their beds marked with a sign stating that this is a patient with AIDS. Children whose parents have HIV/AIDS are sometimes excluded from their schools. Those carrying the virus are denigrated and ridiculed. Those that live with HIV/AIDS need to know that they can live their lives with dignity and that their children's future will not be jeopardised because of the virus.
The work of people like Deysi and her team of support workers is invaluable in making sure that people have access to the health services they need and also in the combating of prejudice against those living with the virus.
Read more about Deysi and her work at
www.caritas.org.au/ourwork/pc05/story_6.htm
For more information about HIV/AIDS go to
www.unaids.org/en/default.asp
Social Sciences
1) Go to www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/
geos/es.html#Intro to research the country of El Salvador. Find out about its main features:
- Name the two countries that border El Salvador
- Name the capital
- When did it gain independence from Spain?
- When did the Civil War end?
- What type of weather would you expect to experience in El Salvador?
- What is the landscape like?
- What is the population?
- What is the average life expectancy?
- What is the rate of HIV infection?
- How many died of AIDS in 2003?
- What is the literacy rate?
- What is the main language spoken?
- What is their unit of currency?
- List the main products produced in El Salvador.
2) Using the information you found out, design a poster you could use in a presentation about El Salvador.
3) Go to www.appliedlanguage.com/flags_of_the_world/
flag_of_el_salvador.shtml to view the flag of El Salvador. Which two countries have a flag that is similar in design? Can you think of a reason for this? (Hint: history and location)
4) Go to www.newint.org/issue361/profile.htm and answer the following:
- Who is the President of El Salvador?
- How does the gross national income of El Salvador compare to that of its neighbour Honduras?
- What are its main exports?
- What has the lower world coffee price meant for employment in El Salvador?
- What is the reason for the fall in the rate of poverty in El Salvador?
5) Go to thewitness.org/archive/janfeb2003/
elsalvador.html and read the story of Maria's struggle against HIV/AIDS.
- How did Maria contract the virus?
- What is her role in the FUNDASIDA organisation?
- Why were her children almost expelled from school?
- How did her neighbours and customers treat her after she contracted HIV? How did this make her feel?
- How much medicine does Maria have to take each day?
- What is the annual cost of hospitalisation for a person living with HIV/AIDS?
- What are Maria's hopes and dreams?
6) Go to www.cafod.org.uk/news_and_events/
features/central_american_journey/
el_salvador_2004_11 to read more about CONTRASIDA.
7) Go to www.developmentgoals.org/Hiv_Aids.htm to find out which of the Millennium Development Goals involves the stopping of the spreading of HIV/AIDS.
- According to this site, who is being increasingly affected by this disease?
- What is the relationship between education and the spread of AIDS?
Religion
1) While poverty does not cause HIV and AIDS, it can facilitate transmission, makes adequate treatment unaffordable and accelerates death from AIDS-related illness.
Poverty makes people more vulnerable to HIV infection, for example, people who are undernourished will have a less robust state of health, which can result in a weaker immune system. They also have less access to health-care facilities and to education on health issues such as HIV prevention.
Discuss the relationship between poverty and HIV. How can poverty be made worse by HIV? How can HIV be made worse by poverty? Answer for the individual, family and community.
2) Go to: www.caritas.org.au/ourwork/pc05/materials/
materials/Caritas%20Australia_Project%20
Compassion%202005_Schools_Secondary
Stories_Web.pdf and scroll to page 6. Read the material on Deysi and answer the accompanying questions.
3) Go to www.ozspirit.info/2003/67.html and www.ozspirit.info/2004/93.html for more teaching and learning strategies across the curriculum.
Read about some of the issues regarding the struggle to make anti AIDS drugs more accessible to people in developing countries (the majority world) at www.accessmed-msf.org/
Read about the problems faced by these countries in getting access to cheap generic drugs. There is also a report on progress so far in the World Health Organisations's campaign to make anti-retroviral drugs readily available in developing countries.
Support the work of Caritas Australia by promoting Project Compassion. Funds raised go towards the alleviation of suffering of some of the most disadvantaged in our world. Go to www.caritas.org.au/ourwork/pc05/materials/
materials/Caritas%20Australia_
Project%20Compassion%202005_
Parishes_Parish%20Guide.pdf to find ideas for getting your parish or community involved in Project Compassion.
Go to www.caritas.org.au/ourwork/pc05/materials/
materials/Caritas%20Australia_Project%20
Compassion%202005_What_dollar_sheets.pdf to download some posters showing what your money can provide in El Salvador and in the other countries featured in the Project Compassion campaign.
Read the story below and discuss what significance it may have to our modern materialistic lifestyles. Ask yourselves whether, like the monkey, we can be truly free if we do not let go of the material objects we continue to grasp at. Remember too, that what we let go of can be to the benefit of our neighbour that we meet through Project Compassion.
I've heard this story told of a trick some hunters use to catch monkeys. It is said that hunters know that monkeys love rice. So to attract and catch a monkey, the hunter will get a coconut, bore a small hole into the coconut (just big enough for a monkey to get his hand inside). And then they half fill the coconut with warm rice and tie the coconut to a tree and hide a short distance away.
The monkey soon smells the rice and is drawn to the coconut. He reaches inside the coconut to grab a handful of rice. But once his hand is full and made into a fist, the monkey cannot pull his hand out of the coconut. Only if he lets the rice go will he be able to remove his hand. But the monkey is so greedy, so attracted to the prospect of rice for lunch, that he will not let go of the rice. He stands there stuck. He bangs the coconut, but to no avail.
Even as the hunter approaches, the monkey will not let go of the rice-filled coconut that is tied to the tree. The monkey's greed, his desire to "have it all" leads to his ultimate capture and destruction.
For those in Sydney:
The Palm Sunday Ecumenical and Interfaith Service and Rally for Peace will this year take place in the geographical centre of Sydney beginning with the Service at the park opposite St Patrick's Cathedral, Parramatta, and then marching to the Parramatta City Centre for a number of talks. The service begins at 2.00 pm on Sunday 20th March for this second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. This is part of a world-wide action for peace.
Go to www.fairwear.org.au/engine.php?SID=
1000004&AID=100062 to read about the Fair Wear women's dinner to be held on March 31 st.