First-ever AIDS awareness campaign

[Xafsa]

I just came across this article. Do you guys think what their doing is called for. Do you think somalia is going to face an AIDS epidemic if they don't take action now?

 

 

SOMALIA: First-ever AIDS awareness campaign NAIROBI, 16 Jul 2002 (IRIN) - A group of campaigners against HIV/AIDS in Somalia, called AIDSOM, last week held the country's first ever public awareness demonstration in the coastal town of Marka, south of Mogadishu. Riding in trucks draped with banners carrying Somali slogans such as “AIDS is real, don't ignore it”, and "get a blood test before marriage, the group of young men drove through the streets spreading their message over loudspeakers, one of the campaigners told IRIN. "We did not experience any harassment and were mostly welcomed by the local population", said AIDSOM head Abdullahi Jama Hassan. However, he acknowledged that in some places the campaigners were forced to leave the area. "It is going to be very difficult to convince Somalis, but we are going to try," he said. Abdullahi explained that there was very little awareness of HIV/AIDS in Marka, as elsewhere in Somalia. "Our biggest problem, since we started this last year, has been ignorance, mixed with denial of the disease", he said. "People, even educated ones are likely to say - This disease can not happen here." There is very little information available on HIV/AIDS in Somalia, as the war-ravaged country was left without an effective administration or health service after the collapse of the central government in 1991. Abdullahi told IRIN Marka seems to be more open than most places in Somalia. During the group's three-day campaign, civil society groups, religious leaders, women's groups and youth groups were encouraged to become involved. "In some areas it would be next to impossible to bring together these groups to discuss openly AIDS," he pointed out. AIDSOM was first started in Mogadishu in June last year by a group of "like-minded" young people, whose lives were touched by AIDS, he said. "In my case I lost two very close relatives to HIV/AIDS, that is why I am involved," he said. "I know it is real and it kills." Abdullahi added that AIDSOM organisers would continue with their campaign throughout the country before the disease spreads, because, he said, people did not understand the dangers. He said AIDSOM had not received any assistance from aid agencies working in the country. "We would like to appeal to the UN agencies and other agencies to help with the awareness campaign," he said.

[Nefertiti]

Thank you very much for that article Flying Still, it was interesting. I just never realised that AIDS was an issue back home. I thought those people all knew where they stood in life having direct access to religion. But guess I was wrong. But thanks anyway darling, that was very informative.

[Coloow]

Flying still: bro/sis: this is another ploy to receive a few dollars from western donors. While aids is a global phenomenon, I think it has yet to penetrate somalia. Compared to other countries somalia is safe.

 

Moreover, bro/sis we have other diseases (such as malaria, hepatises, typhoids etc) not to mention Gun fire to tackle.

 

Such articles depict a bad picture of an already war torn country. It is by the aid-maffia.

[Macalin]

Fly, this ppl will make any money any where when they NEED it

 

Now u tell ME why Waste all that money on an AIDS campaign that we don have a problem with?-i mean is a good idea but There are other priorities such as MALARIA and other treatable diseases!-wasting money on a disease thats hardly epidemic is not the best idea!

 

They should find money for MALARIA -thats a killa!

[Gediid]

Originally posted by Lakkad:

Fly, this ppl will make any money any where when they NEED it

 

Now u tell ME why Waste all that money on an AIDS campaign that we don have a problem with?-i mean is a good idea but There are other priorities such as MALARIA and other treatable diseases!-wasting money on a disease thats hardly epidemic is not the best idea!

 

They should find money for MALARIA -thats a killa!

Lakkad prevention is better than cure but unfortunately this disease has no cure therefore a massive awareness campaign will inform people and definately be a step in the right direction.Keeping quite now will do us no good knowing the large number of Somalis living in Ethiopia & kenya where the disease has reached epidemic proportions.

[Changed]

flying still thanks for the info hon

they wasted money on somalia honestly there is no aids back home.......we dont sex around ..sex is harram uuf this gaaloying ...or else they may have a wicked plan of attacking somalia with aids and the only way they can do that is by having the awareness thing and those that take the test will be tested with infected niddle and that way they will be infected :eek: archh..

i just over exaggerated but hey that is what they doing when they go ahead waste money in somalia with their aids awareness campaign..if they want to spend money on somali do it something usefull...... :rolleyes:

[Macalin]

Gedid^ good positive POINTS...

 

But if the ppl are dying of diseases that a treatable at early stages in 21st century-then who will be there for an epidemic thats yet to strike us?----ppl are dying of malnutrution, direahea,TB and other treatable diseases coz of no drugs- we dont need an AIDS campaign, we have OUR QURAN as a awareness, Our Dhaqan, our deen thats a enuff awareness-we MUSLIMS!

 

somalia is not like other afrikan nations-or non muslim nations-if u see the data on AIDS-u will see almost all the islamic nations have less than 1% aids victims-that should say SOME!

 

wa salaams

[Xafsa]

Why can't we have multiple compaigns that target multiple diseases? All AIDS needs is awareness and not treatment...educated the masses about the disease. Most somali's are ignorant enough to think that AIDS can't happen in somali...but the reality is different.

[Gediid]

i agree with both of ya , AIDS in Africa is the number killer now and if we have spared the scourage we might avoid that by educating our youth NOW b4 its too late.As for the other diseases I agree they should adopt a 2 pronged attack one on educating the public of AIDS and the other fighting those diseaases that are treatable.

[Macalin]

Gedid N flying---That sounds like a NOBEL idea--laakin Do we have enuff funds to do 2 full flegded campaigns?

 

My point is--AIDS awareness can be and will be done by the local shiqs,parents and families-Malaria and other diseases Need immidiete funding!

 

Yall swing me here?

[raula]

Gediid...u are right walaalo..AIDs is a number one killer and has no specific treatment at the moment. creating awareness to "deaf" (a large # of people that agree that this is not an epidemic already, nevertheless already existing a blatant ignorant and statistically misproven misconception about the transmission exits and entries of the HIV-virus) will not only be an obstacle to combating the epidemic, but will restrict interventions that will help minimize the morbidity rate of this killer endemic. I truely support those that are creating the awareness campaigns, otherwise, when it's too late, who are we gonna blame, the Ethiopian for spreading the disease? C'mon grow up. (I blatantly suggested Ethiopians and Galoo's in general since many somali's try to paste their calamities and incidence of misfortunes-especially diseases-to the Ethiopians and the neighbouring Gaalo countries) :eek: .

 

Did you know that the millions of Southern Ethiopians that are dying of hunger, malnutrition, Faminine, tropical/infectious diseases are predominately Somalis living in the Ogaden region? This people live in the worst of the worst "pit-holes" you can imagine, even a desert scorpion will not be able to survive in this kind of personal and climatic conditions.

 

Anywayz, tropical/infectious diseases have cure or can be overcome if proper interventions are implemented such as preventative measures that will aid in reducing an illness from becoming an epidemic. For Instance, pest-control procedures, Evaluating breeding habits of parasitic vectors such as the Anopheles mosquitoes that carry the plasmodium germ of Malaria etc.

Public Health experts, in particular, Epidemiologists (like me or will be insha-allah ) that work on combating infectious diseases in Africa claim that it due to the changing of breeding habits of certain vectors, the resistance to chemical and pesticidial treatments such as Quinine(or MalariaQuinne for those who can r'member) and overall climatic and environmental changes that have resulted in obstacles that can reduce the rate of morbidity of infectious/tropicals diseases. In addition, not to mention the ailing economies and insufficient medical aid and supplies to the poor.

 

In general, to say that we are MUSLIMS( alhamdulihah we are and ofcourse) and that we will not be "attacked" by this epidemic is 'intellectually-wrong' and selfish, since we will not be considerate of the poor,famine, and hunger-stricken somalis that have been displaced after the civil war. Besides, this virus is an opportunistic one that happens to 'starve' ones immune system of its lymphocytes(immune fighting cells) and can result in massive undug graves of poor somalis dying from simple illness such as Pnemonia, Malaria, Yellow-fever,etc due to lack of immune capabilities. Nevertheless, AIDs is not only spread by being intimate (out of wedlock or within the marriage) and use of sharp objects such as needles; it can also result from blood transfusion-think of all those refugees getting medical treatment(such as blood transfusion) or just vaccination from infected syringes??? :eek:

 

 

My sincere apologies for the long post-its just that i get excited when it comes to public health issue-no wonder I luv being an Epidemiologist

[SomeAlien]

i think its a good idea to raise awareness about the disease that is rampant all across the globe, because i dont want it to reach our people at the devastating rate it is for the west africans. and maybe im a pessimist ,but i dont put anybodys so called moral standings at heart when our country and our people just suffered from a disgusting war in which somalis/muslims died at the hands of other somalis/muslims... anything is possible. people are imperfect, allah made it so, so lets not turn a blind eye and say its impossible, many african muslims are affected by this disease and although we need better health care in general, (malaria,polio, etc, wtv), some diseases can be cured, and/or treated, AIDS on the other hand, cant be cured and only the insanely rich in africa will be able to afford treatment.

[SomeAlien]

also what money are you guys talking about? ususally prevention and awareness campaigns are non-profit. if they wanted money theyd be getting it from the billions of africans dying from the disease ready for whatever medicine the pharmaceudical compagnies would knock off from the name brand drugs. and i dont think religion is a factor because egypt is a a muslim country and it is almost reaching epidemic status. personally, i think it has to do with tourism because the more tourism a country accomodates the more prostitution becomes rampant. i bet you anything the disease is more noticeable in touristic cities.. its sick. these perverts they like to go to foreign countries and exploit women and children,and because they have money, they get away with it... ******* europeans, the whole worlds a joke to them.

[Xafsa]

Originally posted by Lakkad:

Gedid N flying---That sounds like a NOBEL idea--laakin Do we have enuff funds to do 2 full flegded campaigns?

 

My point is--AIDS awareness can be and will be done by the local shiqs,parents and families-Malaria and other diseases Need immidiete funding!

 

Yall swing me here?

I see what your saying here...but we all know that sex and stds are taboo topics among the somalis. So do you really think that the sheikhs and the families are really going to talk to their kidsd or the community about it?

 

Once AIDS gets out of hand there will be no cure...I agree that Malaria is a big problem in somalia...but must one campaign suffer for the benefit of the other.

Both these diseaes are dangerous but you can't use the same scale to compare the two.

 

YOu know what they say...pervention is the best medicine.

 

Raula---I feel you...I love public health :cool:

[Macalin]

It doesnt have to be talked about-----its incoprotated in islam that we do shun away from all those evil stuff----

 

my point is--we do not have that a major prob with aids as we do other treatble diseases--and to me is not a prioritry

 

raula--so u are obbsessed witit so?----i don like other ppl coughing around me-lol