MALARIA

What is Malaria?
Malaria is a disease caused by the blood parasite Plasmodium, which is transmitted by mosquitoes. People with malaria often experience fever, chills, and flu-like illness. Left untreated, they may develop severe complications and can be fatal (cdc.gov/malaria/).

Why Should You Care About Malaria?
Malaria is the number one killer of children in Africa.

90% of deaths caused by malaria occur in Africa, where some 3,000 children die of malaria each day, one every 30 seconds.

More than 500 million people a year are infected with malaria and one million people will die each year from the disease.

Malaria accounts for up to half of all hospital admissions in Africa.

Malarial illness and death cost Africa approximately $12 billion a year in lost productivity.

Malaria is Preventable and Treatable
Malaria is spread by mosquitoes and can be prevented by using insecticide-treated bed nets and eliminating mosquitoes where they breed before they enter people’s homes at night to feed.

Malaria can also be treated with anti-malarial drugs before the disease becomes deadly.

How Can You Take Action Against Malaria?
Americans for Informed Democracy is looking for an idea you have to put on a fun and effective “net-raising” event - anything from selling knitted hats and scarves to hosting a party that will help raise money for the Nothing But Nets campaign. AID will view your proposals, select ten winners and give a $200 mini-grant to complete the event.

To apply, click HERE. Please send a project proposal of no more than 200 words, including a specific description of your action campaign (i.e where, when, how), your strategy for implementation (i.e. how you’ll allocate resources), and how you will recruit your film crew and event crew.

HIV/AIDS

What is HIV?
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the virus that causes AIDS. HIV is different from most other viruses because it attacks the immune system. The immune system gives our bodies the ability to fight infections. HIV finds and destroys a type of white blood cell (T cells or CD4 cells) that the immune system must have to fight disease [CDC.gov].

What is AIDS?
AIDS stands for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. AIDS is the final stage of HIV infection. It can take years for a person infected with HIV, even without treatment, to reach this stage. Having AIDS means that the virus has weakened the immune system to the point at which the body has a difficult time fighting infections [cdc.gov].

Background on HIV/AIDS, Sex Work and Sex Trafficking
Globally, there are currently over 39.5 million people infected with HIV [UNAIDS]. HIV/AIDS is the largest health crisis the world, especially Africa, has ever faced. Certain groups of people, including sex workers, are particularly vulnerable to HIV-infection and highly instrumental in the spread of the disease. For example, Kenya has an overall HIV/AIDS rate of about 6%, but female sex workers have an estimated rate of 33%. Kenya is one of the countries that receive significant money through PEPFAR programs.
Poverty forces many women in developing countries to engage in prostitution/sex work because they are not able to meet their economic needs by any other way. People who live in impoverished communities do not have the luxury to make informed decisions regarding their sexual behavior because they are forced to act in terms or immediate needs without taking into considerations the long-term consequences of their actions. For example, a prostitute may engage in unprotected sex even if she knows of the risk of HIV, but her client may pay more money not to use a condom.
Studies throughout Sub-Saharan Africa have shown that both single and married women engage in number of different economic, domestic, romantic, and sexual relationships that involve some from of payment from a man. In impoverished communities, people’s behavior is also influenced psychological coping strategies such as fatalism, helplessness, and denial regarding problems like HIV/AIDS. More research is needed to fully understand the psyco-social aspects of sexual behavior in impoverished areas.

What is Commercial Sex Work?
The exchange of sexual favors in return for economic goods such as cash or gifts.

What is Sex Trafficking?
The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Sex trafficking comprises a significant portion of overall trafficking and the majority of transnational modern-day slavery. Sex trafficking would not exist without the demand for commercial sex flourishing around the world [U.S. Department of State].

Each year, more than two million children are exploited in the global commercial sex trade [U.S. Department of State].

What is the Prostitution Loyalty Oath?
In 2003, Congress passed the United States Leadership against HIV/AIDS, Turberculosis, and Malaria Act (Global AIDS Act) and the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA). The “anti-prostitution loyalty oath” was also introduced in 2003 by conservative anti-choice legislator, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and is applied to all U.S. government funding for international HIV/AIDS programs [Pathfiner International]. The U.S. Global AIDS Act bars the use of federal funds to “promote, support, or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution [genderhealth.org].”

This “anti-prostitution loyalty oath” requires that U.S. and foreign non-governmental organizations receiving any U.S. HIV/AIDS funding adopt a policy "explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking" throughout their programs [genderhealth.org]. This means that any organizations receiving funding from the U.S. for HIV/AIDS relief may not be involved in work with women who are or have been involved in commercial sex work/sex trafficking.

Why is the Oath Problematic?
Prostitutes need to have access to sexual health services, not ony as an individual human right, but also to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS among popultions. If a prostitute has an STI, such as gonorrhea, she has as much as a 70% higher chance of spreading HIV to her partner(s) [Stephanie Nolen, 28 Stories of AIDS in Africa]. Sex workers need to be made aware and given the resources to have consistent sexual health in order to prevent the spread of HIV.

In order for organizations to gain the trust and credibility of the people that they serve, they need to take a non-judgmental perspective on the behaviors of those people in question. Best practices in public health have found that it is both possible and often necessary to provide social, legal and health services to men and women in prostitution without judging them, and without adopting anti-prostitution positions [genderhealth.org].

The restriction limits organizations ability to promote both public health and fundamental human rights standards for people who have been involved in prostitution/sex work. The policies are contrary to known best practices in public health and undermine efforts to limit the spread of HIV and sex trafficking.

Organizations that work with individuals in prostitution may also be able to provide them with new skills essential to moving out of the commercial sex sector, to secure their legal rights to be free from violence and discrimination, or to empower them to demand universal condom use, thereby preventing the further spread of HIV infection within and outside this sector. They may also work to prevent people from being trafficked into the sex sector and to assist trafficking victims [pepfarwatch.org].

In addition, the pledge undermines the democratic principles of the United States because it is a violation of the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech. The courts have long held that the government does not have power to compel a U.S. grantee to pledge allegiance to the government’s viewpoint in order to participate in a government program.

Some countries, such as Brazil, have rejected huge amounts of United States funding in protest of the “Prostitution Oath.” Brazil has been seen by many public health officials as a model in the battle against the spread of AIDS, in part because they deal in an accepting, open way with marginalized groups of people like prostitutes [Michael M. Phillips and Matt Moffett, “Brazil refuses U.S. AIDS funds, rejects conditions” The Wall Street Journal, 2 May 2005].

How Can You Take Action Against HIV/AIDS and the "anti-prostitution oath"?
Call your Senators TODAY and urge them to fix PEPFAR's prevention flaws. Click HERE for a sample script.

Maternal and Child Health

A women and her babys chance of survival is dependent on the area of the world where they reside.

In developed countries about 8 babies die per 1,000 live births, but in the less developed countries 63 die per 1,000 [www.deathreference.com].

Ninety-nine percent of childhood deaths occur in poor countries [Center for Global Development, “Brief: Millions Saved: Proven Successes in Global Health,” 2007]

Most of the babies dying globally are born in Sub-Sahara Africa. Ninety percent of all child deaths occur in 42 countries, of these 39 are located in Sub-Saharan Africa [prcdc.org].

Poverty accounts for much higher death rates among mothers and babies in developing countries because it increases the likelihood of malnutrition, unsafe drinking water, poor sanitation, less education, decreased life expectancy, exposure to insect vectors of disease, and lack of basic medical services [prcdc.org].

Solutions:
1. Increased attention and funding for development and gender inequelity around the world.

How to Take Action on Development Issues:
See our Development page HERE

Health Worker's Rights

Health care workers have the right to safety and well-being while treating those affected by disease. Health care worker safety is important to stress because without it, it is difficult to maintain a capable workforce and attract additional workers into

Solutions:
The United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008 includes training 140,000 new health care workers that would serve those areas currently lacking these resources the most. However, the current language in the new bill is vague and does not specify that health care workers will be educated in topics other than HIV and how these workers will be retained to create a sustainable health care system. Additionally, there is no language about health care worker’s rights currently in the bill.

More info and ways to take action coming soon!