Big Lottery Fund gives big to battle HIV and AIDS
(9 September 2004)International development charity VSO today announced a major boost to its efforts in tackling the HIV and AIDS pandemic in southern Africa. The £750,000 from the ‘Big Lottery Fund’ will go towards ensuring that the second phase of the charity’s RAISA initiative goes ahead.
RAISA, VSO’s regional AIDS initiative in Southern Africa ensures that all VSO volunteers in the region are either raising awareness of HIV and AIDS as part of their work or directly supporting organisations working with communities affected by the virus.
In South Africa alone 600 people die every day from an AIDS related illness. An estimated 25 million adults and children are living with HIV throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, and an estimated twelve million children have been orphaned by AIDS. It is vital that all that can be done is done now.
The aim of the second phase of RAISA is to build on existing partnerships with grassroots organisations through to government departments. VSO will be particularly concentrating on working with people living with HIV and AIDS, orphans and vulnerable children and with both men and women to tackle gender inequalities that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.
Mark Goldring, VSO’s Chief Executive says:
The demand for the unique help VSO can offer is huge. Sending people and not money has enabled VSO to help projects to become self-sustaining and improve their effectiveness in tackling HIV and AIDS. However to be able to do our work effectively, VSO needs money, which is why this donation from the Big Lottery Fund is such fantastic news.
Anne Sanderson from Glasgow worked for two years training rehabilitation therapists in Malawi, a country that has been hit hard by the virus. In 2001 the HIV prevalence rate in Malawi was 15% and is now undoubtedly higher. It was important for Anne to ensure that her students were well trained in dealing with the virus.
Anne says:
The course gave broad training in physio, speech and occupational therapy and a large proportion of the people the students would treat would be HIV positive. It is the only rehab centre in the country and a high proportion of patients were in their 20’s and 30’s but had complaints we in the UK would associate with people in their 60’s.
Anne adds:
HIV remains a taboo in Malawi and nobody admitted what it was, even when someone died it would be claimed it was of something other than AIDS. The most important thing we did was to keep the college and centre going and we fought tooth and nail to ensure it stayed open. It is now going from strength to strength and the course has been upgraded from a certificate to diploma course. Without the backing of VSO, this would not have happened.
Editors' notes
- For more information on RAISA, VSO and to talk to a spokesperson, contact Adam Bowers on +44 (0)208 780 7265 or adam.bowers@vso.org.uk.
