WORLD AIDS DAY,1ST DECEMBER
STIGMA & DISCRIMINATION
Love us and let us live.

It does not matter from what angle you look, AIDS is a terrible thing, and it is going to be with us at least for the foreseeable future.
Even if a vaccine were developed tomorrow, the number of people infected is already enormous. Even if a cure were found today, the number of people dead is great and the effect on all those whose lives indirectly have been touched by this dreadful illness will last for decades. How can we bear the pain of this development in world history? How can we deal with Aids and not either engage in full-scale denial or be immobilized?
The world set the 1st of December each year to be commemorated as world aids day. This is a time to reflect on the reality and existence of the pandemic and also to appreciate the impact that it has on human life. No one can deny the existence of the disease as it is affecting everyone either directly or indirectly.

One gets astounded when one reflects on how grave the scourge has spread within a short period of time since its discovery.
To appreciate the extent to which the pandemic has affected the entire world, Africa and Malawi in particular, consider the following statistics.
The end of the year 2001,40 million people were living with HIV/Aids infected 5 million infected in that year and 3 million died because of the disease. Let us get a little closer to home.
Sub-Saharan Africa only accounts for 10% of the global population, but it
Accounts for 70% of total Aids infections
Accounts for 80% of global Aids deaths
Accounts for 83% of all HIV positive women
Accounts for 87% of all HIV positive children

Getting more down to earth by getting home.
Malawi is one of the countries with the highest number of people living with aids, and the number continues to grow every single day.
For a clear understanding, a few more statistics will do
15% of people of ages between 15 –49 are positive, 60% of whom are females.
A real shock is that 250 Malawians are infected everyday, 60% of whom are youth and of the 60% youth, 90-% are females!!
The male –female Aids contraction rate is 1:6 imagine!
From the year 2000,70,000 people dies yearly because of the disease
7 out of 10 people admitted in government hospitals are due to aids related infections.
More than half a million orphans have been generated because of the disease with 70,000 added every year. Statistics such as the above are so overwhelming such that we cannot afford to keep our mouths shut and watch the killer finish us on by one.

The theme for this year is stigma and discrimination: love us and let us live, which through our actions, most people have made it live and let die. By having the diseased, people are often stigmatized as immoral and discriminated against.
We forget that not everyone is getting the disease through sexual involvement, and even if that be the case, who is man to condemn another person whom God, the creator does not condemn?
The impact of stigma can be as detrimental as the virus itself. The solitude and lack of support it imposes are deeply wounding to those who suffer it. It should also hurt every one of us, for it is an affront to our common humanity. Some people with AIDS are being denied basic rights such as food or shelter, and dismissed from jobs they are perfectly fit to perform, and even denied education opportunities. They may be shunned by their community, or most tragic of all, by their own family. The fear of stigma leads to silence, and when it comes to fighting AIDS, silence is death. It suppresses public discussion about AIDS, and deters people from finding out whether they are infected. It can cause people reluctant to disclose their HIV status - to risk transmitting HIV rather than attract suspicion that they might be infected. By adopting the slogan "Live and Let Live", this year's World AIDS Campaign challenges us to ensure that all people, with or without HIV, can realize their human rights and live in dignity. On this World AIDS Day, let us resolve to replace stigma with support, fear with hope, and silence with solidarity. Let us act on the understanding that this work begins with each and every one of us.

Yours truly

TAYANIE

Development is said to be subject to value judgment but at least it must include an element of improvement and making the living standards of people better. It must be perceptible enough that there has been a positive change that is both in physical and abstract terms. It must serve to at least make available the very basic needs of life to the people that need them.
Todaro (1997) p.18 asserts that development is both a physical reality and a state of mind in which society has through some combination of social, economic and institutional processes secured the means for obtaining a better life .So development is expected to raise the living standards of people including the provision of better education, more employment opportunities and the provision of quality heath services
It can therefore be seen that development and aspects of health are inseparable. For a country to develop there is need to pay particular attention to the health sector and if it accelerates then it means that a particular part in the development process is achieved.
Poverty can be said to be a consequence of underdevelopment among other things. Poverty is defined in absolute terms as depending on US$ 1 per day/person, and in relative terms it is said to be the lack of very basic needs such as food, shelter, and clean water ,all of which are essentials for a healthy living. This only shows that poverty reduction has to be thought of both in terms of development and health wise, for they are all interlinked concepts as we have seen.

To begin with, in Malawi, only 54% of the population has access to clean and safe water and only 40% of the population has access to health care. About 40% to 65% of the population lives below the poverty line.
Malawi has got the second highest death rate pegged at 22.4 people dying out of every thousand people at every point in time. Infant mortality is at 142 per1000 births. Again Malawi has the worlds highest population per Doctor at 50,000,(world Bank,1997) Illiteracy rates are pegged at 58%for females and 28% for males.
It can therefore be seen from the above information that poverty reduction in Malawi cannot be achieved by just concentrating on the naked term of poverty, but that it has to be dealt with an intersectoral approach.
The issues raised above require and necessitates the involvement of the economic, education, political ,social and the health sectors in the combat against poverty. It is only when people have information that they will act in a particular manner, and in this case, when people are knowledgeable about the various dimensions of poverty and that it can only be dealt with using a multisectoral approach that they are going to positively contribute to the development process of their community and thereby fostering a concerted effort for national development.
Poverty has been defined in a number of contexts, for example as a lack of basic human needs, that is the deprivation requirements mainly materials for meeting the basic needs including education, shelter, adequate food, portable water and sanitation facilities, employment opportunities and more importantly access to health services. Let us look at how each of the sectors are affected and contribute to the overall goal of combating against the problem of poverty.

Beginning with the education sector, development is a process that moves in stages .It starts from an individual development process, then family and then community, on to the community and then to national development and the chain continues. So there is first of all need for self-development and this comes about through training and education. It is when people are educated that they are able to earn more from employment as they will be able to have better employment opportunities and can also be self employed .An increase in income thus leads to an increase in money allocated to health investment that is auto investment in health. When people are educated, they know the right combination of foodstuffs to for them to have a balanced diet, which is essential for a health living, they know and realize the need for health care and services. So it is only the health people that are able to contribute positively and with more effort to development. If a breadwinner is in ill health he/she will not be able to provide for his/her family and again the little income that he/she may have may all or substantially be spent on covering health costs instead of improving the living conditions of his/her family. The issue of sustainability here is tackled in that once parents are educated, chances are high that their children will also be educated and vice versa.
So if we have an educated parent population it means that a spontaneous link in the family cycle.
In my own words, I would define sustainable development as the utilization of the available resources efficiently and effectively to uplift the lives of people and enabling a particular community to be self dependent, without jeopardizing prospects for the development strategies of the future generations. Sustainable poverty reduction is only possible with sustainable development because once the resources, especially those that are naturally provided, are depleted then that is an onset of negative development especially so for a country like Malawi which mainly relies on natural resources for a huge part of its economic activities to take place. This means low income for the nation as a whole and consequently low incomes for the individual citizens of the country and their families. This in turn will cause a reduction in the funds available for family maintenance in terms of health services and this will lead to a poor and unhealthy population that is not so productive and this will cause a commencement of a poverty cycle. So there is a two-way relationship between poverty and development.

Political governance and development policies .The Malawi poverty reduction strategy would be irrelevant and unless there is political, bureaucratic and popular will to implement it. There has to be good public expenditure management and fiscal discipline. Government has to take the leading role in promoting and creating an environment that the poor have to be involved in the decision making process so that the public institutions and systems protect and benefit the poor. Funds have to be handled in a transparent manner so that the limited resources theater there should be channeled to priority activities with impact on poverty reduction. When there are high levels of corruption, it reduces funds available for development and delivery of pro-poor services. The development policies that the government has to adopt have to be human capital intensive. This will serve to reduce the unemployment levels and thus distributing out funds to many people and therefore making them more able to take good care of themselves and their families and so enabling them to lead an improved healthy life. But this will also serve to involve the masses in the decision making process. Political will and commitment should promote the development of the core health interventions, particularly in terms of …necessary resources available for their implementation.

The economic development path that a country adopts must be pro growth while at the same time being pro poor. There is need to strike a balance because it is possible to have pro growth strategy while leaving the poor unattended to and viceversa.It is emphasized that the poverty reduction strategy should not be done for the poor but with the poor, that is an element of involvement.

Growth that benefits the poor involves offering the poor an opportunity to generate their own incomes.
When the farmers produce, they must have access to inputs for agricultural production; they must have adequate access to markets for the goods and services that the poor can sell.

Improving the quality of life of the most vulnerable. Some sectors of the population need direct assistance to improve their living standards. Its overall goal is to ensure that the quality of life of the most vulnerable is improved and maintained at an acceptable level by providing moderate support transient poor and substantial transfers to the chronically poor. Under this strategy, there is the targeted input program. This assists malnourished children as well as lactating and pregnant mothers. This aims at increasing the health status of the population so as to reduce child mortality. There is also Targeted Input Program, which will help to enhance productivity of capital constrained poor by developing distribution of free agricultural inputs.
Human development is another strategy of Malawi poverty reduction strategy .A healthy and educated population leads to increased productivity. Its goal is to develop human capital to participate fully in social –economic development of the country. This is done through provision of basic education to the masses.

GIVING
It can never happen that way he said
Can man give what he does not have? He queried
Silence reigned allover
He continued,
What you have is what you give
What you give is a reflection of you
It will always be a part of you
I nodded.
Of course of this I was told
Then it must have been unconsciously
Am happy, my spirit could get it even without my permission
What a man gives is what he has
And what one has shall be given to him
For it is written
Give and it will come back to you…
So be careful what you give!.
He warned.
You may end up getting what you never intended to give
Funny Huh!
Give the best so you can get the same
Humble yourself where possible
if that is what it takes for you to give the best
Step number one, he continued
Know what you have then
Know it’s destination then
Know the best medium then
Give out freely with this in mind, that
Freely you received, freely give
Discover the joys of giving your very best freely
Satisfaction guaranteed.
Virtues all around us, giving may be one
Success all around us, giving is at It’s core
I shall be satisfied for life
Because for once I know the secret
When you want to give first know your stuff
Because whatever you give
Shall surely come back to you
Because you reap what you saw
He concluded.
Tayanie Vincentio Bandah,28thMarch ,2002, 12:15am at The Polytechnic 101

Empowering Aids Orphans

This is an Abstract for the Project Proposal for Empowering Aids Orphans

HIV/AIDS is neither an abstract reality nor an underestimated event in the history of this age. It is something that is real and we live with it. Almost everyone is either infected or affected by the disease. The toll that this pandemic has had on every one of us cannot in anyway be overemphasized. To say that we are going to have this problem for the next foreseeable future is not a pessimistic view per se, but rather a realistic one, and hence the need for sustainable strategies to deal with the problem.

What do we do then after coming to terms with the reality of the scourge? We cannot manage to sit down and watch while the monster eliminates us one after another. E.A.O. is therefore trying to play an active role in the fight against the disease. The problem is that the pandemic is multifaceted and thus requires a multidimensional approach. There is therefore a need to mobilize the Social, Economic and the Spiritual aspects in order to have a consolidated approach. The project so purposes to incorporate the youth in the fight because they are the most vulnerable group as far as this scourge is concerned and especially so the Aids Orphans.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic has caused a lot of damage to our world and Malawi in particular. To this effect it has generated more than half a million orphans in the country. Statistics show that 70,000 orphans will be generated each year if the current statistics prevail. We cannot therefore overlook this material figure and portion of the country’s population in the development process of the nation.

We believe the philosophy that the concerned party has to be included in any problem solving process and so the youth and Aids orphans, in particular should be instrumental in the fight.

The project aims to empower the orphans Economically, Socially, Spiritually and in the knowledge about AIDS, so that they can also contribute in the fight and development process of the nation as a whole. This is supposed to be a spontaneous and “contagious” cause in that these empowered Orphans will also be challenged to assist in the subsequent empowerment of other orphans and the chain is expected to go on and on and…

So in the wake of all this scramble and noise it seems that all hope is gone and that all is lost. But there is still hope for orphans, even though they may have lost both parents, guardians and relatives, there is still someone who loves and cares about us all. He is a God who loves us all. He does not condemn nor forsake anyone for whatever reason, even sin. God is love and he promises to be there whenever we need him. So who is man to condemn what God, the creator does not condemn. This is the message of hope that we want to give out to all orphans and the affected.

So this is what the project aims to do in contributing to the big picture in the fight against HIV/AIDS. We believe that as the youth we are in the right place and doing the right thing at the right time and for the right cause and to the right people.

Please, it is worth noting that the orphans that we may be working with or assisting may not necessarily be directly affected or their state being caused by HIV/AIDS but still they fall within our brackets of people that are disadvantaged and somewhat in dire need of love and assistance. But our main concentration is on Aids Orphans though.

The activities in the financial market are affected both by the domestic and international economic activity. Affecting the markets also is the political activity and political leadership under which the economy is operating. Changes in the monetary policy are dictated by external situation, that is the relationship between the country’s exports and imports. If imports are considered to be excessive it becomes imperative to slacken domestic demand by contraction of credit in order to reduce the demand for imports.

An Economy is always dynamic as there are a lot of activities taking place, allocating and re allocating resources. The Malawi economy at the moment is undergoing a number of economic activities aimed at stimulating the economy and raising investor confidence.

This paper will, however focuses on just a few that are currently in the limelight of events in the Malawi Economy, therefore it will be limited to the following;

The recent slashing of the base-lending rate.
The ongoing tobacco sales.
Withdrawal of International aid and prospects of resumption.
Political leadership in the country and fiscal discipline.

The reserve Bank announced the lowering of the bank rate to 25% from 35% with effect from the 1st of June. This move has caused the subsequent lowering of the lending rate by the commercial banks. This therefore means that the cost of loanable funds has been lowered and thus easing borrowing for consumers, businesses and other banking companies. This development therefore will serve to stimulate economic activity thus leading to the boosting of the real sector by redirecting investment to the sector, which is good for the Economy.

Again the money market rates within the same period dropped by an average 38% on all the fixed deposits, which is very significant indeed. The market average base-lending rate also dropped from 36%, before the adjustment of the bank rate, to about 27% at the adjustment, representing a 25% drop. This then means that commercial banks must embark to have enough funds to lend out, as investors will now be able to borrow more, and invest.

As a result of the adjustment of the bank rate, Government Treasury Bills’ and Reserve Bank of Malawi Bills’ yields also dropped significantly, going down by an average of 29% and 28% respectively by the end of June 2004.
The chain reaction resulting from the adjustment of the bank rate has served to reduce the gains derived from purchasing financial instruments, thereby reducing their demand. It is therefore anticipated that with the lower money market rates, funds initially invested in financial instruments will be available for re-investment in the real sector, thus stimulating real sector growth.

OUTLOOK for the SECOND HALF OF 2004

The exchange rate of the Malawi Kwacha with regard to the United States Dollar (USD) and other major trading currencies stabilized still June 2004 at MK108.9093 to the United States Dollar, at the end of the month.

If the current economic trends are to continue, and indeed they seem to, then the money market rates will drop all the more even during the second half of the year 2004.

The tobacco season is expected to extend up to the month of October because of the disruptions that occurred in the grading and quality assurance. This extension, coupled with the commencing of the tea season, is going to ensure a continued inflow of foreign currency. This therefore means that the exchange rate of the Malawi Kwacha with regard to the United States Dollar is expected to continue to stabilize for the most part of the last half of 2004. On the other hand, is likely to soar in July and subsequent months 2004.

The Reserve Bank of Malawi announced that it is targeting a Bank rate of 10% by December 2004.The current government’s priority is to curb corruption and promote of fiscal discipline. If they succeed then it will open doors for donor funding, which will in turn assist in the stabilization of the interest rate.