Western Cape starts spending AIDS money
CAPE TOWN – Dr Fareed Abdullah describes how he fell back in his chair when he received the much-anticipated letter from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.
‘The letter had been addressed to Deputy President Jacob Zuma and copied to me. It read: ‘Congratulations, the Technical Team has approved your application and you have been granted U$66,5-million (R430-m) over five years.’
‘I didn’t know if the money would fit in a suitcase or a bus or into a room. I just knew it was a lot of money,’ exclaimed Abdullah, who heads up the Western Cape’s HIV/AIDS programme.
Abdullah was speaking at the end of a Global Fund gala dinner held this week where roleplayers celebrated the long awaited arrival of the money.
‘It’s here, it’s real, it’s in the bank,’ head of health in the Western Cape Professor Craig Househam announced to loud support.
Health MEC Pierre Uys said that the U$15,5-million (R100-m) earmarked for the first two years would be used to strengthen peer education interventions among the youth (under 20 years). He committed his department to implementing the programme in all 320 secondary schools by the end of next year.
The remainder of the grant will be spent on formulating a community-based response to the epidemic (food security and orphan care), strengthening palliative care programmes (in-patient and home-based care) and expanding the treatment programme.
Uys reported that 5 000 people at 25 sites were currently accessing anti-retrovirals and that they were aiming to reach 36 sites by next year.
He added that there was one hundred percent access to the prevention of mother to child programme and that voluntary counseling and testing had been implemented at all sites.
A total of 28 sub-recipients, mostly non-governmental organizations, will receive a share of the Gobal Fund money.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria is the world’s largest funder of programmes to fight AIDS, TB and malaria.
The fund’s purpose is to attract, manage and disburse resources to fight the three diseases. It does not implement programmes directly, relying instead on the knowledge of local expertise. All countries are expected to contribute to the fund.
E-mail: Anso Thom
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