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CHRA World AIDS Day statement
Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA)
December 02, 2008

The Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) joins the rest of the world in commemorating World Aids Day. This day comes at a time when the Zimbabwean public health delivery system has disastrously collapsed, owing to the prevailing political and economic crisis. With this year's theme heavily leaning on leadership as the pivot on which the response to HIV/AIDS rests, Zimbabwe suffers from a chronic leadership failure which has seen the economic failure, exodus of skilled workers (including if not mostly, health) to neighboring and other countries, endemic and absolute poverty and a perpetual cloud of hopelessness which has made the situation unbearable for the people infected with HIV/AIDS and the generality of the Zimbabwean populace.

The Zimbabwean de facto government recently misappropriated the Global AIDS fund allocated to the country, the "government" allegedly used the money to fund some populist programmes to further political expediency and had nothing to do with combating the AIDS pandemic. The Executive Director for the Global Fund, Michael Kazatchkine, said that about US$7, 3 million had been misused by the government. Such actions are reflective of the leadership/government's lack of empathy for the HIV/AIDS victims. In 2005, UNICEF estimated that the average amount of international HIV-related funding available each year in the Southern African region was $75 per person. In Zimbabwe just $4 per person was available. Statistics show Zimbabwe has six times more HIV cases now than it did 20 years ago and malnutrition; poor sanitation and overcrowding (compounded by Operation Murambatsvina and the ZINWA's failure to effectively manage the water and sewer reticulation services) have contributed to the spread of the disease.

In Zimbabwe, it is said that 1 person in every 4 is HIV positive amid a collapsed public health delivery system that has dismally reduced accessibility of medical attention by the HIV patients as a number of major government hospitals have been forced to close (or are now operating at around 25% their capacity) due to lack of resources, both human and material. The economic and health sector collapse, among other factors, have reduced accessibility of Anti-retroviral drugs to people living with HIVAIDS. Most of them have had to wait (in the waiting list) for more than four months before they can access the drugs. Moreover, the inaccessibility of water and the ineffectively managed sewer systems which have resulted in Cholera and other related diseases have further compounded the health blues. People living with HIV/AIDS and the rest of Zimbabweans are facing abject rural and urban poverty and most families can hardly put a meal let alone a balanced diet together. This means that; the patients` immune system is further compromised which means their lives are seriously shortened. It also means an increase in prostitution and other risky behavior which is against the fight against HIV/AIDS.

The hostility of the 'government' towards humanitarian and non-governmental organizations has also affected the efforts that have been invested towards the fight against HIV/AIDS. Some humanitarian from operating by the government, especially in the run-up to the June 27 presidential run-off elections. Organizations that were providing aid (in the form of food, drugs and other forms of aid) to HIV infected and affected people were banned by the government on flimsy accusations of having ulterior motives and political ambitions. The country's internationally condemned human rights (abuses) record and lack of democracy has kept it a pariah and many international donor agencies have either reduced or frozen financial aid destined for humanitarian programs: "Leadership makes or breaks the response against AIDS?"

CHRA demands a responsible, accountable, transparent and democratic leadership which will afford the HIV/AIDS infected and affected and the rest of the Zimbabwean populace a chance of re-building the country `s economic and socio-political institutions and systems that will pave way for effective programs to combat the spread of HIV and enable the country to take care of the infected and affected citizens.

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