Drew's African Odyssey - Mwange Refugee Camp, Zambia

Not even 24 hrs in Lusaka and I'm already in over my head. I offered my services for helping organize an HIV/AIDS event at the UN with my RTP Lusaka colleague, Doreen (a girl from Germany that I know quite well from the RTP training in Toronto before our placements). It turned out to be a great event with different UN agencies and NGO’s setting up booths to advocate their contributions to the fight on HIV/AIDS. The situation is quite bad in Zambia, with some 28% for the population who have contracted the disease. In Lusaka, organizations such as the ones represented at the UN today are doing a lot to combat the disease, but not enough. What makes the problem so tough is that people have not yet accepted it as a problem, or they think that it is never going to reach them. In Mporokoso, the magnitude of the problem really hits home. We constantly hear about how people are sick and dying and even though the words are not spoken, we know that it is AIDS. One of our friends who works as program officer at the UN has a wife that is very sick and we fear the worst….

That’s not to say steps aren’t being taken here to address the problem. Antiretroviral drugs have recently become free to any Zambian suffering from low white blood cell counts; also, infected people are starting to come out and share their stories as treatment and counseling becomes readily available and they start to learn that they can live healthy lives with the disease; another aspect of the improvements is the commitment of the government to fighting the disease. The President is pushing for World Bank and international debt relief (which tallies around US$ 30 million), and some countries are starting to catch onto the idea. For example Canada recently cancelled all of Zambia's debt with hopes that other nations will follow suit – let’s hope so…

Posted by: Drew Gardiner / 9:14 AM