Friday, May 01, 2009

  Subject: [SRIJAN]: HIV interventions for young people

Dear Friends,   Young people need special and urgent attention. Despite the large numbers of young people infected with HIV, their needs are often overlooked during the development of national HIV strategies and policies and the allocation of budgets. This exclusion is compounded by the fact that the young are over-represented among the world’s poor and unemployed. They may also lack a “voice” by which to express their concerns, and they often are not included in the planning and design of interventions targeted to them. Their engagement in the development of HIV-prevention programmes is critical to programme success.   Rendezvous Books and Initiatives   Global Guidance Briefs on HIV interventions for young people This seven Guidance package Briefs, based on the latest global evidence, is intended to help United Nations Country Teams and UN Theme Groups on AIDS to provide guidance to their staff members as well as governments, development partners, civil society and other implementing partners on the specific actions that need to be in place to respond effectively to HIV among young people. To download this guideline package pdf please log on to - http://www.who.int/child_adolescent_health/documents/iatt_hivandyoungpeople/en/index.html   State of World Population 2008: Reaching Common Ground: Culture, Gender and Human Rights The report gives an overview of the conceptual frameworks as well as the practice of development, looking at the everyday events that make up people's experience of development. Culturally sensitive approaches call for cultural fluency – familiarity with how cultures work, and how to work with them. The report presents some of the challenges and dilemmas of culturally sensitive strategies and suggests how partnerships can address them. To download this report pdf please log on to – http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2008/presskit/docs/en-swop08-report.pdf   Progress for children This report ‘Progress for Children, monitors progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, measures the world’s performance on maternal health, with a particular focus on maternal mortality. It details progress in maternal health and highlights areas where improvements are needed. To download this report pdf please log on to - http://www.unicef.org/publications/files/Progress_for_Children-No._7_Lo-Res_082008.pdf     News on wire     Gender disparity in education weakens democracy: Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has termed the continuing gender disparity in education as one of the factors that substantially weakens the democratic fabric of the country. Many of the Indian States had gender indicators worse than that of sub-Saharan African countries and gender disparity was directly linked to gender inequality at the familial and social levels, he observed. Source:http://www.thehindu.com/2009/03/28/stories/2009032860270500.htm   Net, TV push teens to ape 'porn stars' According to the shocking figures revealed on Channel 4's The Sex Education Show Vs Pornography, exposure to pornography was encouraging youngsters to imitate what they see. The study revealed that the lewd and hardcore imagery also egged them on to have unsafe sex, boob jobs, thin bodies and Hollywood waxes. Boffins had interviewed 443 teenagers aged 14 to 17 at schools across the country, and found that one third of kids gathered the idea of what was "normal" about sex from porn rather than their parents. Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Lifestyle/Net-TV-push-teens-to-ape-porn-stars/articleshow/4334391.cms   Live and let us live, say AIDS patients MYSORE: The very thought of AIDS may seem awfully frightening. But meet this bunch of people tested +ve with HIV and chances are you will end up feeling the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome can be overcome and the patients too can lead a contended life. However, what keeps them going is the sheer determination to live. Meet S Noori, 60, managing trustee of South India Positive Network (SIPN) and Asylum for AIDS orphaned children from Chennai, who is living with the disease for 22 years. If anybody asks her age, her cryptic reply is: "you are asking my age or my my AIDS age?" It is an indication that she has taken the disease in her stride and conquered it. Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-4331311,prtpage-1.cms   Campaign launched to protect girl child, trees New Delhi Corporates and NGOs have decided to come together to work on, and connect, two burning causes: the girl child and trees. Lieutenant-Governor Tejendra Khanna on Sunday inaugurated ‘Nanhi Chaan’, a movement to protect the girl child and trees. Nanhi Chaan is a brainchild of chairman emeritus, Fortis, Harpal Singh.   “I want to link the issue of the girl child and trees. Both are similar as they need attention today,” Singh said. However, he wants to use not just a campaign but faith to spread the message. Thus, the venue of the inauguration of Nanhi Chaan: the Sacred Heart Cathedral, where saplings were distributed to girls. Source:http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/campaign-launched-to-protect-girl-child-trees/437786/   Do we deserve to celebrate Navratras? While the Goddess is welcomed with open arms, our doors are shut tight for the girl child. Such is our intense aversion to the double X chromosome that foetuses are killed in the womb itself, even if it sometimes means risking the life of the mother. According to the last census done in 2001, India had 927:1000 girls to boys ratio, against the world average of 1045:1000. The well educated and well healed are very much party to the sin of getting rid of de trop unborn females. South Delhi, one of the richest constituencies in India, has one of worst track records with 750-850 girls per 1000 boys. Source:http://www.zeenews.com/zeeexclusive/2009-03-31/474684news.html Indian healthcare needs revamp: UK expert Asserting that India needs major changes in its primary healthcare system, Professor Sir Andrew Haines — director, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine — pointed out that the country would benefit from replicating international community health programmes, as opposed to individual-based ones. “Public healthcare in India has the power to deliver improved health outcomes, as demonstrated by a growing number of national and international examples. However, supportive policies need to be put in place in order to change traditional determinants of health,” Haines said at the third foundation day function of the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI).   Source:http://www.indianexpress.com/news/indian-healthcare-needs-revamp-uk-exper.../440308/     News in print   Sex education Does this ring a bell? With television being the dominant conduit, it is extremely hard to stay oblivious to the enormous media attention this case has just grappled. A 7th grade boy who just turned 13 is now the father of a child. And not too surprisingly, the mother is about the same age of the boy, his 15 year old baby sitter. Source:The Hindu, 1st March 2009.   Maternal mortality rate higher in South Asia Even as India has achieved some success in the areas of fertility and infant mortality, the maternal mortality ratio here still remains a cause for concern, a World Bank report has revealed.   Source:Indian Express, 7th March 2009.   Over 60 percent teen girls anemic More than 60 percent teenage Indian girls are anaemic with hemoglobin count of less than 12g/deciliter, the world standard, says a top gynecologist quoting recent studies. That’s little to cheer even as India celebrated the International women’s day. Source:The Times of India, 9th March 2009.   80 yrs since ban, 45 percent of girls still married off before 18 Laws banning child marriages were introduced in the country in 1929 but 80 years down the line, the social ill continues to be as grave as ever. Nearly half the women in India are married off before they reach the legal age of 18, a joint Indo-American  study announced in the medical journal ‘Lancet’ on Tuesday. Source:The Times of India, 11th March 2009.   Bihar village sets a positive example A Bihar village has shown the way on how to treat an HIV-Positive person. Not only has it thrown out the social isolation, stigma and humiliation associated with the disease, it has even elected an HIV-positive woman as a ward member. Source:Indian Express, 11th March 2009   Action plan needed for preventing child marriages Social activists, experts and academicians discussed the scope for evolving an action plan fro prevention of child marriages in Rajasthan with emphasis on generating awareness among the rural populace and providing better education, health care and social security to the girl child in villages. Source:The Hindu, 11th March 2009.   2-fold rise in HIV-related TB deaths: report The global TB control report released here on World TB Day revealed that one out of four TB deaths in the world are HIV-related, twice as many as previously recognized. Experts said that these numbers should serve as a warning signal to high-burden countries like India to desist from reducing investment in public health in view of the global economic meltdown. Source:The Indian Express, 24th March 2009.   Focussed primary health care can transform lives: Haines   The National Rural Health Mission will have global significance if it achieves targets, and it will also have an impact on the primary health care systems across the world if it fails, professor Andrew Hanies, director London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said. Source:The Hindu, 29th March, 2009.     Trainings/Workshops/ Conferences   International Conference on Academic Libraries (5 to 8 October 2009, Delhi, Delhi, India; Organized by: University of Delhi, Delhi (India)   Knowledge Sharing, ICT Management, Digital Repository, E-Teaching, E-Tutorials, Library-Faculty Relationships, and User-centric Services the International Conference on Academic Libraries is being organized to come up with a vision   Deadline for abstracts/proposals: 5 July 2009 Contact name: Dr. S. Majumdar   Website:http://library.du.ac.in/ocs Essay competition 2009: Young voices in research for health   The Global Forum for Health Research and The Lancet are sponsoring their fourth joint essay competition with the theme Innovating for the health of all, held in conjunction with Forum 2009, the annual meeting of the Global Forum that takes place in Havana, Cuba, from 16 to 20 November. The Global Forum's vision is of a world in which the potential of research and innovation is fully utilized to address the health problems of the poor. Innovation is defined as the creation, development and implementation of a new product, process or service, with the aim of improving efficiency, effectiveness or competitive advantage. Research for health therefore goes far beyond medicine and biology, to include sectors such as economics, environment, politics, sociology and others. Innovating for the health of all involves both social and technological innovation Within the broad range of the theme, essays are invited from young professionals working in or interested in the wide spectrum of research for health and health equity. For any questions, please contact susan.jupp@globalforumhealth.org or Udani Samarasekera u.samarasekera@lancet.com Source: http://www.globalforumhealth.org/Site/005__Get%20involved/009__Essay%20Competition/005__Essay%20competition.php     MAMTA-Health Institute for Mother and Child is a non-governmental organization working on various health and development issues with special focus on young people’s reproductive and sexual health and rights among various strata of the population. The organization provides visibility and voice to young people and in this regard a portal www.yrshr.org acts as a platform for dissemination of scientific information as well. SRIJAN (Sexual and Reproductive health Initiative for Joint Action Network) Electronic discussion forum attempts to bring together individuals and organizations to create and share resources, initiate discussion and debate on issues concerning young people’s reproductive and sexual health and rights. We look forward to your participation in the forum! Visit our website www.yrshr.org For database visit http://www.yrshr.org/stat_builder/view_data.asp To post a message send a mail to srijan@yrshr.org