New York Beacon, The
03-17-2004
The international community increasingly recognizes that one vital strategy
for stemming the spread of AIDS worldwide is to reduce women's economic
dependence. Further spotlighting the issue, 'Women and HIV/AIDS' is the
theme for the 2004 International Women's Day, March 8, 2004. Organizations
that have long worked to elevate the status of women are pleased to see the
relationship between women's vulnerability and the deadly AIDS epidemic
finally becoming an international focal point.
One such organization, the Africa-America Institute has long approached
HIV/AIDS prevention through education. The 51-year-old multiracial,
multiethnic nonprofit group brings American and other resources to bear in
order to build the African human capital necessary to eliminate poverty and
other conditions that lead to poor health. AAI maintains that with greater
access to education, women and girls in Africa will be better equipped to
safeguard their health and that of their children, with the result that
HIV/AIDS infections will decline or even cease.
'Education provides women the knowledge and earning potential to make
better choices and become economically and socially empowered,' said Mora
McLean, AAI President and CEO. 'Those are the keys to reducing the
disproportionately high toll that HIV/AIDS has had on economically
vulnerable women and their children.'
To achieve its goal of assisting in the fight against HIV/AIDS by educating
African women, AAI has established partnerships with 200 U.S. universities
in 49 states, where thousands of African women have pursued under-graduate
and graduate degrees, as well as short-term technical training. Progress is
ongoing, thanks to the AAI Education Partnership Campaign, which over the
next five years is projected to raise $25 million in private and public
sector support to educate and train 50,000 more Africans. And it's not just
the women themselves who benefit from their expanded horizons, said McLean:
The AAI Education Partnership Campaign will yield powerful benefits to
individuals, businesses, governments and entire countries.
Dr. Ibouratou Olga M. Ogoussan, a Master's in Public Health candidate
through AAI's ATLAS program, agrees. 'As an M.D., my studies in public
health in the U.S. have taught me to think more globally about improving
public health--to see it not as just a matter of treating individuals who
are sick, but of changing the way institutions work, changing laws,
changing attitudes and behaviors, so people learn how to safeguard their
health.'
Article copyright Smith Haj Group.
V.11;
