Note from the Field: Swaziland - Another Step in the Race to Eliminate Pediatric AIDS
Posted by
Eric Kilongi
Nairobi, Kenya
May 3, 2011
Last week I was in
Swaziland, a small kingdom located within
South Africa that’s making a big impact on its AIDS epidemic.
Foundation Country Director for Swaziland Dr. Mohammed
Madhi (left) talks with Swazi Minister of Health Benedict Xaba.
(Photo: EGPAF/James Pursey)
On Friday, my colleagues at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) in Swaziland took a short pause to commemorate real progress in the fight against pediatric AIDS, and to launch a new effort that will hopefully result in a generation free of HIV.
EGPAF hosted an event to mark our new, five-year partnership with USAID and the government of Swaziland, called
Eliminating Pediatric AIDS in Swaziland (EPAS).
There were more than 100 people in attendance, including the Foundation’s President and CEO, Charles Lyons, and the guests of honor, Swazi Minister of Health Benedict Xaba, and U.S. Ambassador Earl Irving.
Other dignitaries included the Swazi parliamentary committee on health, and representatives from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the United Nations, and other health partners in Swaziland.
Minister Xaba commended the new project’s focus on preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) as a smart and wise investment, and an important building block for the kingdom’s strategy to eliminate pediatric AIDS by 2015.
Minister Xaba speaks during
EPAS launch event.
(Photo: EGPAF/James Pursey)
He also paid tribute to EGPAF’s founder, Elizabeth Glaser, for turning her own personal tragedy into a movement that’s helped millions of children and women around the world.
“The race to eliminate pediatric aids is the most important race,” EGPAF President Charles “Chip” Lyons told the assembled guests. “The Kingdom of Swaziland, through its bold leadership, has entered it with clear goals and plans.”
There were artistic performances throughout the event to help visualize and verbalize the goal that we are all working toward. A local musical artist, Flow D, stirred emotions by singing two songs about the need for the world to love its children and teach them hope.
A young woman recited a poem about PMTCT, talking about the potential for parents to give their children a chance to live healthy and fulfilling lives.
There was also a photo exhibit on display to show the achievements of a previous partnership between EGPAF, USAID, and the Swazi government, the
Call to Action project. Over the past seven years, Call to Action jump-started the scale-up of PMTCT services throughout Swaziland and thirteen other countries in Africa.
In Swaziland alone, it helped the Ministry of Health to reach more than 90,000 pregnant women with services to protect their babies from HIV. In the next five years, we hope that the EPAS project will help finish the job by preventing almost all new pediatric HIV infections in the country.
The images on display were taken in Swaziland by photographer Jon Hrusa, and they put faces and stories to these statistics. The photos introduced us to some of the families that have been touched by our work.
Winile and her son Yenzokuhle Dlamini at the King Sobhuza II
public health unit in Manzini, Swaziland.
(Photo: EGPAF/James Pursey)
On the previous day, Chip and I had the opportunity to meet one of these families in person. We visited the King Sobhuza II public health unit in nearby Manzini, the largest city in Swaziland.
The facility sees about 60,000 women and children each year, and is dedicated specifically to women and children. The clinic integrates maternal and child health services with HIV-related services, such as testing, treatment, and PMTCT.
We stopped to talk to a woman at the clinic who had benefitted from these services – Winile Mazibuko, a 30-year-old, single mother of two children. She found out that she was HIV-positive at the King Sobhuza II antenatal clinic when she was six months pregnant with her second child. Approximately 42% of all pregnant women in Swaziland are HIV-positive like Winile.
She told us that she was upset when she first learned her status. But because she had heard about PMTCT services before, she faithfully attended the antenatal clinic during her pregnancy, and followed the advice and treatment program she received from doctors and nurses.
Her baby boy, Yenzokuhle Dlamini, was born HIV-free. He was there lying calmly on her lap, a healthy four-month-old with a promising future.
The next day at the project launch, I thought about Winile and her son while I was listening to Chip address the assembled guests.
“Today is a symbol of what is possible: the elimination of pediatric AIDS,” he said. “With consistent leadership, clear goals, a national plan and dedicated partnerships, it can be achieved across Africa, one country at a time.”
Winile and her son are tangible symbols of what’s possible – living proof of the success we can achieve, one mother and one child at a time.
You can watch a video of our EPAS launch event in Swaziland, including interviews with Chip Lyons and Minister of Health Benedict Xaba, below:
Eliminating Pediatric AIDS in Swaziland from EGPAF on Vimeo.
Eric Kilongi is the Foundation’s Senior Regional Communications Officer, based in Nairobi, Kenya.