NEEDS

The Republic of South Africa is a comparatively large country approximately two and a half times the size of the state of Texas, with an estimated population of about 40 million. Some 13% of all the people in the world living with HIV can be found in South Africa. UNAIDS estimates that at the end of 2003 there were 5.3 million people in South Africa living with HIV, equivalent to 21.5% of the adult population.
Statistics show that while South Africa has 6 percent of the global population, the country accounts for 10 percent of the global burden of HIV cases. We at Advantage Foundation believe that a comprehensive and integrated approach that addresses the underlying causes of people’s vulnerability and risk to HIV is the most effective way to minimize HIV transmission.

Our plan consist of activities, services and commodities that promote and support the involvement of young people, people living with HIV and marginalized groups.

Some areas of Southern Africa have an alarmingly high infection rate of HIV. Our focus is to prevent new infections and also help those who are HIV positive, as well as, individuals who have been diagnosed with late stage AIDS. Worries about the possibilities of infection lead to people with HIV being very isolated and sometimes result in prejudice and paranoia.
Discrimination against positive people can cause the AIDS epidemic to spread - if people are fearful of being tested for HIV, they are then more likely to pass the infection to someone else without knowing.

SOUTH AFRICA IN THE NEWS

AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa: a looming threat to future generations

While the tragedy of the HIV/AIDS epidemic has been drawing increased media attention, one the most troubling aspects of it – the long-term impact on African societies of some 11 million AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa – has been featured less often.

There are more than 34 million orphans in the region today and some 11 million of them are orphaned by AIDS. Eight out of every 10 children in the world whose parents have died of AIDS live in sub-Saharan Africa. During the last decade, the proportion of children who are orphaned as a result of AIDS rose from 3.5% to 32% and will continue to increase exponentially as the disease spreads unchecked. As a result, the disease is in effect making orphans of a whole generation of children, jeopardizing their health, their rights, their well-being and sometimes their very survival, not to mention the overall development prospects of their countries.

The AIDS epidemic contributes to deepening poverty in many communities, since the burden of caring for the vast majority of orphans falls on already overstretched extended families; women or grandparents with the most meager resources. Such households are expected to earn 31% less than other households.

The overall situation has reached alarming proportions also because women have moved from the periphery to the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Averaging over 55% of all people living with HIV/AIDS, girls and women are disproportionately affected.

With the toll of AIDS orphans threatening to reach 25 million by the year 2010, this problem should remain at the centre of attention of all concerned – governments, the public and the media -- to stem the spread of this scourge. Source: http://www.un.org/events/tenstories/story.asp?storyID=400

Help to give a measure of relief to all the HIV positive women who could not get the drugs that would have prevented their babies from getting infected with the virus and now have to spend all their resources to treat the children’s AIDS related illnesses.

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Current Social Problems

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HIV/AIDS among young people
Young people are especially vulnerable to HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Even if the young people are not engaging in risk behaviors at present, they may soon be exposed to situations that put them at risk. It is important that they receive education because it is a matter of life and death; by teaching them about the risks we are actually giving them a chance at LIFE. In many countries 60% of all new HIV infections are among 15-24 year-olds. Also the highest rates of STDs are usually found in the age range 20-24 years, followed by 15-19 years.

More than half of all new HIV infections occur among people younger than 25. In southern Africa, where HIV prevalenceamong youth is remarkably high, many teenage girls contract the virus through sexual relationships – frequently involving exchanges of money or other resources – with older men already infected with HIV.

Violence Against Women
Violence against women plays a crucial and devastating role in increasing the risk to women of HIV infection. It is a key reason why women are more vulnerable to HIV infection than men. It is both a cause and a consequence of infection, and as such is a driving force behind the epidemic. The circumstances underlying the correlation between violence against women and HIV and AIDS are a complex weave of social, cultural, and biological conditions.
The term "violence against women" means any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.
• In 1988, a total of 19 308 cases of rape were reported to the South African Police Service. In 1994, this figure increased to 42 429 reported cases of rape. In 1996, 50 481 cases of rape were reported to the SAPS. According to the National Institute for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation (NICRO), the situation is more serious. NICRO has estimated that only one in twenty rapes are reported to the police. On the basis of this estimate, is calculated that one rape occurs every 83 seconds.
Besides from being a major human rights and public health problem worldwide, violence against women increases female vulnerability to HIV. Fear of violence prevents women from accessing HIV/AIDS information, being tested, disclosing their HIV status, accessing services for the prevention of HIV transmission to infants, and receiving treatment and counseling, even when they know they have been infected. Socially and economically disadvantaged women show the fastest growing rates of HIV infection.
Women are biologically more susceptible than men to becoming infected through intercourse, according to recent studies by United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and others. Microlesions can occur during intercourse more easily among women and may serve as entry points for the virus. Very young women and girls, and victims of coerced sex or other forms of violence are even more vulnerable. http://www.genderandaids.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=573
Our prevention activities do take into account the unequal terms on which most women have to conduct their lives.
Pledge your support and help us to give South African women a chance at life.

Gender Power Inequities and Transactional Sex Among Women in Soweto, South Africa: Prevalence, Risk Factors and Association With HIV Infection continues to be a challenge.
Sex workers have long been considered a high-risk group for HIV infection, and new research studies have explored the association between HIV risk and exchange of sex for material gain by women in the general population. Gender power inequities are believed to play a key role in the HIV epidemic through their effects on women's power in sexual relationships. A host of economic vulnerabilities underlies young women's inability to challenge the sexual status quo. In the context of poverty, young women speak of money as the driving force for sex and relationship formation. Partnerships with men who can provide financially are essential, transactional relationships (in which sex is exchanged for material goods or other support) are common, and relationships with older men are the norm.

Results of a study on the role of mobile populations in the spread of HIV
The role of truck drivers and sex workers in the spread of HIV has been studied in Africa, India, and the USA. Due to the migratory nature of their occupation, truck drivers tend to have multiple sexual partners. The study concluded that the high HIV prevalence and low condom use among truck drivers and sex workers as well as the complex web of travel and sexual mixing create a milieu that is conducive to the spread of HIV and other STDs.

Migrant workers
Migrant workers are a special risk group when it comes to taking the deadly virus back home to the family.
Labor migration leaves both the workers and their spouses vulnerable to HIV infection. Being mobile in itself is not a risk factor for HIV/AIDS. It is the situations encountered and the behaviors that migrants might adopt during the migration process that increase vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.
A combination of migrant working populations and high rates of sexually transmitted diseases are contributing to the rising incidence of HIV in South Africa.

For the complete study and results please visit South Africa Medical Research Council: http://www.mrc.ac.za/aids/apr2001/truckdrivers.htm
Reference:University of Michigan: http://www.psc.isr.umich.edu/pubs/abs.html?ID=2562
Source: http://www.afrol.com/articles/16591 or http://www.aegis.com/news/ads/1999/AD991070.html
University of Michigan Study - Dunkie, K L, R K. Jewkes, H C. Brown, G E. Gray, J A. Mcintryre, and Sioban D. Harlow. "Transactional Sex Among Women in Soweto, South Africa: Prevalence, Risk Factors and Association With HIV Infection." Social Science & Medicine, 59 (8): 1581-1592. 2004.
Reference: Center for Disease Control and Prevention- http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol10no11/04-0252.htm
South Africa Medical Research Council http://www.mrc.ac.za/hiv/hiv.htm,
South Africa Medical Research Council http://www.mrc.ac.za/aids/apr2001/truckdrivers.htm

What is the impact of HIV & AIDS on Africa?

HIV & AIDS have a widespread impact on many parts of society.
In many countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, AIDS is erasing decades of progress made in extending life expectancy. Millions of adults are dying young or in early middle age. Average life expectancy in Sub-Saharan Africa is now 47 years, when it could have been 62 without AIDS.

The toll of HIV/AIDS on households can be very severe. Many of those dying have surviving partners who are themselves infected and in need of care. They leave behind children grieving and struggling to survive without a parent's care. HIV/AIDS strips the family assets further impoverishing the poor. In many cases, the presence of AIDS means that the household eventually dissolves, as the parents die and children are sent to relatives for care and upbringing.

In all affected countries, the HIV/AIDS epidemic is bringing additional pressure to bear on the health sector. As the epidemic matures, the demand for care for those living with HIV rises, as does the toll amongst health workers.

LIFE EXPECTANCY

Dying young: The HIV/Aids crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa has caused the life expectancy in some countries to plummet dramatically. In the worst hit countries a child born between 2000-2005 has a much lower average life expectancy than one born in the early 1970s. Average life expectancy in Sub-Saharan Africa is now 47 years, when it could have been 62 without AIDS.
Estimates indicate that by 2009, Aids will have dispatched roughly 6 million to their graves, in a country of less than 50m people. The dead will mostly be in their thirties; 2 million children will be orphans. Life expectancy will have plunged to 41 years.