Pambazuka News 415: Obama and US policy towards Africa

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The inhabitants of Sam Ouandja, an isolated diamond mining town in the northeast of the Central African Republic (CAR), were exposed to their first ever HIV awareness campaign in 2007. The focus was on HIV testing, but more than a year later, those who tested positive are still waiting for the arrival of HIV/AIDS services.

June and Paul Nyangweso*, a married couple living in the Kuria district of Nyanza Province in western Kenya, both tested positive for HIV recently, but only June visits the hospital to collect her monthly supply of antiretroviral medication, which she brings home and shares with her husband. "I do not want people to know that I am sick, so we just use her drugs and wait until it is time for her to go for another round," Paul told IRIN/PlusNews at their home.

For the first time in years, John Phiri*, a health extension worker in Malawi's central Salima district, does not have to fill in a stack of forms during his monthly round of collecting data to monitor nutrition levels in the community. Now he whips out his mobile phone and texts the data, including the height and weight of the children in the area, while covering his beat.

Two years after more than 100 former slave families left their village in southern Mauritania to create their own community away from slave-owners, members of the group told IRIN they are still struggling to adapt to an independent life. Ramadan Ould Semette, one of those breaking away from the village of Lefrewa - where the families were slaves for generations - got his long-awaited new beginning but little else. “We have nothing but our muscles to survive by and we keep struggling in the de...read more

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