MAKE LOVE - NOT AIDS
Stop AIDS - keep the promise !
HIV/AIDS has become one of the most important
health problems in many countries around the globe.
During the period
13th to 30th October 2005, a-six-strong group from Bremerhaven
and Bremen will make its way to Cape
Town, South Africa. The group travels under the name of the “Fishtown-Falken”.
The group will join with young people from the “Children’s
Resource Centre” which is sponsored by the social medicine
relief organization, “Medico International”. Together
the young people will use contemporary and traditional African
dance and music, to get the AIDS prevention message across
to children of the township schools of Kayhalitsha and Mitchells
Plain.
Due to the generous sponsorship of the “SWB-Bildungsinitiative” the
Bremerhaven Commercial Institute’s “World Affairs
Course”has been able to prepare and follow-up this action.
We would like to thank the “SWB-Bildungsinitiative” for
helping to make such a health-education offensive possible,
over two continents, also for their contribution in creating
global consciousness.
South Africa has one of the highest HIV infection
rates in the world.
Five million people are infected and in some parts of the country
20 – 30 % of young adults carry the disease. Without
treatment, most of them will die within a few years. The number
of orphans left behind will rise to 2 million by the year 2010
unless there is some kind of intervention. Over 130,000 babies
are infected with the virus at birth.
Poverty encourages migrant
working, which damages traditional ways of life and weakens
family-ties. This contributes to the
spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV/AIDS.
Poverty also forces women into unsuitable, often violent, relationships.
Women are also less able to protect themselves, which makes
them vulnerable to rape, which is an additional engine of HIV
infection in South Africa.
AIDS throws a spotlight onto the consequences
of social inequality in our world today.
In the poorest countries the national expenditures on health
sank to a minimum of less than €5 – €10 per
person per year (in Germany €3000.00 per person per year).
Despite international programs and extra “Global-Health-Funds” for
HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, only 8% of people with
AIDS in Africa receive treatment.
Also, in middle-income countries, like South Africa, arms programs
had priority over treatment programs.
The Bremerhaven-Group would
like to make clear with its action, that one part of the world
can not survive without the other.
When the group returns from South Africa they will present
their experiences and reinforce the necessity of AIDS prevention,
with the cooperation of the Bremerhaven health-authorities.
The presentation will probably take place at the Volkshochschule
Bremerhaven on the 7th of December 2005.
This kind of “One-World-“Cooperation
is of great importance because it ensures increased awareness among
young
people.
We thank the “SWB-Bildungsinitiative”, MedicoInternational,
the Federal Ministry for Families, Youth, Women and Seniors,
the Bremerhaven Office for Youth and Family and the Senator
for Work, Women Youth and Social Affairs in Bremen, for supporting
this AIDS-Prevention-Initiative.
In addition to their commitment
and hard work, each person who travelled co Cape Town, made a
material contribution of €500.00
to the realisation of this project.
We are very pleased about local
solidarity and cooperation between the apprentices of the Bremerhaven
Commercial Institutes “World-Affairs”-
Course, the Fishtown-Falken and the Bremerhaven Health Authorities
and globally with the Children’s Resource Centre, BAOBACONNECTIONS
and the Windsor High School in Cape Town.
Shamiel X Adams and BAOBAB
have invited the dancers and musicians from Bremer-“Heaven” to
perform on stage in Cape Town’s historic District 6 on
Saturday, the 15th of October 2005, to get their message across.
MAKE LOVE - NOT AIDS
"together against AIDS – we take responsibility"
World Affairs der Kaufmännischen Lehranstalten
Bremerhaven
Anne Schmeckies & Co.
FISHTOWN FALKEN Bremerhaven
