Media Centre

MOZAMBIQUE: Help for landmine victims hard to come by MAPUTO Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Helena Numaio was 12 years old in 1990 when she lost both her legs and a finger in a landmine explosion while collecting firewood in the Moamba district of Maputo Province, Mozambique.

BOTSWANA: A risky combination of alcohol and sexSELEBI-PHIKWE Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - On a recent Wednesday evening, Gillian Otsile, a volunteer at a local NGO, Men Sex and AIDS, approached a group of young men drinking cartons of traditional sorghum beer at a tavern in Selebi-Phikwe, a mining town in northeastern Botswana.

ZIMBABWE: Kimberley Process ignores its own advice JOHANNESBURG, Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Zimbabwe's rough diamond trade has escaped a six-month suspension by the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) - an international initiative to stem the flow of conflict diamonds - after its own investigating team recommended earlier in 2009 that the country be temporarily barred from importing and exporting the gems.

AFRICA: Turning to traditional medicines in fight against malariaNAIROBI Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Encouraging the use of traditional African herbal medicines could prevent some of the one million malarial deaths on the continent, according to specialists attending a conference www.mimalaria.org/pamc in Nairobi. Many poor communities, especially in rural settings, cannot afford modern malarial drugs and many people die due to inaccessibility of treatment.

SWAZILAND: TB-HIV services needed to lower world's highest rates MBABANE Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Swaziland not only has the world's highest HIV prevalence rate, it now also has the highest tuberculosis (TB) rate, but health officials warn that not enough is being done to integrate TB and HIV services.

BOTSWANA: Katlego Lally, "Being a teenager is very hard"GABORONE Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Katlego Lally*, 17, belongs to a club for HIV-positive teenagers run by the Baylor Children's Clinic Centre of Excellence in Gaborone, Botswana's capital. She talked to IRIN/PlusNews about how the club has helped her overcome feelings of isolation and depression.

ZIMBABWE: Donors uneasy about Mugabe's threatHARARE Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's threat to appoint interim ministers to plug the gap left by the "disengagement" of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) from the unity government could lead to a review of donor funding, a highly placed official from a major donor country told IRIN.

MOZAMBIQUE: Demining - the devil is in the detail SONGO Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - The conversations of deminers are often illustrated with sketches on the reverse side of old reports or the toe of a boot drawing lines in the sand to show how a single mine can close 35km of road, make a bridge redundant or deny a community a swathe of farming land. They are a meticulous fraternity that knows the devil is very much in the detail.

BOTSWANA: Positive teens find refuge at their own clubGABORONE Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - Raging hormones, peer pressure and coming to terms with a changing body image - growing up is difficult enough without the added burden of living with HIV, and keeping it hidden from friends and classmates.

ZIMBABWE: Anna Matopodza, "When I tell people I am a grandmother, they do not believe me" HARARE Monday, November 02, 2009 (IRIN) - When Anna Matopodza, 55, from a village in the Buhera district of Manicaland Province, Zimbabwe, found out she was HIV-positive, she was anxious about who would look after her five children when she died. The thought of death haunted her for months; then she joined dance group and travelled around the world, teaching people about HIV/AIDS through song and dance.