World Vision integrates food security and HIV/AIDS programmes

The devastating effects of food shortages and HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa has caused World Vision to integrate their HIV/AIDS and food security programmes into all development activities in the region.

"We will be doing this in Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland, Lesotho and Angola, as these countries have been badly affected by both," World Vision Southern Africa Communications Coordinator Robert Michel, told PlusNews.

World Vision Malawi's National Director, Dickens Thunde, told PlusNews that this had become inevitable as the relationship between HIV/AIDS and food security was hard to ignore.

World Vision Malawi has singled out food security, education and HIV/AIDS as key priority areas this year.

"World Vision Malawi will soon fully integrate HIV/AIDS and food security because these two areas are phenomena that affect each other... Food shortages exacerbate the effect of HIV/AIDS in the infected and the sufferers, while HIV/AIDS affects food production in that the virus attacks people who are both consumers and producers of food," he was quoted as saying in a press statement.

With high stigma and discrimination levels in Malawi, World Vision would not directly target people living with HIV/AIDS. "But we will ensure that those who are chronically ill benefit from food programmes and they get sufficient nutrition," he said.

Prevention campaigns would also be carried out by food distributors, and World Vision was in talks with local AIDS NGOs who were willing to help in such projects, he added.