AfricaVox 2007

What news do I take home for my people?

Collins Vumiria

As far as I can tell, everyone who's attended the G8 Summit here in Heiligendamm leaves it with mixed feelings. Some are bitter that the G8’s announcement of $60 billion to fight disease failed to mention when it would arrive. Others complain that the Gleneagles promises have yet to be fulfilled.

But out of all this, what do I have to tell my people back home in Uganda when I return?

To get a steer, this afternoon I rushed down to a news conference given by two musicians who for years have been campaigning to rid Africa of poverty and disease: Bob Geldof and U2’s Bono.

I find Geldof describing the Summit as a total mess. “I do not want to see 2005 reiterated endlessly,” he tells the assembled journalists. “The richest countries of the world, trillions of dollars, swirling around that table… do me a favour! Get serious guys! This wasn’t serious. This was a farce. This was a total farce.”

All very well, I think to myself. But I need specific information for my own people, not just these soundbites. I had hoped for something more constructive to communicate to my people in Mbarara than this emotional dismissal.

Next it’s question time for the journalists. “My name is Collins Vumiria, I am a journalist from Uganda.” Faces turn to look at me. “After this summit, what news do I take home for my people?”

Referring to the title of the final document released at the close of the Summit, ‘Growth and responsibility in the world economy’, Geldof says:

“Conserving growth and responsibility in Africa? It’s absolutely sickening cynicism for this weekend. I am sick to my heart.” 

So do I take this back to Radio West? Hmmm. It sounds a little downbeat.

Kumi Naidoo

But another contribution comes in from Kumi Naidoo, the chairman of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty. He tells me:

“Ugandans and all Africans need to know that we have a responsibility to hold our leaders back home accountable. Whatever monies have been put on our table, African civil society need to mobilise to ensure that [it] is delivered to the people in need… in terms of anti-corruption, human rights, gender and other aspects.”

I think to myself: this sounds like something my people will want to take on. I just hope they do.

Africa’s brain drain here to stay

Tigist Kassa

Underpaid, overworked and disillusioned: doctors and nurses are leaving Africa in droves. But the G8’s response today offers nothing that will prevent further migration of Africa’s healthcare workers.

International NGOs say that despite the announcements of funds for HIV and AIDS and other diseases, the G8 has not got back on track to meet the promises they made in 2005.

Aditi Sharma, head of ActionAid’s HIV and AIDS campaign, says the G8 leaders had recognised the problems but not offered any concrete action. “The shortage of health workers was on the summit agenda, but the G8 hasn’t made any specific commitments: no specific funds, timelines or targets,” she says.

A report by the Ethiopian National HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office in 2005 stated that there are just 2,115 doctors for a population of over 77 million people – and newly trained doctors all too often migrate, for better earnings to support their extended families. 

And it’s not just a problem in Ethiopia. Collins Magalasi, director of Action Aid in Southern Africa, told me that “over 70 per cent of the doctors and nurses trained in Malawi have emigrated. The G8 countries are utilising them. We can’t stop doctors leaving”.

Malagasi thinks the G8 countries should fund training institutions and provide earnings for healthcare workers that will make it more attractive to stay in Africa. The solution is in the hands of the developed countries.

This isn’t a new story: despite all the talk of funding drugs and clinics for HIV, the fact is that a continued critical shortage of doctors and nurses means people are dying in Ethiopia and elsewhere in Africa.

The G8 has committed to spending $60 billion to fight infectious diseases over the next five years, but civil society groups are worried that not enough funds will be available to retain doctors and nurses in developing countries.

It’s depressing for me to watch what’s happening here at the G8. It looks like I’ll be going home to the same problems as before.

The J9 at the G8

Abebe Teshager

High school student Salwa Aman from Addis Ababa gives the impression of someone older than her years. And the 16-year-old has a lot on her mind. “There are a lot of street children in my country who are not able to learn. There are many children who lost their parents because of HIV/AIDS. It is hard to think about it,” she says.

Salwa is one of the young Ethiopian delegates attending this week’s Junior 8 Summit in the town of Wismar, around an hour’s drive from the official G8 venue. For a teenager, she cuts an impressive figure.

We conducted our interview in our native tongue Amharic, but Salwa also speaks excellent English - surprising given that she’s been educated at a state-run school, where the standard of education can be poor.

The J8's participants are groups of eight children aged 13 to 17 years from each of the G8 member countries. This year’s J8 also included delegates from developing nations: Ethiopia, Tanzania, Algeria, Central Africa Republic, Cameroon and Sierra Leone are representing Africa.

While many are sceptical of the G8’s ‘African agenda’, Salwa tells me she believes the G8 leaders are taking African problems seriously.

Fear and stigma in rural South Africa

The G8 has pledged extra funds for infectious diseases including HIV and AIDS. But a shortage of money is not the only barrier to HIV treatment. Fear, stigma and poverty are rife – and still claiming lives. Before coming to Germany, Zinhle Mapumulo visited one of many villages in South Africa where few are willing to discover their HIV status.

Mmabo Lefatshe looks petite, but in her village of Mazista - in South Africa’s North West Province - she is a well-respected and strong woman. I’ve visited a number of the country’s rural areas, but none compares to Mazista; the affluence you find in some parts simply hasn’t touched this corner of the country.

"Look at me today, I am alive and kicking..." Mmabo Lefatshe

The first thing I see when I enter the village is a cluster of about a hundred shacks squashed into a site suitable for ten or so houses. A few metres away a squatter camp doubles as a dumping ground for rubbish. Deeper into the village is Lefatshe’s house which belongs to the mining company she works for.

Lefatshe (39), Steve Modise (27), and Catherine Moya (51), were the first three people to disclose their HIV status in Mazista when the virus dared not speak its name. Many villagers called for them to be expelled, saying they had shamed the community by bringing this 'curse'.

Today the same people who were calling for Lefatshe and her counterparts to be banned are seeking advice from her on how to live with the HIV virus.

Fewer promises, more action

William Mapote

Today's G8 'recommitment' to give $6-8 billion a year to fight HIV and AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, has become the latest AIDS promise. And at this stage, it is still just that - a promise.

Even so, it will help to remind the Mozambican government about its 1.5 million citizens who live with HIV. Around nine out of every ten of them are losing hope daily, waiting for death, because they don't have treatment. For these people the recent 'recommitment' might not be translated into practical help in time.

In more than nine provinces in Mozambique there is only one health centre available to manage the treatment roll-out. According to a recent study by Médecins Sans Frontières, six in every ten people in Niassa province in the north of the country, give up on their anti-retroviral treatment because they have to walk up to 30 km to get to the nearest clinic.

These people need more than promises. They need action so that they can live long enough to look after their children.

‘Green’ fuel must not destroy Africa’s forests

Richard M Kavuma

It’s the final day of the Summit, and so far we’ve heard the G8 leaders’ views on climate change and HIV funding. Richard M Kavuma hopes that in their quest for ‘alternative energy sources’ the G8 does not jeopardise Africa’s remaining forests.

Yesterday's communiqué on climate change talks about the critical issue of deforestation, saying:

“Reducing, and in the long term halting deforestation provides a significant and cost-effective contribution toward mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and toward conserving biological diversity, promoting sustainable forest management and enhancing security of livelihoods.”

This will perhaps irritate Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, who has demonstrated a disturbing readiness to give away natural forests to private investors to develop sugar and oil palm plantations.

In another paragraph – this time on diversification of the world’s energy sources – the G8 leaders say they will promote biofuels as an alternative source of energy. But in Uganda there has already been evidence of the potential for conflict between these two aims.

In March and April this year Uganda witnessed the most passionate, non-partisan outpouring of public opinion against Mr Museveni in his 21 years in power when he sought to give away a quarter of the country’s most abundant natural forest to a sugar company.

Why women’s silence kills

Collins Vumiria

When she was ten years old her teacher raped her. At 14 her closest confidante, her church pastor, raped her. Now she is a mother, and she lives with HIV acquired during her marriage. The South African AIDS activist Nhkensani Mavasa rocked the G8 Alternative Summit with her moving story.

When I heard her outspoken account of her life, a shiver ran down my spine. These traumatic incidents are daily realities in Africa. In some villages in Uganda, father-in-laws consider it a right to force themselves on their daughter-in-laws.

Many women I know try to avoid acquiring HIV during their marriages by planning to leave the relationship as soon as they have a child – and while they’re still alive - rather than trust their husband to be faithful. So I wonder whether we have simply learned to live with these violations.

“No!” Nhkensani tells me. “I am here to ensure that I raise my voice on such issues as rape and HIV.”

In some African cultures women are not allowed to speak out whether one is raped or not. It is supposed to remain a secret because it’s taboo to shame a man.

Nhkensani agrees: “When I was defiled the first time, I ran in tears to my mother,” she says. “But she jumped at me and yelled that I was not supposed to say that at all. Never! Shhhhhhh keep quiet. It’s abominable.”

But now Nhkensani is making it her mission to tell other women that such silence could kill them.

“Now that I have seen some light, I want to take this light to all the women down there who are suffering and the children who are being defiled day and night and have to keep quiet," she says.

"I want the G8 to release the money they promised in 2005, so that the likes of me, we can get enough drugs and better lives and for all the women to shun keeping quiet about their rights to life.”

The value of protest

Francisco Xerinda

The last four days here in Germany have been dominated by the anti-globalisation protests. The roads are constantly blocked and the police keep telling us to take a different route. 

Indymedia

But for me the practical irritation is worth it; such protests really do matter to me. I saw the impact they had two years ago when pressure from civil society at Gleneagles led to debt relief for my country, Mozambique.

One of the sessions at the Alternative G8 Summit drew attention to how AIDS is affecting young people. It brought together young people aged 18 to 25 from different parts of the world.

My older sister lives with HIV. My family and I contribute money for her anti-retroviral drugs and as a result she is well and can work. It used to be very difficult for us, but following the Gleneagles summit the price of the drugs has dropped.

Of course, it makes it easier that I have a large family and many of us are in employment. Of the 1.5 million people living with HIV in Mozambique, only about one in ten has access to anti-retroviral drug treatment. My sister is one of the lucky ones. 

Two young AIDS activists spoke at the meeting, one from India and another from South Africa.

I was struck by the grim picture painted by the Indian activist. Of the 5.7 million people affected in his country the majority are young, and the epidemic is moving fast, out of the cities and into the countryside. Children in India are particularly vulnerable, and access to information and services very limited.

The South African told of the huge increase in TB in connection with AIDS, and the importance of education in tackling the epidemic. Both spoke of the need for more funding for drugs from G8 countries. 

So when we’re travelling along the country roads here in Germany, and our bus is forced to turn round at a street blockade, you don’t find me objecting.

The sick priorities of the G8

This afternoon the G8 leaders announced their communiqué on climate change – but healthcare funding is still proving to be a sticking point. Walter Otis Tapfumaneyi of the Panos Global AIDS Programme is not surprised.

It never rains but it pours for Africa, and the light at the end of the tunnel always seems to get dimmer because the world’s richest countries insist on making the tunnel even longer.

As if slavery and colonialism were not enough, Africa today is still being looted in the name of unfair trade, brain drain, conflict and corruption. And it even has to pay for crimes it has not committed.

Take climate change, for example, which today the G8 made a series of announcements about. The G8 countries represent 13 per cent of the world’s population but emit 40 per cent of its greenhouse gases.

Africa has hardly contributed to global warming but, according to this year’s IPCC report, Africa is the continent most vulnerable to climate change.

By 2020, yields from rain-fed agriculture in some countries could decrease by as much as 50 per cent, exacerbating malnutrition and food insecurity, while a three degree temperature increase could leave up to 1.8 billion more people facing uncertainty over their water sources.

Climate change, however, isn’t grabbing the headlines because of its potential to harm people in Africa, but because it also affects rich countries. HIV and AIDS, on the other hand, are slipping down the agenda. The number one enemy of the African continent is barely of any concern to the G8 countries, it seems.

Under arrest! When money speaks louder than words

William Mapote has only just managed to join the rest of the AfricaVox team after an eventful journey that nearly ended with him back in Mozambique.

It was five o’clock in the morning. The plane had arrived in Frankfurt after ten long hours, and I was ready to stretch my legs while waiting for the connecting flight to Hamburg.

I presented my passport to the airport police, expecting the usual quick glance. But instead there followed a stream of questions: “Where are you coming from? What are going to do here? For how long are you expecting to stay?”

Before I’d had a chance to answer I was taken off to the airport police station. Again they asked me the same list of questions.

I showed them the documents confirming my accreditation as a G8 journalist, where I would be staying and my financial support, together with mobile phone numbers for the people waiting for me. All my papers were in order. But my arguments were clearly unacceptable.