Funding for the fight against AIDS at Ibis-Hivos
Asociación Ibis-Hivos continues to fight against HIV/AIDS in Bolivia. The organisation is again allowed to manage the budget that The Global Fund makes available. The Global Fund agreed to this in January 2010.
It is the second time that Ibis-Hivos manages the budget. ‘During the first stage, from 2006 to 2010, the focus was on arranging medication and making it available to patients,’ explains Manine Arends. She is a member of the Ibis-Hivos steering committee.
Not enough patients
‘Initially there was hardly any treatment available for people suffering from HIV/AIDS. In a country like Bolivia, where HIV/AIDS has not become an epidemic yet, it is extremely difficult to make treatment widely available. For example, there are not enough patients for a hospital to hire a specialist. But we have come a long way. Over 1,090 patients have already been treated. What’s more, the percentage of people dying from AIDS is now 2.5 percent. When we first started this percentage was as high as 67 percent.'
The use of condoms
Ibis-Hivos will manage the Global Fund budget until 2015. Medication remains an important issue and prevention is becoming more important. Arends: ‘Since 2006, we have distributed 5.5 million condoms, we have trained 1,500 peer educators and we have carried out 150,000 HIV tests. We have treated almost 37,500 venereal diseases and reached 1.2 million people with our radio and television campaigns. And that is only a selection of our activities. However, studies have shown that the population has not started to behave any differently, even though they know more about HIV/AIDS. In one group, men having sexual intercourse with other men, the use of condoms has even decreased. '
Highest infection rates
‘More is needed to change behaviour than simply distributing condoms,' according to Arends. ‘People need to feel accepted and safe. To be at ease with their sexuality. This is the aim with which we will approach the high risk groups, including prostitutes, transsexuals and men having sexual intercourse with other men. Especially in areas with the highest rate of HIV infections, such as Santa Cruz.'
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