Gambian President boasts HIV/AIDS cure

by Amadou Bah, Assistant Producer, Gambia Radio and Television Services, Banjul

The President of the republic of The Gambia, Alhaji Yahya Jammeh, on Wednesday, January 17, 2007, announced his decision to treat Gambians living HIV/AIDS and Asthma sufferers in the country. In his speech, at the state house, President Jammeh disclosed that he now has authorisation to treat HIV/AIDS and Asthma patients.

In fulfillment of his promise, today, President Jammeh administered treatment to the first batch of HIV/AIDS patients at State House. The President was assisted by a team of medical personnel during the morning session.

Defending his new "mandate", Dr. Jammeh pointed out that his patients must first be diagnosed as HIV positive and should then consent to be treated publicly.

He said his treatment would last only for few days, after which, the patient should go back to the hospital for a further test to re-confirm his or her status. The President also said he is mandated to carry out his treatment only on Thursdays and he will limited to ten patients at a time.

Commenting on the treatment of Asthma, President Jammeh said he is "mandated" to treat one hundred patients at a time, under strict conditions.

In her speech, the Vice President Dr. Aja Isatou Njie Saidy applauded President Jammeh for the initiative, describing the intervention as very timely.

Cameroon journalist reports on South Africa

by Ngehndab Delphine, Cameroon In November, 2006, I was in South Africa on an environmental reporting course sponsored by the Reuters Foundation . I thought it necessary to send you some of the pictures I took in Kliptown, one of the oldest settlements in Soweto. We visited Kliptown wetland where we found barefoot children play next to a stream of raw sewage that slowly trickles down to the river. It is school hour and the children in their innocence are playing around the filthy area so happy yet very unaware of the health hazards the environment poses to them and their community as a whole. A repugnant stench from rotting waste fills the air. The area is littered with use papers and plastics that only go a long way to prevent the wetland from purifying the water that could be used by the inhabitants of the area. A few meters away, a group of pigs are grazing on the edge of the polluted wetland. Downstream, ritual baptisms often take place using the same dirty water of the heavily polluted Klip river. This is an unlikely site if a community based conservation project based in Kliptown Operation Mayibuye, which means ‘Take Back’ was one of the main pillars of the apartheid struggle and also the operation that led to the arrest of Nelson Mandela. Now not far from freedom square, which celebrates South Africa’s new, found freedom, a new operation Mayibuye’ is taking place-also to take back or restore. But this operation has a distinct environmental flavour. It is aimed at restoring Soweto’s wetlands, including historical Kliptowns wetlands and neighbouring shanty town to its original sate of 50 years ago where the Freedom Charter was signed. Members of the Mayibuye Wetland Project have an uphill task of restoring the area.