AIDS: the agony of Africa. Part Three: Africa responds. Bereft of medicine and money, traditional cultures mobilize in a new way
Schoofs, M.
Village Voice 44(46): 61
1999
ISSN/ISBN: 0042-6180 PMID: 12295980 Document Number: 342603
Africa's response to AIDS is often depicted to be as dysfunctional as its economy. Only a handful of African governments have mobilized a response remotely commensurate with the magnitude of the epidemic, which has already decreased life expectancy by as much as 20 years in some countries. In Zimbabwe, where a quarter of the people aged 15-49 years are infected with HIV, the response to the AIDS epidemic can be found in extremes. While the government is spending more than 70 times the budget of the AIDS Programme on its military intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo, individual communities are setting up vigorous responses to AIDS. The Insiza Godlwayo AIDS Council (IGAC) is one such group organized by individual communities and headed by ordinary peasant farmers. IGAC specializes in home-based care and orphan support; it has also launched a youth prevention campaign. It has 500 active volunteers and another 500 who help out as needed. With an annual budget of less than US$17,000, volunteers are asked to pay dues, give food and other necessities directly to their patients. The response of IGAC to AIDS is a reclamation of the age-old ways that enabled African communities to withstand previous scourges. IGAC is successful because villagers have been mobilized and banded together for communal endeavors.