While it receives little international attention, the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Mesoamerica is serious, complex and spreading at an alarming rate. In addition to Mexico (which, after Brazil, has the second highest number of cases of HIV/AIDS in Latin America) the highest rates are found in the Caribbean and Central American countries.
For information on the 2008 International AIDS Conference, please click here.
While in Mexico for the 2008 International AIDS Conference, Horizons added its name as a co-sponsor of the declaration “Human Rights and HIV/AIDS: Now More than Ever”. Approximately 500 international organizations have signed on to the document. Click here for the now-more-than-ever3 document.
The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Central America is serious, complex and growing. As of 2007, 1.6 million people are living with HIV in Latin America[1], with the highest per capita rates in Central America and Caribbean countries. The situation of HIV/AIDS in Latin America, sometimes dubbed “the overlooked epidemic,[2]” has gone largely unnoticed by the global community. However, within the region there is a network of civil society organizations working diligently to address the pandemic.
This summer Horizons of Friendship, the only Canadian international development agency working exclusively in Mexico and Central America, attended the International AIDS Conference held in Mexico City with its partners that are working on a regional HIV/AIDS initiative. The conference marked a strategic opportunity to increase empowerment of Mesoamerican civil society and to turn world attention to HIV/AIDS in Latin America. It also presented a forum to highlight efforts of Mesoamerican civil society organizations towards achieving the 6th Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of combating HIV/AIDS. Beyond simply supporting individual partner projects, Horizons of Friendship works within a Learning Network which provides partner organizations from across the region an opportunity for dialogue, debate, peer-learning and capacity-building. All Learning Network initiatives are borne out of concerns raised by Horizons’ Southern partners.Within the Learning Network, HIV/AIDS has been identified by Horizons’ partners as one of the main areas of concern.
As a result, a 3-year regional thematic project has been launched to support a more robust insertion of civil society organizations at a regional level in the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS. This project seeks to strategically strengthen the capacities of civil society organizations to ensure that the national governments assume their responsibilities related to public health and citizen welfare, as committed to in the San Salvador Declaration[3], a regional agreement signed by the Central America presidents in which they committed to work together towards the goal of universal treatment. The watershed agreement is binding as it forms part of the Central American Integration System (SICA). It clearly outlines the firm commitment by regional governments to lead urgent and coordinated national responses in HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. Seeking to act as a channel for training and information sharing between existent organizations and networks, the project has three components: 1) research and dissemination of information which highlights regional characteristics of the HIV/AIDS epidemic while taking into account diversity, 2) a citizen observatory to monitor the extent to which the states of the region are complying with the commitments they made, and 3)documentation and dissemination of best practice models of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.
The project is being managed within the region by Horizons of Friendship’s partner, Humanitas of Costa Rica. The goal of Humanitas is to improve the quality of life for people living with HIV/AIDS and to diminish further spreading of the pandemic in Costa Rica. It has operated a shelter since 1994 for people living with HIV and AIDS and provides a variety of outreach services to people affected by HIV/AIDS and drug dependency, particularly those in conditions of extreme poverty. Through the work in its shelter, aptly named Place of Hope (Hogar de Esperanza), Humanitas offers an integrated approach to treatment focusing on harm reduction.
Civil society organizations in Mesoamerica are coming together to effectively combat HIV/AIDS and to press governments to assume their responsibility for public health which will help prevent further spread of the disease.
For For more information on the regional HIV/AIDS initiative, please contact: Bill Fairbairn, Mesoamerica Program Coordinator 905-372-5483 x.21 or by email at bilito@horizons.ca
[1] UNAIDS 2007 Factsheet, http://data.unaids.org/pub/EPISlides/2007/071118_epi_regional%20factsheet_en.pdf
[2] The Overlooked Epidemic: HIV/AIDS in Latin America and the Caribbean www.biocompare.com/video/science/aidsamericas
[3] San Salvador Declaration http://data.unaids.org/pub/ExternalDocument/2006/sansalvadordeclaration_en.pdf
