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Drama and Rap as Media for Preventing Unwanted Pregnancies and AIDS Project Co-operation with Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung in South Africa Successfully Completed Last year, the GPHF and the Hanover-based Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung (DSW, World Population Foundation of Germany) jointly broke new ground in the field of health education in the Republic of South Africa. In co-operation with their South-African project partner, the Talking Hands Educational Trust (THET), a health-education programme was realised for 11,000 youngsters from 10 to 24 years of age living in the Albany District of the Eastern Cape province. Within the scope of this project, youngsters informed their peers on specific issues such as contraception, family planning and HIV/AIDS. The final report now available confirms the successful implementation of this project. With 42 million inhabitants, the Republic of South Africa is not only one of the most populous African countries but also one that is particularly hit by HIV/AIDS. Almost one South African in five is infected by the disease. Those worst hit by the spread of this pandemic are youngsters, because 60 per cent of all new infections occur between 15 and 24 years of age. Since therapeutic measures are available in exceptional cases only and the population is largely unaware of issues of sexuality, contraception and venereal diseases, preventive health education is of decisive importance in order to make sure that the results of the comprehensive development efforts of the South-African society will not prove completely ineffective. Under these circumstances, the project is aimed at informing the population, in particular young people, of the importance and of the various aspects of reproductive health so that they will in future be able to take their own responsibility in protecting themselves against unwanted pregnancies and against diseases such as HIV/AIDS. In this context, the youngsters themselves were assigned the most important task because they were called upon – as so-called peer educators – to inform and educate their peers. Overcoming the Lack of Perspectives The project area – the Eastern Cape province – is the second-largest but also the second-poorest province of the Republic of South Africa. The infrastructure is disastrous, the province is hardly industrialised, educational and social services are more or less non-existent, and unemployment amounts to 45 per cent – these are the circumstances with which roughly seven million people have to copy every day. The worst hit by these gloomy conditions are children and young people – they appear to have no perspectives at all. During the duration of the project launched in December 2000, a total of ten youth groups were set up and 100 youngsters trained as peer educators. They informed thousands of children and young people on issues such as contraception, family planning and HIV/AIDS. The educational work took place both in youth groups in combination with leisure activities, and in schools. At the same time, several educational campaigns using various media (theatre plays, posters, postcards, etc.) and forms of communication specifically appealing to youngsters (for instance rap) were realised. The set-up of a fully functional distribution system for condoms completed the information and educational campaign. The peer educators also distributed condoms to youth groups, schools and at various leisure activities. In addition, condom dispensers were installed in strategically important locations such as bars, etc. By discussing the specific situation of the youngsters with hospital staff members and other health-service representatives, a basis was created for the organisational structure of health services aimed at young people, to which peer educators may now refer them. An Exemplary Model In order to also sensitise the youngsters’ social environment to their requirements, discussions with parents, teachers and elders of tribes were an integral part of the project. In addition, THET has set up a network of local non-government organisations that support themselves mutually. All this was embedded into the regular further training of the project staff and the continuous monitoring of the individual project components. The DSW and the GPHF fully agree that thanks to the excellent work performed by the project partner THET in the Eastern Cape province, an exemplary model for preventive health education was created within a relatively short period of time, the sustainability of which must be ensured by all means.
GPHF General Meeting As in previous years, the project work of the GPHF met with the broad approval of its members. On the occasion of this year’s General Meeting which took place on April 9 in the Schering house in Berlin, the GPHF chairwoman, Dr Gabriele Küsters, issued a positive statement on the project work effected during the past twelve months. All projects launched were implemented on schedule and provided valuable stimuli for a sustained improvement of health-care services in the project areas. As a consequence, the Board was unanimously discharged. On the occasion of this meeting, Johannes Oenning (Wyeth Pharma) was elected as a new GPHF board member. He is the successor of Dr Werner Cermak (Janssen-Cilag) who retired from the Board. The offices of the Chairwoman, Dr Küsters (Aventis Pharma AG), of the treasurer, Bernd Maehliß (Schering AG), and of Michael Raulf from Verband Forschender Arzneimittelhersteller (Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies) were confirmed. A valued guest at the General Meeting was Dr Peter Schmitz from the Cologne-based Malteser Auslandsdienst (Maltese Foreign Services). He presented to the delegates a number of health-care projects his organisation is currently implementing in Asia and Africa, and these were met with keen interest.
Positive Response for New GPHF Project As already reported in the last issue of the News, the GPHF is currently preparing a new project with a special focus. This project, entitled "Practical Pharmacy for Improving Drug Provision in Developing Countries", is to train in particular pharmacy students from developing countries attending university in Germany with a view to the special conditions of drug provision prevailing in developing countries. The objective of the seminars is to provide the students with practice-oriented knowledge regarding the improving of the testing, storage and distribution of drugs in their home countries, thus contributing to upgrading the local infrastructure. In initial meetings with the Federal Ministry of Health, the Pharmaceutical School of the Mainz University and the Central Laboratory of German Pharmacists, this project met with a very positive response and willingness to co-operate. The GPHF hopes to be able to organise the first pilot seminar before the end of this year.
Drug Donations for Afghanistan "I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your repeated willingness to make a valuable contribution to help the suffering civil population in Afghanistan by organising drug donations." This were the initial words of the letter of thanks in which Ulla Schmidt, Federal Minister of Health, expressed to the GPHF her appreciation of the speedy organisation of a drug donation made by one of the GPHF members for the dental clinic in Kabul. Thanks to this analgesics and antibiotics donation, that arrived in February in Kabul as part of the GPHF project entitled "Drug Donations for Emergencies", 5,000 patients can now be provided with dental diagnosis and treatment. In addition, the GPHF is currently co-ordinating an inquiry of the Hilfsorganisation Hammer Forum e.V. (Hammer Forum Relief Organisation) that has been attempting for years to improve health care services in Afghanistan. The organisation has drawn up a comprehensive list of drugs and materials required for a children’s surgical accident unit and three rural health centres. The fact that – according to a report published in "Ärztliche Praxis" dated 9 April 2002 – 20 per cent of the 12 million Afghan children under 14 years of age are in urgent need of medical care shows the importance of supporting such projects.
GPHF-Minilab® Detects Pseudo-Resistances in Malaria in Africa First Use of the GPHF-Minilab® for a Project of German Governmental Development Aid / Training Courses in India / Test Methods for ten Additional Agents The minilab, specifically developed by the GPHF for identifying substandard or counterfeited drugs, is making more and more valuable contributions to basic health care. As part of the Roll Back Malaria Programme of the World Health Organisation (WHO), it was used to check the quality status of malaria drugs in some regions to the South of the Sahara. The horrifying result: 60 per cent of the drugs checked were seriously substandard as regards drug concentration and the release of the agent. This tests results have far-reaching consequences because they clearly show that the increasing development of resistance by the malaria germ may also be a result of the poor drug quality prevailing in many developing countries. This so-called pseudo-resistance, which can no longer be distinguished from a genuine agent resistance, might therefore make a decisive contribution to the recurrence of malaria in many regions lately observed. The WHO’s conclusion from the test results is to attach even greater importance to the use of high-standard drugs when calling for tenders for health-care projects. Tests in Africa Quite a number of minilabs have been in use for some time in Tanzania. Test results documenting the use of the test methods over a longer period have now been made available to the GPHF. They confirm the easy and reliable use and the high quality of the tests. And these results corroborate the results of the surveys continuously carried out by the GPHF among the minilab users. Minilab in Use in India Currently, the minilab is making its first appearance within the scope of a German governmental development aid project. On the occasion of a project implemented in India by Gesellschaft für technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ, German Service Enterprise for Development Co-operation) and EPOS Health Consultants GmbH, two of these mobile laboratories will in future check drug quality in this South-Asian country. In April, Dr Richard Jähnke, the GPHF project manager responsible, spent two weeks in India in order to familiarise physicians, pharmacists and laboratory staff with the test methods used by this compact laboratory. In two training courses of several days each, a total of 24 persons were trained. Dr Jähnke who was quite impressed by the participants’ commitment, is confident that they are now all able to use the simple test methods without any problems whatsoever. The two minilabs will be used within the scope of the Basis Health Project Himachal Pradesh which is being realised with the support of German experts in the North of India. New Test Methods The GPHF-Minilab® now comes with a new manual. It includes 50 pages describing the test methods for ten additional agents which can now be checked using the minilab:
This document can be ordered from the GPHF office. The compact tropics-compatible laboratory can now be used for testing thirty of the most common drug agents worldwide.
Thanking the Donors On this occasion, the GPHF would like to thank the following donors for their generous support of its project work this year:
GPHF Organises Exhibition "Health promotes development", the new GPHF exhibition presenting the GPHF projects realised to date, is meeting with very positive response. Both the staff of the Frankfurt-based Aventis Pharma AG and the staff of the Bad Soden-based Aventis Pharma Deutschland GmbH were given the opportunity to get a detailed look at the pilot projects implemented by the GPHF and shown on twelve exhibition panels. In April, the exhibition was displayed at Schering AG in Berlin. During the weeks to come, Sanavita AG in Werne will host the exhibition. On the GPHF homepage you can view the complete exhibition under the keyword Publications (available in German only). Members or project partners interested in displaying this presentation are kindly requested to contact the GPHF office directly (phone/fax 0 69 - 63 15 32 57).
In Brief: Infant Mortality Decreases In spite of the continuous growth of the world’s population, infant mortality has been steadily decreasing since 1990. Whereas twelve years ago, 14 million children under five years of age died every year, their number has now fallen to 11 million. According to UNICEF, this decrease is mainly attributable to the success of numerous vaccination campaigns. Donating Drugs? The drug-donation agency of the German Institute for Medical Mission (Deutsches Institut für Ärztliche Mission, DIFÄM) has published a very useful guide for private households, entitled "Donating Drugs?". This leaflet illustrates in an easy-to-understand way that drugs from private households are not suitable for donation. Further Spread of Pulmonary Tuberculosis The World Health Organisation has issued a warning against a further spread of tuberculosis in Asia. After a continuous decrease observed during the past decades, this disease is once more on the increase.
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