Inter Press Service - October 4, 2001
Andrés Cañizález

The government of Hugo Chávez earmarked nearly one million dollars for the first phase of the programme, which went into effect in August and is to run through March. Thirty-four local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are participating in the new plan.

"We have strong NGOs working with HIV-carriers and AIDS patients in Venezuela, and we want to take advantage of their experience," said Deisy Matos, director of the National AIDS Programme.

The government called on civil society "because we believe we all have responsibilities" in the fight against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, said Matos.

The approach taken by the government, the first experience of such a close partnership between the Chávez administration and NGOs, is aimed at sending a more credible message, given that a number of civil society organisations have greater social influence than the state, especially with respect to high-risk groups, she added.

In selecting the NGOs to take part in the project, authorities focused on organisations that work with high-risk groups like men who have sex with other men, prostitutes, prisoners and teenagers who have dropped out of school. "This is a great initiative, which should have begun earlier. This is how it should be; the state must understand that it has to work with organised civil society," the executive director of Citizen Action Against AIDS (ACSI), Renate Koch, told IPS.

ACSI, one of the most influential NGOs in this South American country, provides legal aid in lawsuits brought by AIDS patients whose rights have been violated. "Organised social groups have direct contact with those affected by HIV/AIDS.

Furthermore, the government cannot tackle a problem of such magnitude as AIDS on its own," said Koch.

According to the joint United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), more than 61,000 people in this country of 23 million test positive for HIV. However, local health authorities admit that the actual number is probably much higher.

But the Health Ministry is only able to provide treatment for 17 percent of the 1,700 AIDS patients it had registered by the end of last year.

With support from the government and after several lawsuits, activists were successful last year in their struggle to secure a ban on the testing of job applicants without their consent by companies hiring personnel.

And in 1999, the Supreme Court handed down a ruling in favour of HIV-carriers, who had received legal aid from ACSI, ordering the state to provide them with the antiretroviral drugs essential to prolonging the lives of AIDS patients. Nevertheless, due to budget restraints, local health authorities are only able to attend a limited number of patients.

The new anti-AIDS programme that began to be implemented in August puts the accent on prevention, because authorities and NGOs agree that this aspect has not received the necessary attention.

Koch said some of the projects currently being carried out jointly with ACSI and other NGOs provide workshops to train "advisors", in order to raise public awareness at different levels and to draw in those directly affected, allowing them to add their voices to the prevention effort.

The Venezuelan Network of Positive People is also receiving government funds to help publish a news bulletin aimed at bringing people with HIV/AIDS into contact with the various NGOs involved in fighting the disease.

The executive director of ACSI stressed that the national plan against AIDS must focus on prevention as well as assistance for patients, whose human rights must receive special protection.

One of the next tasks of the prevention effort that the National AIDS Programme will undertake will be basic education, including a training programme for teachers.

"This is an issue that has been in the curriculum for years, but the teachers have not focused on it because they lack the necessary tools. We are now designing materials for the schools," said Matos.
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