Existing grants and services
Three grants are currently available to children, but they reach only a small percentage and it is difficult to access.
Health
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Welfare system set for an overhaul as it fails to reach the children
South Africa'€™s welfare system is in the midst of a massive shake-up which stakeholders are hoping could result in government paying out more money to destitute children. At a recent meeting in Cape Town, about 90 roleplayers from the children'€™s sector and government officials, including those from a special committee charged with revising the entire social security system, grappled with how to set up an efficient "safety net" for the children of South Africa.
How the system failed Mthobisi
Mthobisi Simelane (7) has been orphaned and abandoned by his family at Mosvold Hospital in Ingwavuma, rural KwaZulu-Natal. Unless he gets a birth certificate, anyone caring for him will be unable to access any grants.
When health workers abuse HIV patients
Living with AIDS – programme 21
Sadly, it would seem, that many healthworkers serving in clinics and hospitals around South Africa stigmatise and ridicule people with HIV/AIDS. When one woman in the Western Cape spoke out about it at a meeting recently, the room resounded with echoes of similar stories. Sue Valentine reports. [This feature was first broadast on "AM Live" on SAfm on Thursday March 1, 2001. Speaking on the programme immediately after this report was played, a spokesperson for G F Jooste Hospital denied that staff at his institution discriminated against people with HIV/AIDS. On the contrary, he said, his staff were trained to deal with patients sympathetically and with kindness.]
Living with AIDS – programme 21
John le Carre slams pharmaceutical profiteering
Renowned author John le Carre delves into the dark and dangerous world of drug trials and pharmaceutical profits in his latest novel, "The Constant Gardener". In the afterword to the book he says that although his novel is a work of fiction and doesn'€™t reflect the actions of any real people, the real goings-on in the industry make his story seem like a "holiday postcard". Sue Valentine spoke to him, this is a transcript of part of their conversation.
Pfizer chooses not to go to court
One of the world'€™s pharmarceutical giants, Pfizer, was a notable absentee among the litigants represented by the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers'€™ Association when they took the South African government to court this week.
Drug trials and big business – fiction mirrors fact?
Living with AIDS – Programme 22
This week in our regular feature, spy-master novelist John le Carre shares his thoughts on the pharmaceutical industry and we meet a South African who's gained access to medication through volunteering for drug trials.
Living with AIDS – Programme 22
SA HIV vaccine steams ahead
Scientists have completed their laboratory research on a potential HIV vaccine for South Africa and the process is underway to begin human trials later this year. Kerry Cullinan reports.
Learning the ‘right’ way
Problems with learning that affect many young children may be a problem with teachers rather than learners. Formal teaching tends to favour verbal learners, ignoring the needs of children who are "visual learners" and whose thinking is dominated by the right hemisphere of the brain which processes information in pictures.
Hopes of millions pinned on court case
It has been almost two and a half years since Parliament passed the Medicines and Related Substances Control Amendment Act on October 31, 1997. During this time the legislation has been tied up in litigation instituted by the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Association who argue that their patent rights will be ignored by section 15c of the new law. AIDS activists around the world have thrown their weight behind the South African government in its bid to create a legal framework to ensure more affordable drugs.
Meeting the drug industry’s
One person is sure to be at the forefront-  putting the view of business across - when government and the pharmaceutical industry tackle one another in  the much hyped court case. But is Mirryena Deeb  really the Cruella de Ville of the industry or is she just a woman caught up in the demands of trying to juggle a stressful job, motherhood and a sick nation calling louder and louder for medicine to ease its pain...Anso Thom from Health-e News Service spoke to her.
Living without medicine
Living with HIV for eight years without picking up an opportunistic infection, Lundi Ntikinca is worried about the day when he will need expensive medication that could save his life. An option he cannot afford.
Drug prices
The sale of drugs in South Africa earned pharmaceutical companies about R8,25-billion last year, but the public sector only accounted for 24 percent of sales despite the fact that over 80 percent of the population depends on state health.
HIV threatens progress in TB control
HIV infection, if it remains uncontrolled, has the potential to swamp progress made in tuberculosis (TB) control, according to the South African Health Review released today.
What the roleplayers had to say…
A collection of quotes on what those involved in the court case and those most likely to be affected have to say.