P.M.T.C.T

Perhaps i got a little ahead of myself on the whole Malawi post earlier .... and perhaps should explain how it is i'm here in Africa again and not in London as i'm supposed to be ....

Some of you know that since I really didn't know what I wanted to do when I got back to London after/despite almost 4 years away .... I typically tried to keep all my options open (yes - my legendary commitment phobia still looms large) .... and so rather predictably I seem to now run around like a headless ninja .... gadding between the NHS, the London School of Tropical Medicine and attempting to do some consultancy work for NGOs on the side (the busy-ness of all this means that I can be smug about not having time to narrow my options down and make a decision) ....

Through the consultancy work - a friend/colleague and I were asked to look at the issue of mothers transmitting HIV to their babies (i.e. mother to child transmission - MTCT) which can occur during pregnancy, at birth and through breastfeeding .... and then tasked with developing a strategy for the NGO to scale up services in a yet-to-be-determined African country to prevent it (hence PMTCT).

The background tragedy is that there are now hugely effective ways to do stop this transmission happening ... and frankly we barely see kids born with hiv here in the west anymore .... but despite the science and treatment being known, tried and tested .... less than 15% of women who need it most actually have access to this treatment .... leading to hundreds of thousands of babies born unnecessarily exposed and infected ..... so that today over 90% of all children infected with HIV were infected by their mothers ....

And so C and I have travelled to Zambia and Malawi for a couple of weeks to look at how these two countries are addressing the problem given their high rates of HIV infection and to see why a prevention issue that seems to be such a no-brainer on the face of it (much easier than abstinence or condoms .... plus its all about babies .... great pics for development pornographers .... etc etc) has seemingly been languishing as the cinderella programme of the HIV world ....

In with the new

Apologies for the title change .... but i'm having a moving-on moment. Long story but hopefully you'll stick with me.

In the perfect moment .....

Occasionally .... you happen upon a moment that is just perfect to be in ....

Tonight under a full Malawian moon .... my friend Colin and I hung out with some of the staff at the farm we're staying at on the outskirts of Lilongwe .... they took us down to the village to hear some young guys who've been trying to get a band together ..... and before you scoff - this wasn't the usual development pornography stuff of men in loin cloths banging drums .... more young guys dressed like bob marley yet dreaming of being the african jay-z .... as chickens scratched around us ....

Sprawled out in the warm balmy night around a log fire ... after several bottles of south african red wine (the joy!) ..... the guys serenaded us with a ludicrous but charming session of Beatles covers (malawians get Ls and Rs mixed up .... so you can imagine "Ret it be .... Ret it be") - clearly what they thought the mzungus (meaning white people .... since yes - despite being brown - here i am apparently white) would like ..... and then some serious afro-hip-hop (i've no idea if it was more talib kweli than snoop - but it sounded amazing - and maybe bitches and hos in chichewa just sounds a lot more poetic) .... and then totally kicked it with a string of amazing local acapella songs .... those uplifting african harmony type songs that make your soul soar skywards .... make you breathless with the feeling that somehow feel that anything is possible .... and that magic could actually be real ....

We're off tomorrow to see a super-rural health centre where over a third of all the young women are infected with HIV and dozens upon dozens of children die from malnutrition every year ...... and where we're hoping we can find a site to set up a programme to stop mums transmitting HIV to their babies ..... and so i'm closing my eyes now and hoping the magic will stretch there too ....

PS Morning After: I'm a little sheepish this morning (and frankly hungover) ... i just found out this morning at breakfast .... that Madonna stayed at this farm when she - er - adopted her baby here .... perhaps not quite the fearless NGO-warrior image i'm striving for .... but still .... Madonna and I share a hotel!

Turning Tides? South Africa finally steps up to the plate ....

Finally we can be proud in SA that we've done something right by Zimbabwe ....

Yesterday the An Yue Jiang, a Chinese ship carrying weaponry destined for Zimbabwe left Durban harbour with its cargo intact. SATAWU (a local trade union) refused to unload the arms ..... and then the SA courts ruled that the weapons, including mortars, rocket propelled grenades and ammunition for AK-47s, could not be transported across South Africa.

Typically of President Mbeki's smokescreen "soft" diplomacy which has just facilitated the continuation of Mugabe's barbaric regime .... the SA government's response was that since there was no AU or UN embargo on weapons sales to Zimbabwe - SA had no role in interfering in a deal between China and Zim ....

In contrast Helen Zille (head of the opposition party - the Democratic Alliance) was excoriating in blasting the ANC's apathy on the issue and the potential consequences of allowing the cargo to be transported to a country already on the verge of implosion with a real risk of mass violence over election reruns .... accusing Mbeki of being complicit in state-sponsored terror of genocidal proportions .... and reminding people that it was a consignment of Chinese machetes that prefaced the killing of 800 000 people in Rwanda in 1994 ....

The ship is now on its way to Mozambique and the port of Beira .... one of the 15 poorest countries in the world and recipient of much Chinese "strings-free aid" to Africa (essentially building infrastructure - albeit with only Chinese contractors - in return for the countries signing over great swathes of mineral and natural resource rich land whilst turning a blind eye to graft and to whose pocket the money slips into .... )

Lets hope the next wave of Olympic torch protests are not just about Tibet .... but also about Darfur and Burma and Zimbabwe ..... and the list goes on ....

Support Dileepan

A friend and truly inspirational guy has been illegally detained in Zimbabwe .... he works for a non-partisan, non-profit NGO the National Democracy Institute .... and has been working in the region for years helping support parties in democratic elections .... please do visit his site to show your support if you can ... http://dileepan.typepad.com/