there is a light

It's not pretty and it's not sexy. For those living with HIV in South Africa, life can be hard. Improvements have been made since my first visit to the country in 2003 when there were no ARVs available in some rural areas - these drugs are essential for maintaining health and wellbeing and slowing the progression from HIV to AIDS.

Last weekend's papers reported a fantastic 25% DROP of new HIV infection rates in 22 countries in sub-Saharan Africa - the combining factors of strengthening healthcare capacity, education campaigns, condom distribution, community workshops and a seismic shift towards safer sexual behaviour. 

The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 6 is to halt and reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015, but on this basis it would be easy to surmise on a very basic level that it will take until 2040 to achieve this in sub-Saharan Africa alone, nevermind the rest of the continent and the alarming rise in infection rates being seen across Eastern Europe and Central Asia. All this however is threatened by a considerable drop in funding for HIV/AIDS projects in Africa - a huge humanitarian health disaster that benefits no one since it stands to reason that a healthy and robust population costs far less than one in the clutches of a hideous infection.

I stay optimistic that these essential programmes that run especially in my spiritual home of South Africa, continue to be funded enabling them to carry on their hugely vital and entirely necessary work. There is no choice. They have to.