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  • Swaziland: HIV+ patients in a dilemma

    By Sarah | January 10, 2012

    Times of Swaziland, 10 January 2012

    Many HIV positive patients in the country cannot have their CD4 count checked as there are still no analyser machine reagents in the country’s hospitals.

    This is because government lacaks E7 million to purchase them, it has since been gathered. Read the rest of this entry »

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    Stephen Lewis: “Reduced support to Global Fund tantamount to murder”

    By Sarah | December 6, 2011

    Aids-free World, 6 December 2011

    Remarks by Stephen Lewis, Co-Director of AIDS-Free World, delivered at a plenary session at the 2011 International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA)

    With your indulgence, I’m going to deviate from the assigned topic. I shall address the Millennium Development Goals, but not in the way that was anticipated.

    There are two reasons. First, I want to speak in an unusually personal way, and from the heart, and in a fashion that leaves no room for ambiguity. Second, I consider the attack on the Global Fund to be the most serious assault it has endured in its ten-year history. I would feel utterly delinquent to let the issue slide. Read the rest of this entry »

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    Funding shortage dampening optimism on AIDS progress

    By Mark | November 30, 2011

    Mail and Guardian

    The international community has made extraordinary progress in the past decade in the fight against Aids but a funding crisis is putting those gains at risk, United Nations health agencies said on Wednesday. Read the rest of this entry »

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    Swaziland’s super-rich king fails to find money for Aids orphans

    By Sarah | November 18, 2011

    The Guardian, 17 November 2011

    Swaziland has failed to pay more than $10m (£6.3m) in grants to Aids orphans, the IMF says, despite the vast wealth enjoyed by its absolute monarch. Read the rest of this entry »

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    Swaziland: Funding fiasco leaves country short of lab supplies

    By Sarah | November 16, 2011

    IRIN/Plus News Global, 15 November 2011

    First there were national shortages of HIV medication, then of HIV tests, now Swaziland lacks the lab tests essential for initiating and managing HIV patients on treatment. To make matters worse, the country chose not to apply for the international funding that could have safeguarded antiretroviral (ARV) stocks. Read the rest of this entry »

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    Women lead the way in the struggle against Swaziland’s HIV crisis

    By Sarah | October 27, 2011

    The Guardian, 26 October 2011

    Siphiwe Hlophe’s shrewd, enterprising spirit is apparent within moments of meeting her. “You work for Comic Relief?” she says. “Brilliant! I might walk away from this meeting with some money.” Hlophe, a Swazi woman living with HIV, wants the money for the charity she directs, Swaziland for Positive Living (Swapol), which supports rural communities affected by HIV. Read the rest of this entry »

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    Action for Swaziland

    By Mark | October 6, 2011

    Jack Storry, Progress

    Swaziland is small, beautiful country in southern Africa bordered by South Africa and Mozambique. However, it is also Africa’s only absolute monarchy and a country that is currently griped in economic crisis. Read the rest of this entry »

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    Youth and student delegation, day ten: Swaziland

    By Mark | September 13, 2011

    A long, rocky road but the end is nigh

    Swaziland Positive Living, Foundation for Social and Economic Justice, Swaziland Rural Women’s Assembly

    Written by Awet Sara Yohans

    It is a long journey from Manzini to the heart of rural Mahlangatsha; not so because of the distance, but by the unpaved roads and large rocks which make it difficult for our driver to navigate. I am grateful for the lengthy drive. I have utilised this opportunity to reflect on my time in southern Africa (a rare treat since the itinerary leaves little time for introspection). Through the minibus window, as though watching a silent movie, we pass through striking images of the Read the rest of this entry »

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    Youth and student delegation, day eight: Travelling to Swaziland

    By Mark | September 11, 2011

    Travelling to Johannesburg, Treatment Action Campaign and Swaziland NUS

    John Muir

    As we departed Johannesburg on route to Swaziland the view from the window slowly gave way from an urban semi-industrial metropolis to a flat, scorched and golden savannah. Members of the delegation read through press coverage of yesterday’s youth league birthday celebrations and the upcoming disciplinary hearing for ANC youth leader Julius Malema. Irrespective of the controversy currently surrounding the ANC youth league, the acute Read the rest of this entry »

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    Beyond the spotlight of the Arab Spring, our influence in southern Africa must not wither

    By Campaigns | July 21, 2011

    ACTSA News, Summer 2011

    Steven Twigg MP, Shadow Minister for Africa and the Middle East

    Since taking my post as Shadow Minister for Africa and the Middle East in October 2010 we have witnessed, it is fair to say, a historic period in international affairs. The pace and scale of change is unprecedented for this generation. Events in the Middle East and North Africa region have, almost exclusively, framed the focus of attention of governments around the world on the Arab Spring. Read the rest of this entry »

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