Progress against AIDS in Ethiopia
Tim Shenk The following excerpt from a U.S. State Department news release credits religious groups, including Mennonites, in Ethiopia's recent progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Despite getting a late start in understanding the seriousness of the disease that is threatening to rob Africa of its future, the Ethiopian government is making great headway against HIV/AIDS. Former U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia David Shinn told those attending the January 14 launch of Forum International for Ethiopians Living in the Diaspora in Addis Ababa that Ethiopian authorities only began to take HIV/AIDS seriously in 1998, but "by late 1999 there was widespread realization within and outside the Ethiopian government that much more must be done to slow down the pandemic." …Shinn told his Addis audience that when he came to Ethiopia in 1996 to assume his position as U.S. ambassador, he found few AIDS programs high on the agenda of the Ethiopian government, with the exception of the Ethiopian Defense Force, which had "independently recognized the threat and had begun to take serious measures to counter the problem." But soon, with the help of the U.S. Agency for International Development, President Negasso Gidada "took the lead on behalf of the government, a role continued by President Girma Woldegiorgis," in calling attention to the AIDS peril, he said. In that same time frame, he said, "Abuna Paulos made HIV/AIDS an important part of the agenda of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The Supreme Islamic Council and Protestant churches like Kale Hiwot, Mekane Yesus and the Mennonites also added their strong support." In mid-1998, the joint U.N. program on HIV/AIDS, known as UNAIDS, and the World Health Organization announced that the HIV/AIDS adult prevalence rate for Ethiopia was 9.31 percent. By 2002 the percentage was down to 6.4 percent, or about 2 million adults, reflecting the "impressive progress" of Ethiopia in confronting HIV/AIDS since its slow beginning, Shinn said.
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