Think Globally, Act Regionally: Report back from the regions

Middle East and North Africa: Othoman Mellouk

Othoman Mellouk started working for MENA region as of June 2010. Since then, the priority area of focus has been the revision of the Global Fund eligibility criteria that excludes countries of MENA (especially North Africa). He and ITPCru were able to mobilize a broad range of alliances in the region and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. As part of the “I want to be eligible” campaign, Association de lutte contre le SIDA (ALCS), the host organisation, produced specific materials for the campaign and organised a protest at the IAC. In the GFATM session, Othoman raised critical questions regarding the criteria to Executive Director Michel Kazachkine. The campaign received huge media coverage.

ITPC Summary Listserv: August - September 2010

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Treatment 2.0: An investment in ideas proposed in Treatment 2.0 will mean we can treat more people living with HIV, reduce the number of people who will become infected with HIV, reduce TB rates, improve maternal and child health, engage affected communities in healthcare and in service delivery, protect human rights, and save significant resources to further strengthen healthcare systems.

URL: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/internationaltreatmentpreparedness/message/19008

Contributors: David Barr, Meg Davis, Gus Cairns, Joanne Csete, Brook Baker

Meet the Regional Coordinator

Sylvere Bukiki, West Africa Treatment Action Group (WATAG), ITPC West Africa             

Interviewed by Ed Attapon Ngoksin 

E: Please introduce yourself.

S: My name is Sylvere Biziyaremye. I have been working for more than seven years on HIV in Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. Prior to working with ITPC/WATAG, I assisted the coordinator of the Global Fund’s AIDS Programme, called OASIS, operating in southern regions of the Ivory Coast. I also specialized in prevention strategies on HIV among youth in urban areas in my student years.

E: What was your most recent achievement as the regional coordinator for West Africa?

S: In June, we organized a workshop in Dakar on treatment literacy and advocacy for universal access. It was a training of trainers oriented for HIV Collaborative Fund grantees in 15 countries across the region. This was the first time that key international stakeholders, such as ITPC, UNAIDS, WHO, World Aids Campaign and Alliance/IPC, jointly organized something on a regional scale.

Recent Success Stories

Location: Orel, Russia 

Dates: September 1-4

Organizers: Fenix Plus, ITPC in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, SIMON+, AGORA

What: A four-day training “dealing with stock-outs” included an introduction to the Code of Health Consumers’ Rights (the European and Russian Federation law on human rights and consumer protection), the structure of legal authorities, and an overview of documented cases of stock-outs in Russia. Participants were provided with skill-building sessions on writing appeals, filing complains to prosecutors, writing press releases, advocacy and addressing individual experience on stock-outs through the media.

Why it was important: For the past four years, Russia has faced a shortage of ARV and MDR-TB drugs. AIDS centres across the country regularly run out of life-saving medicine. Patients do not negotiate with healthcare providers and doctors because of the belief that doctors are always right.

Voices: Many participants had faced at least one shortage of ARV medicine, but few had taken their cases to court. Facilitators translated judical jargon into simple language for activists.

Contact: Evgeny Pisemsky, executive director of Phoenix Plus 

Email: orelaids@gmail.com

Feature article: Funding Cutbacks Cost Lives

Funding cutbacks cost lives

“Where is the political will from our leaders to provide the HIV treatment and prevention services we need?” asked civil society activists at the African Union (AU) Heads of State Summit in Kampala on July 27.

The Summit convened for the first time under the theme “Maternal, Infant and Child Health and Development in Africa”, but activists and health experts said security and terrorism dominated the discussions.

Bactrin Killingo, Program Manager of ITPC

It appears that heads of state prefer to build roads than address maternal and child health challenges, even though the equivalent of a minibus full of pregnant women die every hour, said Bactrin Killingo of ITPC after repeatedly challenging the heads of AU states to scale up their national budget allocations for health to at least 15%.

Those women die “not because of bad roads, but as a result of HIV and pregnancy-related complications and other preventable causes.”