Fighting HIV/AIDS in Swaziland

The impact of HIV/AIDS has reversed many of the social, economic and development gains Swaziland has made in the last two decades. This country is home to 1.3 million people, and a third of adults are HIV positive. As many as 75,000 children have been left orphaned by the virus and live in institutions that dot the landscape of this small kingdom. Experts estimate that by 2010, the number of orphans could climb to 120,000. A grant of US$30 million from the Global Fund will support a variety of health-care initiatives to provide prevention, care and support for the entire population of the country. Within two years, 95 percent of doctors and midwives will be trained to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS, and health-care facilities across the country will offer:

• Antiretroviral therapy to several thousand people living with HIV/AIDS;
• Medicines to treat sexually transmitted infections;
• Activities encouraging changes in the behavior that spreads HIV;
• Expanded voluntary counseling and testing services;
• Home-based care for the terminally ill; and
• Provision of social and legal assistance to people living with HIV/AIDS.

Today, nearly 20 percent of the Global Fund’s two-year commitment has been disbursed to Swaziland’s National Emergency Response Council on HIV/AIDS, which has bolstered outreach to the country’s orphans. With the new backing, the government is deploying a comprehensive set of services that provide orphans with food, rehabilitate the institutions in which they live and offer educational opportunities through scholarships. These activities are conducted within a traditional, community-based context whereby village chiefs guide Swaziland’s community-based efforts to care for its orphans. In every village, community caregivers are appointed to monitor and support each child. Chiefs allocate land upon which communities grow maize and beans to ensure that there is sufficient food to feed the orphans. Each community establishes income-generating activities to nurture and sustain the child with multiple practical needs that range from food, shelter and medical care to emotional sustenance and education.