Planet Aid Post For the Environment, For People
Vol. 1 No. 2
THE END OF AIDS?
T
oday we stand at a vital threshold. Within our grasp is the opportunity to end 30 years of suffering and death due to HIV/AIDS. Individuals and communities around the world have been mobilized toward prevention, and existing treatment can prolong life for many years. While we celebrate these successes, we reject any modicum of complacency. Now is the time to double down and finish the job. The world is fighting AIDS today just as it had previously fought to eliminate smallpox. For centuries, smallpox was a feared scourge that killed nearly half of those infected and maimed those that survived. A worldwide campaign to end the disease began in earnest in the late 1960s and by 1980 smallpox was officially eradicated. Planet Aid anticipates the day when AIDS, too, will be stopped. To this end, we have been helping mobilize communities around the globe to increase HIV/AIDS prevention and care. With this special issue of the Planet Aid Post, we focus on the battle ahead. We also extend a warm welcome to those joining us on the forefront of this work, who are participants in the 19th annual International AIDS Conference.
Community organizers hold a rally in Mozambique. See related stories on pages 2-5.
Beyond the AIDS Stereotype AIDS is today perceived as a problem for poor countries. However, there are still areas in the United States where the disease has tightened its grip. In certain districts of Washington, D.C., for example, the rate of HIV and AIDS is so high as to match that of developing nations. In 2007, the District of Columbia made headlines in reporting a far higher rate of AIDS diagnoses than any other area in the U.S. In 2009, the capital city’s estimated rate of AIDS diagnoses declined but remained the highest in the nation. In black males, HIV prevalence was a startling 7.1%. Contrary to the stereotype of HIV being primarily transmitted among gay males, heterosexual contact has been a leading mode of transmission in the area. The 2010 statistics indicated a decline in the rate of new HIV and AIDS cases, but the disease remains at epidemic levels. The D.C. Department of Health reported the latest overall HIV prevalence at 3.2% (UNAIDS defines a generalized epidemic as having a prevalence of at least 1% ). A strong association with poverty More than one million cases of AIDS have been reported in the U.S. since the beginning of the epidemic, with 85% occurring in major metropolitan areas. Recent studies have clearly shown a strong correlation between poverty rates and HIV/AIDS. In 2010 the CDC released the results of a study that showed HIV rates among people below the federal poverty threshold were 2.4%, which is approximately double that of those earning an income above the poverty threshold. The research was conducted in high-poverty neighborhoods in 23 U.S. cities and involved 9,000 heterosexual adults aged 18 to 50.
CONTENTS
TCE’s Goal: Total Control ............................................................................ 2 Mobilizing a New Generation in Mozambique ................................. 4 USDA and Planet AId Team Up ........................................................... 6 Planet AId Post Makes its Nationwide Debut ..................................... 6 CBS’s Big Bang Theory Features Planet Aid ............................................ 6 A Single Mom’s Career Selling Used Clothing ................................... 7
From: Paul Denning, MD, MPH and Elizabeth DiNenno, PhD, Centers for Disease Control, Communities in Crisis: Is There a Generalized HIV Epidemic in Impoverished Urban Areas of the United States? August 2010. Data Source: NHBS-HET-1 2006−2007.
The Early Story of HIV/AIDS Where did HIV/AIDS start and how did it become a killer epidemic? These are questions authors Craig Timberg and Daniel Halperin explore in their insightful book Tinderbox. The story begins with geneticists tracing the origin of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) to a simian (ape) virus (or SIV) in remote Cameroon. Because viruses are opportunisitic, they adapt and spread given the right chance. SIV’s chance came in the late 1800s with the frenzied colonization of West Africa. The virus most likely began its escape from the deep jungle when, according to the authors, a hunter butchered an SIV infected ape and in the process cut his finger. Once in the bloodstream SIV mutated to HIV and began to spread slowly through the merchants and explorers blazing trade routes in search of new riches. It took nearly a century for the disease to blossom into a full-blown epidemic. Nevertheless, as Timberg and Halperin indicate, “Without ‘the Scramble for Africa,’ it’s hard to see how HIV could have made it out of southeastern Cameroon to eventually kill tens of millions of people.” For more information see www. tinderboxbook.com.
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TCE’s Goal: Total Control Behavior change is the focus of the HIV/AIDS program known as Total Control of the Epidemic (TCE). Developed by the Federation Humana People to People, TCE systematically educates and mobilizes individuals en masse with a door-to-door campaign that encourages lifestyle changes and preventative behavior. Planet Aid has been a long-time supporter of TCE in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. In its recent World AIDS Day Report, UNAIDS links a dramatic decline in Zimbabwe HIV incidence rates to changes in behavior, which include reductions in the number of sexual partners, increases in condom use, and delayed age of first sex. These changes have helped reduce HIV incidence in Zimbabwe from an extremely high peak of almost 6% in 1991 to less than 1% in 2010.
For the Environment, For People
Evaluation Results Independent evaluations of the TCE program were conducted in 2003 and 2010. The 2003 evaluation was conducted by BOTUSA, an organization formed by the Centers for Disease Control and the Government of Botswana to help stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in southern Africa. Among the more significant findings of the BOTUSA study was that people reached by TCE were two to three times more likely to know that mother-to-child transmission of the disease was possible. TCE also led twice as many people to HIV testing than those who had not been reached by the program. This outcome was echoed in a 2010 survey in South Africa conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council. Ninety percent of respondents indicated that TCE field officers had a significant impact on their getting tested for HIV. For more information about TCE, visit www.planetaid.org and click on “Programs.”
How it Works Field officers are the backbone of the TCE program. Clad in uniforms with distinctive red or yellow berets, they walk from home to home, ride bicycles from village to village, contacting each individual within their assigned area. Their job is to dispel myths and educate individuals about the basic facts of HIV/AIDS. They encourage all to get tested, obtain appropriate counseling, and commit to a personal behavior change plan. Before beginning work, field officers are trained in HIV counseling and testing, becoming skilled in how to offer assistance to individuals in the field and how to perform testing consistent with their government’s policies and guidelines. Long-term Passionate Support Field officers are assisted in their duties by local village volunteers known as passionates, who play a vital role in overcoming stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS. Passionates help establish support groups and assist communities in establishing vegetable gardens for the benefit of HIV infected and affected families. They also continue fighting AIDS in their communities after the TCE program has been completed, bolstering sustainability of the effort. Bringing Testing to the People TCE provides field testing in areas where access is limited and it is permitted by the host country.TCE field officers can test for HIV, obtaining rapid results that facilitate appropriate treatment referrals, enrollment of pregnant mothers for prevention services to protect their infants, and other services.
A field officer conducts testing during a TCE campaign in Machava, Mozambique.
WHAT IS AIDS ? AIDS, or Aquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, is caused by HIV or Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Once HIV has progressed, causing loss of immune cells and thus weakening the body’s defenses past a certain threshold, the onset of AIDS begins. HIV can be transmitted through sexual contact, through blood transfusions or use of contaminated needles, or from a mother to her baby. Preventing the transmission of HIV to an unborn child in the womb or to an infant while breastfeeding is feasible when the mother receives proper drug treatment.
More than 25 million individuals have succumbed to HIV/AIDS worldwide and more than 60 million have been infected.
North America 1.3 Million
Caribbean 200,000 Latin America 1.5 Million
Western & Central Europe 840,000 Eastern Europe & Central Asia East Asia 1.5 Million 790,000 North Africa & Middle East 470,000 South & Southeast Asia 4 Million Sub-Saharan Africa
22.9 Million
Oceania 54,000
Adults and Children Living with HIV Source: UNAIDS World AIDS Day Report, November 2011
Support Planet Aid’s campaign to fight HIV/AIDS. See back page for details.
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For the Environment, For People
TCE PROGRAM
IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
Guinea Bissau
People Reached (and areas in progress) AFRICA Angola 650,000 Botswana 900,000 DRC 300,000 Guinea Bissau 70,000 Malawi 1,000,000 Mozambique 3,200,000 Namibia 1,400,000 South Africa 4,000,000 Zambia 400,000 Zimbabwe 900,000 ASIA India 600,000 China 350,000
TOTAL
13,770,000
Malawi Mozambique
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For the Environment, For People
Mobilizing a New Generation in Mozambique In 2008, Planet Aid, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, helped establish One World University. Located on a grassy savannah near the village of Changalane, OWU is an accredited institution of higher learning operated by the development organization ADPP Mozambique. (OWU’s official Mozambican name is Instituto Unfortunately, Mozambique is unique in another way; it is among a set Superior de Educacao e Tecnologia, or ISET for short.) The university of countries that have the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence in the world. In offers a baccalaureate degree in Pedagogy, focusing on primary school the southern Gaza province, for example, 25 percent of the population education, and another in Community Development. between the ages 15 and 49 are HIV positive. Among women in Gaza, the number is even higher: 30% are infected with HIV. Mozambique One World University was founded on the principle that education is is also one of the poorest nations in the world, with a majority of the the key to ending the cycle of poverty. As the first institution of its population living on less than $1 per day. The United Nations ranks it kind in sub-Saharan Africa, OWU is creating a new generation of skilled at 184 out of 186 countries in terms of its level of overall development. professionals who can nurture young minds and provide leadership in rural communities to improve the overall conditions of the poor. Planet Aid is committed to helping the people of Mozambique lift themselves from poverty and reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS. Planet OWU’s pedagogy program prepares graduates to become educational Aid supports HIV prevention in Mozambique through the TCE project. professionals. Many become instructors at teacher training colleges It also creates local capacity to fight HIV through its support of in Mozambique (and other countries where there is a need). These graduates, in turn, train new primary school teachers, thus helping educational institutions and programs. Mozambique is unique among sub-Saharan countries. It has an extraordinary coastline of turquoise blue water and a rich array of flora and fauna. The nation’s exquisite beauty and abundance of natural resources have led some to describe it as the lost Garden of Eden.
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increase the supply of qualified school teachers, which are sorely needed to raise basic education standards. The teachers also learn to lead local initiatives that can range from teaching adult literacy classes to raising awareness about HIV. Similarly, the Community Development program empowers students to fight poverty. Graduates of the program are highly motivated champions for change, who through training and practical experience understand that working at the local level on development issues, including mobilizing HIV prevention actions, can transform their country. The Community Development program was created in 2008 at the behest of Mozambican President Armando Emílio Guebuza. President Guebuza had visited OWU during its inauguration and expressed his desire to have students use their wisdom and persistence in fighting side by side with the poor. And so the Community Development program was created, and named “Fighting with the Poor,” in honor of the President. The first graduates received diplomas in 2011. For more information visit www.planetaid.org and click on “Programs.”
For the Environment, For People
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For the Environment, For People
Planet Aid News USDA and Planet Aid Team Up to Feed School Children Planet Aid and its partners have long recognized the critical link between nutrition and education, supporting programs to combat malnutrition in young children. Chronic hunger in early childhood is a very serious issue that can lead to irreversible mental stunting, lower I.Q. and an overall reduced capacity to absorb information and learn. In recognition of its past efforts and unique ability to tackle this problem, Planet Aid was awarded $20 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide 34 million meals to school children in Mozambique. The meals are part of a three-year comprehensive program to boost the country’s long-term educational capacity. Planet Aid, along with its incountry implementing partner, ADPP Mozambique, will also be training school teachers in nutrition, building latrines and improving water sources at schools, and ensuring sustainability by engaging communities in related activities every step of the way. More than 1 million students, teachers, parents, and community members are expected to benefit from the initiative. For more information on the project go to www.planetaid.org and click on “Programs.”
Planet Aid Post Makes Its Nationwide Debut To help launch the inaugural issue of the Planet Aid Post last December, Planet Aid employees hit the streets to personally deliver the Post to nearly 2,800 locations across 22 states. The objective was to help spread the word and answer questions about Planet Aid’s clothing recycling program and its international aid mission. Planet Aid staffers logged thousands of miles to visit inner city, suburban, and rural Planet Aid bin sites. Of Planet Aid’s 16,000 site hosts, many include small businesses, major department and grocery stores, fuel stations, mini-marts, shopping centers, as well as churches, schools, and local civic/community centers. In total, more than 50,000 copies of the Post were delivered to site hosts to share with their employees and customers. The first issue of the Post contained information about the global market for used textiles, the environmental impact of recycling clothes, and the multiple ways in which Planet Aid uses donated clothing to make a difference in impoverished communities around the world. To view a copy of the innaugural Planet Aid Post visit www.planetaid.org and click on “Planet Aid Post.”
CBS’s The Big Bang Theory Features Planet Aid How do you know when a brand has entered the mainstream culture? When it appears on a popular television sitcom, of course! In December, Planet Aid was asked by representatives of the hit show The Big Bang Theory to use a collection bin in the show. We were happy to oblige. In a hilarious plot twist, Penny, Amy, and Bernadette are about to donate clothing to Planet Aid when Penny opens the bin door and discovers the clothing inside to be fasionably “cute” (the studio bin is unlocked for the sake of the plot). Penny is inclined to take items for herself, but her friends persuade her instead to do the right thing. The scene appears in “The Speckerman Recurrence” episode, which aired December 8, 2011. This isn’t the first time Planet Aid was chosen to appear on television – it also had a role in The Mentalist, a popular drama in 2008, and appeared in a long segment of the movie Drive. With operations in 22 states and more than 16,000 bins, it’s no wonder that the bright yellow bins have become a popular icon for charitable used clothing recycling.
Over the past 15 years, Planet Aid has worked diligently to inform the public about its two-fold mission: to positively impact the environment by removing millions of pounds of clothing otherwise destined to become solid waste, and to use the net proceeds from donations to provide aid to hundreds of thousands of the world’s neediest adults and children. As Planet Aid continues to attract new donors and expand across more communities, there will be an ever increasing need for more information about our activities. People want to know that their donations are being handled with the utmost care and for maximum benefit. We understand and respect this need to know, and remain faithful to satisfying questions and sharing our story. We want everyone to fully understand the bigger picture of the global clothes recycling industry, and how our nonprofit operation is working to improve conditions that help the environment and help people. We hope that with informative tools such as the Planet Aid Post and our website www.planetaid.org we will be successful in getting the word out. Of course, it doesn’t hurt when every now and then we get a little publicity on a major network. But even more valuable is the word-of-mouth endorsements we receive every day from our broad base of donors, friends, and contributors, as well as beneficiaries of our support. They are the backbone and inspiration upon which we rely to continue our mission.
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For the Environment, For People
Mirian sorts items from a bale of credentialed used clothing received from the United States.
A Single Mom’s Career Selling Used Clothing in Guatemala Mirian is a retail used clothing vendor in a market in Guatemala City. She has been selling used clothing and shoes for more than 20 years. She recently spoke about her experience in the secondhand textile trade. I started selling used clothes with my sister in 1988. We were out of work and needed to earn money. I had two young children that I needed to feed. I had saved a little money from a previous job and with that we bought our first bale of used clothing from a supplier that I had heard about. The clothing at that time was coming from New York City. I had just enough money to buy a bale but not enough to rent a space in the market. So, we just opened up the bale when we got it and started selling from the street. Because people needed clothing, it was very easy to sell. We bought our second bale and just continued selling, eventually making enough money to rent an indoor space in the market. Today, I sell all types of clothing. Ladies’ and children’s clothing and shoes are the most popular. I still buy clothing in the big bales from importers. I buy what is called “credentialed” used clothing, which means that it is not
sorted. I get it straight from the good people who donate it. It is even in the same bags that they put it in when they drop it off. I find a mix of clothing and shoes inside each bale. Generally, the quality is all very good. The best items, particularly those with recognized name brands, I can sell for a higher price. But there are customers for just about every item found in a bale, except the very heavy winter clothing and extra big sizes. The lesser quality items we sell for a smaller price. What we cannot sell, which is very little, we give away. Used clothing is a big help for parents here, who cannot afford to buy new clothes for their children or themselves. The families are of all different types, with some being very poor and others in the middle classes. They are very happy with the quality and fashions that come in the bales. For me the used clothing business has been a blessing. I have supported my two children, who are both going to the university. I am very proud of them. I also have three employees now who help me in my business. I hope we continue to do well and grow. It is a good life.
Used T-Shirts and Shoes Make Dollars and Sense Each year, the U.S. produces between 9 to 12 billion pounds of used textiles. Today, 85 percent is buried in landfills or combusted in industrial incinerators. Of the remaining 15 percent, the majority is sold overseas to wholesalers, while only 20 percent is sold in U.S. thrift stores. Wholesalers sell the items to overseas recyclers who supply it to lesser-developed nations. These countries receive much needed low-cost clothing and income opportunities for those who make their living in the markets selling secondhand clothing. Planet Aid is one of the largest locally operated nonprofit textile reuse and recycling organizations in the United States, helping to keep about 100 million pounds of clothing and shoes from entering landfills each year. By donating your clothing to Planet Aid rather than throwing it away, you help to reduce the environmental impacts associated with disposal and new clothing manufacture. However, it’s not just a green decision. Your donation benefits people by creating jobs and by providing clothing and development support to the less fortunate around the globe. To learn more about the very interesting but relatively unknown clothes recycling business go to www.planetaid.org and click on “Planet Aid Post.”
A young man in Mozambique proudly displays his secondhand shirt.
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For the Environment, For People
Planet Aid Crossword (for answers visit www.planetaid.org and click on “Planet Aid Post”)
ACROSS
DOWN 1) city where 2012 International AIDS conference will be held 2) acronym for Total Control of the Epidemic 4) place where excess clothes and other waste is typically dumped when not recycled 6) Planet Aid is a ________ charitable organization 8) acronym of U.S. government organization responsible for protecting our our habitat and general environment 9) term for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome 12) besides clothing, the next most donated item to Planet Aid 13) Planet Aid’s mission provides international aid and protects the _________. 14) color of Planet Aid donation bins 17) disease that was declared eradicated worldwide in 1980
3) term for Human Immunodeficiency Virus 5) the type of human cell that HIV attacks 7) theme or slogan for 2012 International AIDS Conference 10) name of popular TV sitcom featuring Planet Aid donation bin 11) another name for trash or garbage that is sent to landfills or incinerators 15) to reuse a product or return it to its raw original state to produce new products 16) clothes recycling cleans the environment and it also helps to create thousands of _____ for individuals worldwide 18) the color associated with battle against AIDS/HIV 20) African country where geneticists trace the origin of SIV - the viral predecessor to HIV 21) African nation in which One World University is located
19) to give to a charitable organization
Like us on Facebook. Planet Aid Headquarters 6730 Santa Barbara Court, Elkridge, MD 21075 410-796-1510 Planet Aid is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that recycles used clothing and shoes. It is registered with the U.S. Agency for International Development as a private voluntary organization (PVO).
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To find the location of a nearby bin or for other inquiries contact your local Planet Aid office at www.planetaid.org.
Support Planet Aid in fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS by donating to our “End AIDS Now” campaign. Contribute online (www.planetaid.org) or complete this form and mail it to: “End AIDS Now” c/o Planet Aid, 6730 Santa Barbara Court, Elkridge, Maryland 21075
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