UNICEF Chief sounds warning to leaders

UNICEF chief Carol Bellamy sounded a note of warning to African heads of state at the AIDS conference in Lusaka on Wednesday.

Bellamy said that international groups could only make a small
contribution but that most of the responsibility lay with individual governments. "I hope this will be a wake up call to the heads of state that they must become involved," Bellamy said.

She challenged African leaders to consider new ways to attack the crisis at the country level. She said that communities had to be mobilised to help themselves. "The key is to recognise the poor as key factors in their own development. Rather than passive recipients of services of services and commodities dispensed by health care workers, teachers, religious leaders and others," Bellamy said.