Harm reduction
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, May 14: In an effort to mitigate the problem of HIV/AIDS in the border town of Moreh, where HIV/AIDS problem is sharing with the neighbouring country, Myanmar, Manipur State AIDS Control Society (MACS) organised a one 'Cross Border Programme on Harm Reduction Initiative' for the chief functionaries and Project Managers of NGO partners working in Moreh at Community Care Centre, Moreh yesterday.
The programme was graced by MLA Dr I Ibohalbi Singh as chief guest and Deputy Director of MACS Dr S Manikanta Singh as president.
While lauding the role of NGOs working in the field of HIV/AIDS, the chief guest stressed on the need for involving people coming from the neighbouring country in harm reduction programme of MACS.
He urged the NGOs to place dedication and self-service at the forefront while fighting HIV/AIDS.
Besides the project managers and chief functionaries of NGOs, the programme was participated by volunteers and officials from MACS.
The programme was followed by an interactive session between the MACS officials and NGOs partners.
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May 21, Mizzima News
Joint HIV awareness training by Burmese and Indian NGO - Mungpi
In a concerted effort at preventing spread of HIV infection among migrants
and the refugee community in the northeastern Indian state of Mizoram, a
Burmese social welfare group and a local organisation today held a one-day
HIV awareness seminar.
The Burmese Social Welfare Association and the Samaritan Society of
Mizoram, said migrants and the refugee community because of a lack of
awareness constitute one of the communities most vulnerable to HIV
infection.
Ko Htwe, secretary of the Burmese Social Welfare Association, told Mizzima
that among the Burmese community in Mizoram there are a sizable number of
people living with AIDS.
"We have seen that even among the Burmese community there are people who
are ignorant of HIV and how it can spread. So, we are trying to create
awareness among them," Ko Htwe said.
Burmese migrants and refugees, who illegally cross over the porous
Indo-Burma border, also carry the virus, he said. Besides, he added, these
groups of people, who work as labourers struggle to earn a living, which
sometimes does not permit them to spend time to attend awareness training
programmes.
"These people have to work hard for a living spread in various job sites
and are not able to spare the time for such awareness trainings and with
lack of awareness, they don't know how it could spread," said Ko Htwe.
"There is danger that if a person is tests positive, at least 10 persons
around him are likely to be transmitted the disease," Ko Htwe said.
While unable to comment on the number of Burmese migrants and refugees
living with AIDS in Mizoram state, he said, according to a blood test
conducted on 36,551 people in 2006 there were at least 1,994 positive
cases, which included Burmese migrants.
John Thansanga, Project manager of the Samaritan Society of Mizoram, told
Mizzima that his organisation has been actively engaged in imparting
training and awareness to both Burmese as well as Indian migrants, who
have come to settle in Mizoram.
"We are organising these types of seminars in order to boost awareness
among these people. We believe, those who participate in the seminar today
will reproduce them again," John said.
Besides organising the seminar, the Samaritan Society and the BSWA also
released HIV awareness pamphlets in three languages - Burmese, Bengali and
Mizo - in order to reach out to people as far as inside Burma, Ko Htwe
said.
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Monks participate in HIV training
By Aye Lei Tun
THE presiding monk of Salay Monastery in Mandalay urged monks last month to use Buddhist principles to help prevent HIV/AIDS and to provide moral support for those who have contracted the disease.
Sayadaw Bhaddanta U Wi Za Ya made the appeal during a training course titled “Prevention and care of HIV/AIDS based on Buddhist culture” held from April 24 to 28 at Phaung Daw Oo monastic school in Mandalay.
The course, attended by eight monks from eight monasteries in the area, was organised in cooperation with the Yadana Metta Foundation and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The aim of the course was to teach monks to use the principles of vinaya (the set of rules that Buddhist monks follow) to help ease the burden of HIV/AIDS in Myanmar, Sayadaw Bhaddanta U Wi Za Ya said.
He said the monks who attended the course were taught that people with religious training were equipped to provide understanding and support for those who had suffered discrimination or had been ostracised from society as a result of the disease.
Monks could also help terminal HIV/AIDS patients end their lives peacefully by motivating them to release their pain by reciting the Metta Sutta and Bohjanga Sutta, from the oral teachings of Buddha.
“There are many bad diseases that can be caused by immoral behaviour but I think HIV/AIDS is the worst among them,” Sayadaw Bhaddanta U Wi Za Ya said.
“But people can protect themselves by observing the five Buddhist precepts [which are abstaining from: killing, stealing, committing adultery, lying and ingesting intoxicants],” he said.
He said Mandalay Division was home to 310 monastic schools with more than 60,000 students, “so adding healthcare issues to the educational and religious teachings we provide for monks can contribute to the good of society in general.”
http://mmtimes.com/no367/n013.htm
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Teaching self care
A counselling centre for Burmese women in Tak advises them on how to manage and prevent health problems brought on by their work and living conditions
A mentally disabled Burmese woman crossed the border into Tak's Mae Sot district looking for work where she was raped by a man infected with HIV. After being treated at Mae Sot Hospital, she was sent, with the help of two Burmese NGOs, to rehabilitate at Sa Na Yar Thi Pan, a health care organisation for female Burmese workers in Mae Sot.
Within her first two days there the woman attempted suicide, but through the care of women who shared her language and culture she soon regained her will to live. The group later found her a job at a nearby market where she worked for a time before returning home.
Khin Ya Mo, 22, from Moulmein, 200km away in Burma, worked from 8am until 11pm at a Mae Sot sewing factory. She was allowed two one-hour breaks a day and two days off each month. She eventually had to quit when her eyesight began to fail as a result of her being overworked. Her working hours and conditions also resulted in her contracting some genital health problems, which, as a woman with a traditional upbringing, she felt ashamed to talk about. After leaving her job, Khin readily sought help from Sa Na Yar Thi Pan, knowing she could discuss her problems in a relaxed, woman-to-woman atmosphere.
Sa Na Yar Thi Pan health care group was set up almost three years ago to assist female Burmese workers in Mae Sot through peer counselling. It also provides basic health check-ups, pregnancy tests, herbal treatments, traditional massage and health education for migrant workers and transfers patients to hospitals when necessary. When it can, the group also helps the unemployed find jobs through its informal networks.
According to group counsellor Paerada Ngao-cholatharnchai, female migrant workers in Mae Sot often suffer from anaemia, abnormal vaginal discharge, genital fungal infections, constipation or haemorrhoids as a result of poor sanitation and slave-like working conditions.
The group is th
e brainchild of NGO the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW), which has encouraged female migrant workers to group together to deal with health issues.
According to Jiraporn sae Tang, co-ordinator of the GAATW, the Sa Na Yar Thi Pan group is part of the organisation's efforts to help female migrant workers share health knowledge through peer counselling. The NGO supports similar health care centres in Nepal, Cambodia and India.
The problems plaguing female migrant workers in Mae Sot are mostly related to overwork, poor living conditions and sexual abuse and rape by husbands or boyfriends.
''We focus on empowerment and education for those in trouble so women start by opening up, understanding problems, sharing knowledge and helping others,'' said Jiraporn.
In September 2004, a group of female Burmese migrant workers were given health training by the GAATW about female anatomy, health problems specific to women, how to identify basic symptoms of common illnesses and birth control. These women went on to set up Sa Na Yar Thi Pan.
''Our aim is to encourage the Burmese here to keep themselves healthy through simple self-care,'' said 27-year-old Paerada, aka Fa, an ethnic Karen who was born in Mae Sot but grew up and studied in Burma until poverty and ethnic persecution forced her to drop out of university in her first year and return to Mae Sot to work.
With full financial support provided by the GAATW, Sa Na Yar Thi Pan operates from a house near the Burmese-dominated Pa Charoen Market every day except Tuesdays.
''We are near the market so the women can easily drop in. Most of them are factory workers and locals. Some are sex workers,'' said Fa.
The group also runs a mobile unit to reach unregistered female Burmese workers who dare not go to hospital for fear of being arrested.
Unfortunately, personnel shortages have forced the group to limit their field work to Burmese-dominated communities and factories. Places with sex workers are no longer on their list because many Burmese prostitutes have opted to work independently, away from brothels.
Another group counsellor, 30-year-old Soe Soe from Moulmein, who, like Fa, was also forced to drop out of university in Burma, estimated that seven to 18 women now visit the centre each day for counselling or just to talk about their lives.
''A woman who came here this morning used to work in Rangoon. Her husband died when she was four-months pregnant. After having the child, her breasts became hard and sore. We used cabbage leaves on her breasts to ease the pain,'' she said.
The group opts for herbal remedies to treat minor complaints and transfers cases requiring professional diagnosis to one of two Thai medical clinics located nearby that treat needy Burmese for free, or to Mae Sot Hospital, which treats all underprivileged patients free of charge. Pregnancy testing is provided for 20 baht and women who need contraceptive injections are transferred to the hospital. The group also recommends free malaria tests at a local malaria centre to people who need them.
Many Burmese women who come to Sa Na Yar Thi Pan have uterine prolapse as a result of complications from giving birth, abortions or sitting too long at work. The group usually advises them to exercise and drink water boiled with mango peels for at least three months. Those suffering from a peptic ulcer are advised to consume a five-centimetre piece of peeled aloe vera each morning for between one week and a month. People with diabetes are advised to drink water boiled with borapet (dried heart-leaf moonseed) and those with high blood pressure or anaemia are advised to drink maroom (horseradish) juice, squeezed from a handful of fresh maroom leaves.
Apart from herbal remedies, the group educates female Burmese workers about good nutrition. Every month, a free cooking class is held for groups of seven or eight women to teach them how to cook properly, especially with vegetables like beans, yard-long beans, makhua puang (pea aubergines) and spinach, which can fight anaemia.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/Outlook/29May2007_out52.php
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UNICEF to help children in Myanmar in prevention against HIV/AIDS
The United Nations Children's Fund ( UNICEF) will help out-of-school children in Myanmar in prevention against HIV/AIDS under an education expansion project, the local Myanmar Times reported Monday.
The UNICEF's Extended and Continuous Education and Learning ( EXCEL) project is to provide educational courses on life skills and HIV/AIDS prevention to such children aged between 10 and 17, a project officer was quoted as saying.
The expansion project, being undertaken in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and local non-governmental organizations, is set to start in July with a target to reach 50,000 out-of-school children of such age by the end of 2010, the sources said.
The project was initiated in 2003 to provide equal learning opportunities to children of such status by offering them access to informal education.
According to the sources, a total of 7,700 children in eight states and divisions including Yangon and Mandalay were benefited by the project in the last four years under a nine-month course work.
The project officer held that the aim of the project is to help children face new challenges and problems of HIV/AIDS cases in the light of communal development by providing them with the knowledge and skill for protection.
HIV/AIDS, along with tuberculosis (TB) and malaria, is a major communicable disease of national concern designated by Myanmar.
Meanwhile, a five-year Three-Disease (3-D) Fund project to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria started last month. The 3-D fund project, worth of about 100 million U.S. dollars, is being funded phase by phase by a group of six donors of the European Commission, Sweden's Sida, the Netherlands, Britain's Department for International Development, Norway and Australia's Aus AID.
Meanwhile, a recent workshop involving Myanmar, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS stated that about 339,000 people were estimated to have lived with HIV/AIDS and the HIV prevalence in Myanmar has reduced from 1.5 percent in 2000 to 1.3 percent in 2005.
Source: Xinhua
http://english.people.com.cn/200705/28/eng20070528_378538.html
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BSWA requests Mizoram NGOs to help in HIV awareness
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23 May 2007 (Khonumthung News): Non Governmental Organisations in Mizoram in India have been requested by Ko Aung Naing Win, vice-president of Burma Social Welfare Association (BSWA) to help create awareness about spread of HIV infection among workers from Myanmar.
A one-day HIV awareness seminar was held jointly by the Samaritan AIDS campaign group and Burma Social Welfare Association in Aizawl, capital of Mizoram.
Those who attended the seminar were representatives of the Christian Church while 60 representatives were from social welfare associations.
"The government of Myanmar cannot provide enough HIV drugs called anti-retroviral therapy (ART) for AIDS patients and most of the patients sleep on the floor as there are not enough beds available in some hospitals in Yangon" the vice-president of BSWA Ko Aung Naing Win said.
The cost of testing blood is also very high and most HIV patients cannot have their blood tested due to shortage of money," Mr. Aung Naing Win said.
John Thansanga, Project Manager of Samaritan Society of Mizoram said "We have not finished our discussion yet. We want to request every body to impart this kind of education to others as far as they can. This is the main purpose of our meeting."
In Mizoram state situated on the Indo-Myanmar border, blood tests were conducted on 3
6,551 people between 1990 and 2007. Among them, 1,994 were detected to be HIV Positive and 214 had AIDS. Around 136 persons were said to have died of AIDS in Mizoram between 1990-2007.
Since 2002, an increasing number of HIV virus infected people have been found in Kolosib and Champhai nearest to Myanmar where most Burmese workers and traders stay.
"The reason for the increase in the two places is that it is near the border and most workers visit the place although there are more HIV infected people in Aizawl city since it is more populated," said Lalhruaizela, Outreach Worker of Samaritan Society of Mizoram.
At the seminar Miss Lalzuiliani, Director of Aids Control Society of Mizoram also distributed leaflets in Burmese on AIDS awareness. She said, "Prevention is the best way of fighting AIDS," she said.
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