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| XV11 International AIDS Conference 2008 |
The XV11 International AIDS Conference will be held at Centro Banamex in Mexico City from the 3rd to the 8th of August 2008. The theme for the conference is Universal Access Now. The theme emphasises the need for continued urgency in the worldwide response to HIV and AIDS and for action on the part of all stakeholders. |
WORLD POPULATION DAY |
July 11 is ‘World Population Day’. This is a day established by the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme in 1989 and observed every year to raise awareness of global population issues. |
International Day of the African Child |
June 16, is International Day of the African Child. This is a day commemorated every year since 1991 in recognition of thousands of black school children in Soweto, South Africa, who took to the streets in 1976 to protest against the inferior quality of their education and to demand their right to be taught in their own language. Hundreds of young boys and girls were shot and in the two weeks of protest that followed, more than 100 people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured. |
FIRST HIV AND TB GLOBAL LEADERS FORUM and UNGASS 2008 |
The first HIV and TB Global Leaders Forum will be held on 9 June in New York. The forum is aimed at emphasising bold leadership in the global fight against HIV and TB and to draw attention to the urgent need for collaboration. TB kills up to half of all AIDS patients worldwide. The outcome of the discussions are anticipated to influence deliberations during the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV and AIDS (UNGASS) which will be held on 10 and 11 June 2008 to review progress and address challenges to universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. |
GLOBAL AIDS WEEK OF ACTION |
The Global AIDS Week of Action (GAWA) will be held from the 18th to the 24th of May 2008. The week provides an opportunity for HIV and AIDS activists to unite, generate political pressure and demand a stronger response from world leaders in the fight against HIV and AIDS. |
| ‘World AIDS Orphans Day’ |
| May 7 is ‘World AIDS Orphans Day’. The Day was initiated by the FXB International, an NGO dedicated to combating poverty and the AIDS pandemic, to raise awareness about the plight of orphaned children. |
World Malaria Day |
April 25, marks the first World Malaria Day (WMD).
It was established at the 60th World Health Assembly in March 2007 after member states of the World Health Organisation agreed that greater awareness on malaria was needed. It was also approved in recognition of the fact that the world health community recognises malaria as a global emergency that knows no boundaries. |
WORLD TUBERCULOSIS DAY |
March 24 is World Tuberculosis (TB) Day. This is a day designed to build public awareness around tuberculosis.
Despite the fact that it is curable, TB is an epidemic that causes the deaths of millions of people each year, mostly in Africa. The linkages between TB and HIV and AIDS have made the situation even worse. Globally, 9.2 million new cases and 1.7 million deaths from TB occurred in 2006, of which 0.7 million cases and 0.2 million deaths were in HIV-positive people. (http://www.who.int/tb/publications/global_report/en/index.html) |
International Women’s Day |
March 8 is International Women’s Day; a day set aside to promote women’s social and political rights and also a time of celebration of womanhood. Women all over the world commemorate this day through several activities.
The global theme for this year’s commemoration is “Shaping progress.” It is a major day of global celebration for the economic, political and social achievements of women. |
| VALENTINE’S DAY |
February 14th is Valentine‘s Day.
This day is traditionally recognised as a day when lovers express their love for each other. There is a lot of excitement around this day with lovers taking the time to spoil each other in a bid to express their devotion to their partners. |
| STIGMA and DISCRIMINATION- what can the media do? |
A woman sits quietly away from the rest of her family. She has her meals using her own “special” crockery and cutlery.
She even has a special rug that she sits on. If she dares to sit anywhere else, there will be no peace in that home.
People take extra care when they visit the toilet after her.
You would think the people she lives with are not her family but they are.
It all started when it was established that all her illnesses were a result of her being HIV positive. Her family began to treat her like she was not worthy of love and attention. They began to treat her like she was a disgrace and someone who ought to be kept away from everyone else.
Hers is not the only such sad story. |
| LEADERSHIP is theme for World AIDS DAY |
| The theme for this year’s World AIDS Day is Leadership. It will continue to be promoted with the slogan Stop AIDS, Keep the Promise. |
16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence |
HOW many women have been beaten, murdered or ill-treated in different ways during the course of this year in your country?
Judging by the number of headlines coming from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Lesotho, among others, of women who were raped and girl children who have been sexually abused and infected with HIV and AIDS it is not difficult to conclude that thousands, if not millions of women throughout the world have suffered some form of Gender Based Violence in their lives.
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International Day For the Eradication of Poverty |
October 17, is International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.
The observance of this day can be tracked back to 1987 when over a hundred thousand people gathered at the Trocadéro in Paris, where the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948, to honour the victims of extreme poverty, violence and hunger. They proclaimed that poverty is a violation of human rights and affirmed the need to come together to ensure that these rights are respected. |
World Hospice and Palliative Care Day |
The Southern African region joins the rest of the world in commemorating World Hospice and Palliative Care Day (WHPCD), on 6 October, 2007. This is a day when millions of people around the world celebrate, support and raise awareness about the global hospice and palliative care effort and need. |
| Media Literacy |
A recent conference held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, brought to the attention of communication practitioners the importance of the concept of media literacy - the ability to sift through, and analyse media messages for truthfulness and accuracy. Lynda Bardfield, the Associate Director for Strategic Communication with Family Health International (FHI), gave the paper, entitled Linking behaviours: a challenge for strategic communication professionals at the practicum on alcohol, gender and HIV, organised by the African Network for Strategic Communication in Health and Development (AfriComNet). Over 80 experts in the fields of advocacy, mass media, interpersonal media and HIV counselling attended the practicum.
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| World Breastfeeding
Week: The Power of One |
| FROM 1-7 August, World Breastfeeding Week will be commemorated
in 120 countries in the world. This year’s theme is "The
Power of One: Breastfeeding Within One Hour of Birth”
which seeks to emphasise the powerful benefits of breastfeeding
an infant within its first hour of birth as the first
step towards reducing mortality of infants, as well as
children under the age of five. In fact, this can save
one million babies.
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| Men’s involvement and
participation can make all the difference in women’s lives. |
| Strong words but quite true. The theme for this year’s
World Population Day to be commemorated on 11 July is Men as Partners in Maternal Health. Haven't
we all heard of instances where fathers alone are still
making the decisions about when and who their daughter
marries, or whether they complete their education or not? |
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| African Day of the
Child, 2007 |
| Soweto, 1976 - Thousands of black school children take
to the streets in a protest march against their inferior
education systems under the then apartheid system, demanding
the right to be taught in their own languages. More than
a hundred people are killed in the marches and over a
thousand injured. |
| WHERE is Health Reporting in the region |
| A Health Reporting Conference under the theme “Opening
up New Possibilities through Dialogue”, took place from
the 10th to the 11th of May in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Organised by Wits University and Africa Media Assignments
the conference sought to find out the state of health
reporting in South Africa. Although the conference was
for South African journalists, the issues that came out
of it are of importance to all journalists south of the
Sahara as the issues are the same across the region. |
| Global
AIDS Week of Action, 2007 |
| The second Global AIDS Week of Action will be held from
the 20th to the 25th of May 2007. The week provides an
opportunity for activists to unite, generate political
pressure and demand a stronger response from world leaders
in the response to HIV and AIDS. The week starts with
the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial Day on Sunday
to recognise those who have died of AIDS around the world. |
| Disability:
Is enough being done in your country for them? |
| According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 10
percent of the world's population is made up of people
living with a disability significant enough to make a
difference to their daily lives. Eighty percent of these
live in the developing world, with a larger proportion
in rural rather than urban areas. |
