Wema Sanga and Kabuyu Kyando living with HIV//AIDS in Makete District

see their personal stories on http://www.highlandshope.com/


Merry Christmas !


I wish you a Merry Christmas and I really hope, the next year will be a successfull one and will bring lots of love and peace and a lot of lives saved and people cared for, all over the world rather than war, stima and careless, selfish behaviour.

I would wish that lots more are on ARVs ("AIDS drugs") taking them regularly with their cd4 counts monitored following state of the art procedures and under the use of the best, most affordable and availabel technologies. I would hope that their viral loads are done and their treatments are adjusted timely and by the use of the best drugs available in the world. No matter where somebody with HIV/AIDS lives!

And I would hope that many HIV infections are prevented.

Wema Sanga (General Secretary) and Kabuyu Kyando (Chairman) of PIUMA (“PIMA uishi kwa matumaini” – “Test and Live with Hope”) would deserve to be cared even better, as they care for their fellow PLWHA (People Living with HIV/AIDS) very well and under carefull use of their small ressouces, I think they do that much better than most of resposible ministers and HIV/AIDS officials!

I am a great admirer of these people (who are “living below the poverty line”)! They stood up out of my patients and decided to make a difference!

It went to the credit of PIUMA to speak out against corruption and theft of government and donor monies originally designated for the fight against HIV/AIDS in Makete. They stood up on behalf of the uniformed and betrayed orphans and the poor peasants suffering under the plague! Those suffer without any shield!

They got up and told the world and their leaders, that they couldn't see any help reaching them and that they feel misused as a source of income for some wealthy who pretend to fight for them.

This is how I understood them! This is what they told me, as I just met them during my recent visit and while being confronted with corruption and misuse of AIDS and development monies. We discussed possible new and direct support of the community in order to fight the scourge and in order to prevent new hassles for PLWHA and their advisors, who were recently taken to prison after having spoken out aginst injustice and theft.

For 2007 I wish for them and for their good survival:

That there is are Ministers of Health who show at first and foremost tangible actions and concern in order to improve the quality of ARV treatment in Tanzania and all over the world instead of going on complaining about the lack of finacial resources, while money is wasted and/or stolen.

At present Tanzania is given big support to produce their own and inexpensive AVRs by the help of EC money and it is to hope that everything is done to make this to a success under the careful use of these ressources.

At present the Ministry and NACP (National AIDS Control Programme) rather seem to struggle with HIV/AIDS supplies procurement scandals and poor use of the monies given to fight HIV/AIDS and other diseases.

In Makete several hundred thousand US$ seem to having disappeared and the two visits of the Minister of Health and one visit of the Prime Minister didn’t make a difference yet. Police investigations are stuck since months.

For 2007 I wish for the poor in Makete that the Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT) starts to clean itself, instead of blaming others for speaking out about thefts in the church which were repeatedly confirmed by internal church and external independent financial audits.

The community and the concerned world deserves an explaination from the responsible Makete Bishop for his failure to deal with the theft of several 100.000s of Euro/US$ donor- and government money by the local Lutheran Church under his leadership.

PIUMA and the local PLWHA also deserve an explaination for the forceful and violent closure of a well working HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care programme by the diocese in April 2006.

The stolen monies were mainly intended to be a boost in development and spiritual power of the poor Maketeans. About 18% of its population suffers under HIV/AIDS with all its devastating effects on every family and the whole society.

There is a big job to be done for the Lutheran Church but still - instead of showing tangible progress - the poor are suppressed and some few greedy church leaders don't want to talk about the whereabouts of the funds and the whole of ELCT and some donor missions refuse to hold church leaders responisble in order to correct their mistakes and misdeads on the poor and they do not announce how they are planning to pay back the stolen funds and how they think to compensate and reconcile with the betrayed poor and dying masses.

I wish for our poor and dying brothers and sisters in Africa and all over the world that all the donors stop supporting those corrupt leaders, civil servants and NGO leaders or health professionals, who see AIDS and poverty mainly as a business to gain personal wealth rather than as challange and duty to help the victims in fighting it.

This shame also goes to many foreign experts here in Tanzania and overseas who rather merge with thieves for business reasons or keep quiet out of fear for their own and sometimes very well paid jobs.

I wish more truth and transparency, less blaming and stigmatizing of victims and that people stop making business out of the suffering of the poor masses.

I wish them good and skilled leaders with high ethics and love for their nations and people.

Let the victims help themselves – with the support of all of us!

There are good examples for good governence in HIV/AIDS treatment programmes by the help and leadership of PLWHA, like Thailand, PIH in Haiti and other places, and many others - with the help of the PLWHA it is possible to treat everybody and safe millions of lives.

Treatment is a Human Right!

Treatment for All!

We are celebrating the birth of a saviour who loved the poor, that is, what is said to be done today!

www.univie.ac.at/ethnomedicine/PDF/ven%20IX%20Nr.1.pdf