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UN Radio
UN and Africa
Programme Number: 071
Week of: Sunday, 30th October, 2005
Recording Date: Thursday, 27th October, 2005
Topical Issue(s):
UNICEF ON HIV/AIDS-AFFECTED CHILDREN
Editor / Presenter: Ben Dotsei Malor
Producer: Derrick Mbatha
Production Assistant: Chuck Appel
Studio Engineer: Julio Martinich
Duration: 15’00”
PRESENTER: You are listening to United Nations Radio
from New York.
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and hold under narr.)
PRESENTER:
Hello. This is UN and Africa. And I’m Ben Dotsei
Malor.
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and hold under)
PRESENTER:
Today, we throw a special spotlight on a particular
crisis facing millions of children in Africa.
CLIP LIVEY FOUND OUT
“When I was 17, the same day I found out I was
pregnant, I also found out I was HIV positive. My
mother banished me to my grandmother’s farm.
The local people were afraid of HIV. They didn’t
want me living among them. When they saw me, they
would throw stones at me.”
Twenty-year-old Namibian mother, Livey Samaria, Fan
Vyk, on her experience living with HIV/AIDS. A lot
more from her in a moment.
And, the head of the UN’s Children’s Agency,
Ann Veneman, speaks about the new global campaign
to the children affected by HIV/AIDS.
MS VENEMAN 2:
“Every minute of every day, a child dies because
of AIDS.”
Also, UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, gives some
examples of success in this fight against HIV AIDS.
SG KOFI ANNAN-2:
“Some countries have achieved impressive results
in fighting AIDS, such as Thailand, Brazil and Cambodia.
Those countries all have one thing in common. They
acted quickly and decisively to launch nationwide
campaigns, showing that the Government was openly
and seriously engaged in the struggle.”
We’ll also hear from the Rwandan First Lady,
Jeanette Kagame, who’s President of the Organisation
of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS.
Stay tuned, to UN and Africa.
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under until first sentence.)
UNICEF AND UNAIDS CAMPAIGNS FOR CHILDREN AFFECTED
BY HIV-AIDS
MUSIC PAKISTANI DUO:
(Please play for 10 seconds and dip under narration
…)
The music of “STRINGS,” the top Pakistani
duo of Faisal Kapadia and Bilal Masgood, performing
live at the Global Launch of a new UN-led campaign
that’s seeking to draw attention to the terrible
impact of HIV/AIDS on children.
This campaign is targeting those groups of young
people who have become infected with the virus and
those who are having to serve as nurses and caretakers
for their parents or relatives who are sick or dying
of HIV/AIDS. In fact UNICEF is warning that in Sub-Saharan
Africa where the disease has done much more damage
and where many more children are affected, some 18
million children could become orphaned by the disease
in the next five years.
At the launch of the campaign here at UN headquarters
in New York, the head of the UN children’s agency,
UNICEF, Ann Veneman, explained the reasons behind
this particular campaign.
MS VENEMAN-1:
“We are here today because, 25 years into the
pandemic, this very visible disease continues to have
an invisible face … a missing face … a
child’s face. Children are “missing”
from the HIV/AIDS picture in many ways. They are missing
parents … missing teachers … missing treatment
and care … they are missing protection …
missing many things.”
In his address, UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan,
touched on one of the most disturbing aspects of the
AIDS crisis.
SG KOFI ANNAN-1:
“Millions of people and young people are already
affected by the pandemic -- including those infected
through the most heart-rending form of transmission
-- mother to child. The number is multiplying every
day. Youth make up half of all new HIV infections
worldwide.”
And this figure also leads to a rather stark realisation.
MS VENEMAN-2:
Every minute of every day, a child dies because of
AIDS.
According to Ms Veneman African children are the
worst affected, compared to children from other continents.
MS VENEMAN-3:
Children and young people are suffering. They are
suffering the greatest in sub-Saharan Africa, where
the disease has the strongest grip. But they are also
suffering in Asia, in Central and Eastern Europe,
in Latin America and the Caribbean … and beyond
Present at the launch was the President of the Organisation
of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS, Mrs Jeanette
Kagame of Rwanda.
MRS KAGAME-1
“I’m proud to be here as an African mother,
a member of the Organization of African First Ladies
Against HIV and AIDS. We are determined to give this
disease a compassionate mother’s face.”
Mrs Kagame explained what her organisation has been
trying to do for young people in Africa.
MRS KAGAME – 2:
Through our campaign, “Treat Every Child As
Your Own”, we are working together to help reach
the goal of no new infections among the youth of Africa.
One of those young Africans who could not be reached
in time is twenty-year-old LIVEY VAN WYK from Namibia.
MS LIVEY FOUND OUT:
“When I was 17, the same day I found out I was
pregnant, I also found out I was HIV positive. My
mother banished me to my grandmother’s farm.
The local people were afraid of HIV. They didn’t
want me living among them. When they saw me, they
would throw stones at me.”
Dealing with the stones thrown at her by some neighbours
was not the only difficulty Livey had to face.
MS LIVEY STIGMA:
“Young people living with HIV need support to
be able to speak out and seek help without fear of
being blamed. But in many countries, including my
native Namibia, the stigma of AIDS is too powerful.”
This young Namibian woman, who was almost given up
for dead, wanted one fact recognised.
MS LIVEY SEXUALLY ACTIVE YOUNG
“I didn’t know that a person living with
HIV could have a future. Whether or not you like it,
young people are sexually active at an early age.
But in many countries, young people either do not
know how to protect themselves from HIV or they think
it’s something that won’t happen to them
And nearly 90 per cent of new child infections are
currently happening in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is
a situation that continues to alarm Rwandan First
Lady, Jeanette Kagame.
MRS KAGAME-3
The HIV/AIDS pandemic has been with us for 25 years.
We have been slow to act and what we have done has
not been enough. The disease will not wait for us
to catch up. It will carry on wreaking havoc across
the globe. Are we prepared to take responsibility
for another ten years of avoidable deaths and denial
of childhoods? This campaign is an alarm bell.
Mrs Kagame’s call for urgent action is underscored
by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan who believes governments
could do a lot more and a lot more easily too, to
make some gains in the fights against HIV/AIDS.
SG KOFI ANNAN-2:
“Some countries have achieved impressive results
in fighting AIDS, such as Thailand, Brazil and Cambodia.
Those countries all have one thing in common. They
acted quickly and decisively to launch nationwide
campaigns, showing that the Government was openly
and seriously engaged in the struggle.”
And in the quest for solutions to the HIV/AIDS problem,
UNICEF head, Ann Veneman, says this global campaign
will focus on four main areas.
MS VENEMAN-4:
“Reducing the percentage of young people living
with HIV/AIDS by 25 percent … Covering 80 percent
of women who need services to prevent mother-to-child
transmission … Providing pediatric AIDS treatment
to 80 percent of children in need … And reaching
80 percent of children in need of protection and support.”
Some of these children who are in need, must be allowed
themselves to play their part in the battle against
this pandemic, according Livey Van Wyk.
MS. LIVEY- YOUNG MUST PLAY PART:
“There are tens of thousands of young people
living with HIV in Namibia. But I have never met another
young person who is willing to speak openly and honestly
about living with HIV. The others are too afraid.
This must change. Young people have a big role to
play in the fight against AIDS. But that can only
happen when the environment exists to enable them
to do that. Young people will get involved when they
are not afraid to get tested for HIV and when they
know that they will be given support and love when
they get their results. When they are not made to
feel that HIV is a punishment for their bad behavior.
”
Soon after the launch Livey spoke with UN Radio’s
Derrick’s Mbatha.
MS LIVEY- INTERVIEW SHORT.
VAN WYK: My name is Livey Van Wyk, and I am 20 years
and I am living with HIV for about five years and
I got infected when I was turning seventeen, and I
gave birth to a child while infected. And that was
when I was seventeen I gave birth.
MBATHA: And how did you get to know about your infection?
VAN WYK: When I went for a pregnancy test, at the
same time I also took HIV tests, and that’s
how I got my result.
MBATHA: So, you got the infection from the father
of your child, I assume?
VAN WYK: That’s right. I got the infection
from the guy I had sexual intercourse with and from
there I got infected.
MBATHA: And when you informed your relatives or parents,
what was their reaction? How did they react to you
telling them about this?
VAN WYK: They were feeling ashamed because their
child, my children felt it’s all the shame because
the child was infected. They basically didn’t
want to do anything with me because thought that I
was going to die and the sent me off to the farm because
they didn’t want me to suffer at home.
MBATHA: What about your friends and your acquaintances?
What was their attitude towards you after learning
of your status?
VAN WYK: I lost my friends, I lost my family. They
all didn’t want to be with me because they were
scared that I could infect them by just being next
to them. They were scared so they all shut their doors
and they didn’t want to see me again.
MBATHA: What is their attitude now towards you? Do
you think it has changed?
VAN WYK: In my country it hasn’t changed a
lot. I think that I get strong when I just ignore
the things that they do to me.
MBATHA: And, of course now you are involved with
this campaign, United for Children, United Against
AIDS? What in your view is the main objective of this
campaign? What are you trying to achieve?
VAN WYK: When they say united, I believe unity means
that everybody should speak from one or as one, and
they basically mean that young people should be given
the opportunity to lift their voices and people should
listen to children because children can also contribute
to decisions and other things.
MBATHA: And coming, as you do from Namibia, an African
country, what would you say the attitude would be,
the reaction would of parents, or people in general
when you inform them about this campaign as a young
person? Do you think they are going to listen to you?
VAN WYK: Yes, I believe that, as you know, the UN
is very strong, and the UN is supporting a lot of
countries including my country. And the thing in my
country is when they hear about the UN, they get quite
scared. And for me being at the UN this means that
yes, there are people who are supporting young in
the fight against HIV and AIDS and that with the voice
of the UN, especially UNICEF it makes a big difference.
Livey Samaria Van Wyk, the young Namibian mother
who’s living with HIV.
That’s where we must leave this edition of UN
and Africa, focusing on the new UNICEF and UNAIDS-led
campaign to help children affected by HIV/AIDS.
We thank you for listening. And please visit our
website un.org/unandafrica.
I’m Ben Dotsei Malor, with Chuck Appel, Derrick
Mbatha and Willy Correa
We leave you in the hands of STRINGS from Pakistan.
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