COME, Benin, Dec 1, 2007 (AFP) - Anti-AIDS campaigners in the west African state of Benin are using a "tree of life" to help fight against the disease, in a project that provides food, revenue and hope for HIV-positive people.
As activists mark World Aids Day on December 1, the tree-planting project has been hailed by campaigners and residents alike.
"The Moringa, it is our new tree of life," said Nicolas Ahouansou, head of Apevivis, an association representing HIV-positive people in Come, 70 kilometres (45 miles) west of the capital, Cotonou.
"I had never planted a tree in my life" he admitted.
But for many members of the association, rejected by society or having lost their jobs because of their HIV-positive status, the work had restored their dignity and given them renewed hope, he added.
French aid agency Medecins du Monde (MDM, Doctors of the World), launched the scheme in 2005 in both Come and in the Ouidah region, 40 kilometres west of the capital.
Originally from India, the Moringa Oleifera tree also grows in tropical regions in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
MDM chose the tree because of its remarkable properties, the group's local coordinator, Lise Adjahi Pourteau, explained.
"The Moringa Olifera is a tree whose nutritional, medicinal and agropastoral virtues are known but under-utilised in Benin, where they are mainly used as hedges," she said.
"The fight against HIV involves a nutritional component of course," said Porteau. "Because often, the fact that patients start to take antiretrovirals when they are under-nourished can compromise the treatment."
Antiretroviral drug treatments are designed to stabilise the condition of HIV-positive people and prevent them from developing full-blown AIDS.
The idea of the tree-cultivation project was to encourage HIV-positive people to take responsibility for their own health by growing something that would help them get the vital nutrition they needed.
On a plot of land at Kpomasse, 35 kilometres from Come, members of the association keep a careful watch on their crop. But they know that the tree is a robust breed, fast-growing and resistant to drought.
"It's a magnificent plant," said Valerie, 33, one of the tree cultivators.
"With the antiretrovirals you get your strength back but many among us have already lost our jobs and we pass our time running after money so we can eat," she said.
"Growing (them) makes us more independent and you can eat everything in this tree, from the roots to the leaves and even the flowers," she added.
According to specialists, the leaves of the Moringa are richer in vitamins, minerals and proteins than most vegetables.
"Everything is good in this tree," said Kendourou Avelssi, a Come traditional doctor. Its virtues, he said, were known even by the ancients.
Benin's anti-HIV/AIDS programme stresses the need for a balanced and adequate diet in the fight against the illness -- but this is by no means guaranteed in such a poor country.
Medecins du Monde plans to evaluate what effect the tree's food products have on those who consume it.
But for Ahouansou the tree already represents renewed hope. His dream, he says, is that "one day, each one of us could have a small parcel of land with Moringa trees."
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