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AIDS prevention and support forgets rural dwellers

    JOHANNESBURG

    Delegates at a conference of the UN Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa (CHGA), being held in Ethiopia, have heard that Africa's rural communities are being forgotten.

    According to CHGA Secretary-General Kingsley Amoako, although the pandemic was first seen as an urban phenomenon it has spread to rural areas where the vast majority of Africans live, but HIV/AIDS prevention and support work targets cities.

    Amoako said: "Households are losing key productive members in their prime and communities are losing the main producers of food; crucial knowledge is lost and the fabric of rural communities is being torn apart."

    The conference discussions will feed into a final report on the long-term impact of the pandemic in Africa, due for submission to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in June 2005.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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