Vusumuzi Sifile
HARARE, Dec 2 2009 (IPS) – Martha* knows that her two young sisters and her need medicine. She also knows where to get it a clinic a few yards away from her home in Glen Norah, a high-density suburb in the Zimbabwean capital.
But she cannot get the life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs). At 15, the law prevents her from doing so. She can only access the drugs in the company of an adult.
When my mother died in 2007, my aunt used to collect the drugs for us. She has since relocated to South Africa, and our other relatives say they are too embarrassed to be seen collecting the drugs, people will think they are now sick, said Martha.
Martha is among the estimated 158,798 children who are infected with HIV in Zimbabwe.
On November 24,…
Arsène Séverin
BRAZZAVILLE, Aug 26 2010 (IPS) – I came here out of curiosity, but I ended up taking an AIDS test. I have the results, Gerard, 30 years old, told IPS. He adds, right before leaving: The results are negative.
My brother and I knew that the van was coming here and we came as volunteers, says Judith, one of the few women in the ranks of those who came to be in Kinsoundi, a neighbourhood in south Brazzaville, the Congolese capital.
We have already done over 50 tests, and there s still a crowd waiting, Dr. Wilfrid Hervé Poaty pointed out to IPS. Hervé manages the mobile screening unit, a van purchased in December 2009 by the National Council Against AIDS (known by its French acronym, CNLS) in Congo.
Each of the van s appearances in public plac…
A group of visitors tours Jorge Cora’s farm on Jan. 25, 2014. Credit: Elisa Sanchez
VIEQUES, Puerto Rico, Feb 10 2014 (IPS) – A decade after the United States Navy’s departure, the Puerto Rican island town of Vieques faces new challenges, and the rebirth of its agriculture sector is hampered by a legacy of toxic military trash that has uncertain consequences.
From 1999 to 2003, Vieques, which is just over twice the size of New York City’s Manhattan Island, was the site of a massive civil disobedience campaign to put an end to the presence of the Navy, which had used the island for bombing practice since World War Two. Puerto Rico is officially a commonwealth and …
The open wounds of the Amazon. Credit:Rolly Valdivia/IPS
WASHINGTON, Apr 9 2014 (IPS) – Indigenous leaders are warning of increased violence in the fight to save their dwindling forests and ecosystems from extractive companies.
Indigenous representatives and environmental activists from Africa, Asia, Australia and the Americas met over the weekend here to commemorate those leading community fights against extractive industries. The conference, called Chico Vive, honoured Chico Mendes, a Brazilian rubber-tapper killed in 1988 for fighting to save the Amazon.“Right now in our territory we can’t drink the water because it’s so contaminated from the hydrocar…
The New Agriculture Cooperative was founded in 1977 by a group of young unemployed, labourers and farmers with two main objectives: create employment in agriculture and prevent the construction of a vast area of high environmental value. In 1990 the conversion to organic farming began, followed in 1996 by the conversion of livestocks. In 2010 the Cooperative moved to biodynamic agriculture. Credit: Maged Srour/IPS
ROME, Dec 23 2018 (IPS) – While Italian agriculture is in a leading position in terms of organic farming, sustainable agriculture and being at the forefront of biodiversity conservation; water scarcity, illegal workers and the role of women and combined ageing of…
This playground just outside the Slovak capital, Bratislava, has been sealed off to stop people spreading the virus. Similar measures are in place in cities and towns across Europe, which is now the epicentre of the virus’s spread. Credit: Ed Holt/IPS
BRASTISLAVA , Mar 16 2020 (IPS) – Governments in wealthy, first world countries must not ignore the plight of poorer nations battling the coronavirus or the disease will not be brought under control, global development experts have said.
As African nations slowly report growing numbers of cases, and more and more infections are registered in countries with endemic poverty on other continents, there are growing fears that…