Relevant Links
When Michelle Obama, the first lady of the United States, visits Ghana with President Barack Obama in July, the powerful voice she has used to empower disadvantaged girls at home can be extended to Africa. By spotlighting the disproportionate impact of Aids on women and girls, she can help strengthen the Aids response - at home and abroad.
The facts of the Aids epidemic make a compelling case: the number of HIV infections among women and girls continues to rise in every region of the world, reaching 60 percent of those living with HIV/Aids in sub-Saharan Africa, including three-quarters of 15 to 24-year-olds in some severely affected countries. In the United States, Aids is the leading cause of death for black women aged between 25 and 34.
Despite progress in expanding access to Aids treatment, seen most dramatically in Africa in the past few years, the need persists to address the gender-based social and economic factors that lie outside of treatment and that continue to drive the epidemic.
In many developing countries, women are not only being hit by Aids in their economically most productive years, but they also shoulder the largest burdens of caring for others infected and affected in their families and communities.
Violations of women's rights, including violence and the threat of violence, increase women's and girls' risk of infection, and then limit their ability to access services and to protect themselves and their families. Women's lack of access to economic resources and skills training, and girls being denied education, magnify their vulnerability to HIV/Aids.
The links between HIV/Aids and family planning programs are also important. At home and abroad, family planning services help women to make informed decisions about the number and spacing of their children, which have a direct impact on key health outcomes, including child survival and maternal mortality.
Family planning programs are critical to the Aids response: sexual transmission is the primary route of HIV infection, and family planning services often serve as a gateway for women and girls to access HIV information and services. This includes helping HIV-positive women, whether they want to have children as safely as possible or whether they seek to prevent unintended pregnancies to avoid transmitting the virus to their babies.
Here in the United States, we have experienced a corrosive polarization in debates on international family planning, largely over passionately held views about abortion. To move beyond that, Mrs. Obama and other leaders can help build common ground and increase support for programs that increase women's access to these crucial services, which help reduce abortions.
In the U.S., Aids prevention efforts have languished, leading to a resurgent epidemic that is taking a heavy toll on low-income women of color. Like the global epidemic, problems associated with gender and poverty - such as poor access to quality health care, financial dependence on male partners and transactional sex for drugs, money or to meet other needs - are associated with an increase in HIV risk.
With the renewed focus now being devoted to the domestic epidemic, Mrs. Obama could help push the White House Office on Aids Policy for a revitalized strategy that addresses the pressing issues faced by women.
With the advent of the Obama administration, the issues faced by women and girls have gained new prominence, thanks in large part to Mrs. Obama's own commitment and the power of her example. There is much early evidence of a building momentum: the creation of the post of ambassador-at-large for global women's issues; the new White House Council on Women and Girls; and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's strong recent statements endorsing women's rights and empowerment as key to the administration's foreign policy.
Mrs. Obama could make her mark on the response to the global Aids crisis by focusing on three essential strategies:
- Addressing the social and economic barriers that women and girls face in accessing Aids prevention and treatment services;
- Sensibly integrating HIV/Aids with family planning programs; and
- Ensuring the involvement of women and girls, including women living with HIV, in the design and implementation of Aids programs.
These measures would all prove the point: strengthening women in their communities to respond to the Aids crisis is vital to effective and sustainable outcomes.
Mrs. Obama has urged girls to believe in their dreams and to control their destinies. In taking on global Aids, she has the chance to help ensure that women and girls use those messages to save their lives. In the words of an HIV-positive mother in Kenya, "helping women is helping the whole family."
Janet Fleischman is a senior associate at the Global Health Policy Center of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC.
Comments 1 to 3 of 3 Post a comment
May be God has finally answered the prayers of the poor African however, i do not expect much!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Janet's commentaries is an interesting one. Symbolically the first Lady could make a different. Beyond symbolism I do not see how she could make a difference. By now Africans know what works in the care of HIV. Stronger local NGO's have had the best success rate in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, Botswana and South Africa. What Africa needs now is more money. That is what George Bush did. BUSH for all his faults did contribute a lot of money for HIV antiverile medicine and he is credited for helping reduce the aids/hiv scouge. Women in Africa also respond better to local NGO's and this is what seem to have worked in Zimbabwe. Also the fight against AIDS/HIVs is now being geared toward each specific African country. There is no one big strategic pollicy to target the continent of Africa, only plans for each individual country. This is difficult for Americans at times to understand. Africa is not a monolithic continent or even one big country.
OBAMA DECEPTIONS
#1
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrpRocaEfQE]
[ http://www.infowars.com/obama-feigns-ignorance-of-cfr-nau/ ]
[http://www.infowars.com/michelle-obama-flashes-%E2%80%98el-diablo%E2%80%99 -hand-signal-on-cover-of-vogue/ ]
#2 Here is evidence of Point 2 of the Georgia Guidestones on Reproduction .
Don't be deceived :
[http://www.infowars.com/?p=7259]
Here are search result links to what the Georgia Guidestones are
[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones ]
#3
BY PEACE SHALL Many Be deceived (Daniel 8:25) .
DOES THE TERM PEACEKEEPERS ring a Bell ?
Ask the people in Rwanda (who survived that Peace-keeping) about the
United Nations PEACEKEEPERS .
President Obamas UNITED NATIONS AMBASSADOR SUSAN RICE cut her teeth on
the RWANDA MASSACRE . OOOPs!!! She said.
(Heres a Search Link To Many Witnesses To THE NEW U.N. RICE MONSTER)
[http://ixquick.com/do/metasearch.pl?query=Susan+Rice+Rwanda&cat=web&pl=ff& language=english]
FAMILIES LINE UP FOR MASONIC CHILD ID PROGRAM ! UNCLE BEAST WANTS YOU !!!
[http://www.infowars.com/families-line-up-for-masonic-child-id-program/ ]
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SOME OF OUR JUNE-BORN WORLD LEADERS ! ( Go With God )
WORLD LEADERS BIRTHDAYS FOR JUNE
MONGOLIA Northern Asia - Nambaryn Enkhbayar June 1, 1958 1st
GREECE Southern Europe - Karolos Papoulias June 4, 1929 -3rd
(DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO) Central Africa
- Joseph Kabila Kabange (known commonly as Joseph Kabila June 4, 1971 -6th
COMOROS Southern Africa Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi June 5, 1958 5th
KUWAIT - Sabah IV Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah June 6, 1929 5th
BELGIUM Western Europe
Albert II - Albert Félix Humbert Théodore Christian Eugène Marie June 6, 1934 4th
TOGO Western Africa - Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé June 6, 1966 2nd
LIBYA Northern Africa - Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi June 7, 1942 1st
[ST. LUCIA] Caribbean - Calliopa Pearlette Louisy June 8, 1946 7th
(ISLAS MALVINAS-FALKLAND ISLANDS) Southern South America Alan Edden Huckle June 15, 1948 3rd
GUATAMALA - Central America - Álvaro Colom Caballeros June 15. 1951 6th
SURINAME - Northern South America Ronald Runaldo Venetiaan June 18, 1936 5th
POLAND - Central Europe - Lech Aleksander Kaczynski - June 18, 1949 7th
(CZECH REPUBLIC) Central Europe - Václav Klaus June 19, 1941 -5th
ANDORRA Southern Europe - Albert Pintat Santolària June 23, 1943 4th
BULGARIA Southern Europe - Georgi Sedefchov Parvanov June 28, 1957 6th
ITALY Southern Europe - Giorgio Napolitano June 29, 1925 2nd
TURKMENISTAN Central Asia Gurbanguly Mälikgulyýewiç Berdimuhamedow June 29, 1957 7th
ARMENIA Southern Asia - Serzh Azati Sargsyan June 30, 1954 4th
OUR DEEPEST FEAR By Marianne Williamson
Our Deepest Fear Is Not That We Are Inadequate, Our Deepest Fear Is That We Are Powerful Beyond Measure. It Is Our Light , Not Our Darkness That Most Frightens Us.
We Ask Ourselves, Who Am I To Be Brilliant, Gorgeous, Talented, And Fabulous ?
Actually Who Are We Not To Be ? You Are A Child Of God.
Your Playing Small Doesnt Serve The World.
There Is Nothing Enlightened About Shrinking So That Other People Wont Feel Insecure Around You.
We Are All Meant To Shine, As Children Do.
We Were Born To Make Manifest The Glory Of God That Is Within Us.
Its Not Just In Some Of Us; Its In Everyone.
And When We Let Our Own Light Shine We Unconsciously Give Other People Permission To Do The Same.
And As We Are Liberated From Our Own Fear, Our Presence Automatically Liberates Others
[NOTE BEING AFRAID AND REFUSING TO GET INVOLVED WONT STOP US FROM DYING. BUT BEING AFRAID CAN PREVENT US FROM LIVING]
(Nkosi Sikeleli Africa )
God bless Africa May her glory be lifted high Hear our petitions .
God bless us, Your children God we ask You to protect our nation Intervene and end all conflicts Protect us, protect our nation, our nation.
From the blue of our heaven, From the depths of our sea, Over our eternal mountain ranges, Where the cliffs give answer.
Sounds the call to come together, And united we shall stand, Let us live and strive for freedom, In South Africa our land.
[Enoch Mankayi Sontonga]
WAKE UP ! STAY UP MY BROTHERS & SISTERS ! BE SELF-SUFFICIENT IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
[http://www.infowars.com/infowars.asx] / [gcnlive.com]
- Life Is a Game. Have Fun. [ Luke 18:17 / Isaiah 11:6 ]