September 10, 2006 Tanzania and AIDS

By Sherry Harbert

One year ago, Ambassador Michael Retzer arrived in the capital of Tanzania to take charge of his diplomatic post. The University of Oregon graduate made his mark in the financial arena with the Republican Party before shifting his career to diplomacy. Retzer’s financial talents may be useful in one of the world’s poorest countries. Yet the numbers that impact Retzer most do not come from financial statements. They come in the devastating mortality count from AIDS.

According to the CIA’s World Factbook, the median age in Tanzania is a mere 17.7 years. The intelligence agency would not list the country’s population of over 37 million without a statement denoting the excess mortality rate due to AIDS. In 2003, the CIA estimated 1.6 million people in the country were living with HIV/AIDS.

Security at the U.S. Embassy in the capitol city of Dar es Salaam would be increased to protect the lives of its staff after the fateful terrorist bombing in August 1998. (Though Dar es Salaam still retains the official designation as Tanzania’s capital, much of its legislative branch has now moved to Dodoma, located near the center of the country.) But for the country’s population there is no such protection available. Estimates from USAID, the World Bank and the United Nations place the population is living with HIV/AIDS between nine and 15 percent. Increased military cooperation between the U.S., Tanzania, along with neighboring Kenya and Uganda culminated in an exercise named “Natural Fire” this summer. The U.S. embassy in Tanzania issued a statement by Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa Commander Rear Adm. Richard Hunt to call the exercise “an enhancement of crisis response for military security and humanitarian projects.”

Responding to a Quiet Crisis

Tanzania rarely generates headlines for its AIDS crisis. In fact, few African nations are singled out from the continent’s 53 countries. It has meant that most of the public response to the crisis generates little action, even though this year hosted some of the most prominent gatherings to discuss AIDS. The UN and the Global AIDS Conference, both held this summer, issued dire warnings about the AIDS crisis in Africa. Direct response in the battle against AIDS mostly comes from non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Several months before Retzer arrived, Africa Bridge based in West Linn, in partnership with the Lundy Foundation of Denver, Colo., and the Tanzanian NGO Godfrey’s Children, opened a community center to meet the needs of children orphaned or living with the deadly disease in the town of Idweli. The town of about 1,200, located in the southwest portion of the country near the borders of Malawi and Zambia, is tiny in a country almost double the size of the state of California. Yet the center is among several in the town that Oregonians are working. (See Focus In: Tanzania’s Mama Liz Nurtures Help and Hope.)

Africa Bridge was founded in 2000 by Barry Childs, who spent his childhood in Tanzania. He spent most of his adult years in the U.S. as a coporate executive with Exxon and Abbott Labs. Childs’s impressive background also includes providing training for the Harvard Business School, Stanford University and the British government. He would mold his experiences and talents into an organization committed to serving children facing HIV/AIDS and the destruction it leaves behind. His vision for a “bridge” would connect people, organizations and businesses in the West to meet the needs in Africa. He has attracted many people to help in that vision, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa. But what makes Africa Bridge work are the volunteers from the U.S. and Tanzania who share in Child’s dream of countering the affects of AIDS.

Childs began interviewing Tanzanians living with AIDS, health care workers, government officials, educators and business leaders to gain an understanding of what was needed. He learned that building partnerships to serve people living with HIV/AIDS was important for the Tanzanians, so he designed his organization around “African solutions for African problems.” It is a concept that has proved successful in establishing a commitment to help the impoverished nation deal with the destructive scope AIDS has in every facet of life. The Godfrey Center now serves 53 orphans, operates a pre-school for 70 children and works with youth and women’s groups.

Headquartered in West Linn, Africa Bridge now partners with many African and U.S. NGOs to operate in eight villages, serving almost 1,000 orphans alone. The focus of Africa Bridges’ objectives first includes serving AIDS orphans, then providing HIV/AIDS awareness training for all youth, operating the Idweli Children’s Center for 50 orphans, and establishing micro-cooperatives for families that adopt orphans. Africa Bridge has also partnered with ReTree International, another Oregon NGO, to respond to the deforestation in the region. The partnership has seen indigenous tree planting in the region, along with other environmental needs met through micro-business cooperatives.

Africa Bridges strongest efforts are in education, as it is the one way the children and youth of Tanzania can strive to make a future and answer the impact of AIDS on their country. But, it is a difficult mission.

Education is vital to both children and adults in Tanzania. In a recent government survey, partnering with USAID and YouthNet, 85 percent of the adult population in Tanzania said they believe abstinence before marriage and faithfulness in marriage is important. It would appear the Tanzanians are far more likely to agree with faithfulness statements than their American counterparts. But, the same survey revealed that the respondents believed 85 percent of their acquaintances were also having extra-marital affairs.

Trying to counter the cultural practices of more than 130 different Bantu tribal groups seems almost impossible. That is why most NGOs are looking to the children for hope in the future. It is also why most organizations go into the country with a multi-tiered mission to serve the sick, establish economic projects and teach the new generation in AIDS prevention and environmental protection.

The Health of the Nation

Tanzania’s natural resources include gold and oil assets, but little seems to go toward alleviating the country’s vast poverty. Much of Tanzania’s economy is based on agriculture, with coffee, cashew nuts and cotton its largest exports. Eighty percent of Tanzania’s jobs are based in agriculture which contributes to its ongoing poverty, especially when the agricultural base is vying for a meager four percent of the land. The World Bank warns that the impact of AIDS on the labor force in Tanzania will reduce the GDP between 15-25 percent by 2010, noting a 20 percent reduction in the labor force due to the deadly disease. It is harsh news for a country listed in the top ten for business reforms by the World Bank. The listing monitors the friendly atmosphere for business.

Tanzania’s environmental health is another factor worth considering. In a 2006 Pilot program at Yale and Columbia Universities, Tanzania’s Environmental Performance Index (EPI) rates in the 80 percentile for air quality, water resources and sustainable energy, yet merits only half that in its environmental health. Though topography and climate contribute largely to its weak agriculture sector, extracting its high-value commodities creates an environmental nightmare. As such there is very high risk for bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A and typhoid fever throughout the country, with malaria, Rift Valley fever and plague found in many areas.

Reporters Without Borders has criticized the Tanzanian government for harassing and jailing journalists who question the depletion of the country’s natural resources by international corporations. Richard Mgamba, an investigative journalist with the independent daily newspaper in Mwanza, in northern Tanzania, has been repeatedly threatened with deportation for making statements in the 2005 monumental documentary, Darwin’s Nightmare, by Austrian filmmaker Hubert Sauper. The film catalogs the depletion of fish in Lake Victoria. It was one of the featured films at Portland Community College’s African Film Festival held in February.

Tanzania was chosen as one of three countries in a 2005 initiative by President George W. Bush to reduce the deaths caused by malaria. The first phase of spraying should be concluded this month, with a second phase set for early 2007. Ambassador Retzer launched a $2 million campaign for indoor spraying in July.

Tanzania’s Other Crisis

AIDS still remains the number one killer of its population between 15-49, but another growing crisis in the country looms between its borders with Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the amount of refugees flowing into Tanzania from internal conflicts in Burundi and the DRC are adding to its food crisis. The UN refugee agency issued its concerns this year that Tanzania is growing weary of hosting large numbers of refugees from its neighbors. In 2004, there were more than 600,000 refugees in camps throughout its western regions. While the UN has repatriated some of the refugees back to their home countries, it issued a warning earlier this year that Tanzania’s portrayal of refugees as burdens could exasperate the problem of successful repatriation. The UNHCR is pushing for refugee protections, consolidation of local integration and maintaining goodwill with the Tanzanian government and population. By confining the refugees in camps, food shortages and violence have increased since 2004. The UNHCR announced this year it would enhance support for refugees, whether for repatriation or local integration. The agency hopes Tanzania will continue its hospitality toward refugees and lessen its growing attitude toward refugees as burdens. But for one of the poorest nations in the world, Tanzania truly has many burdens to overcome.

© 2006, Foreign Interest

For more information:

United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees: www.unhcr.org

U.S. Embassy in Tanzania: http://tanzania.usembassy.gov

The World Bank: http://web.worldbank.org

CIA Factbook: www.cia.gov

Portland Community College Africa Film Festival: www.africanfilmfestival.org

Contact the author: sharbert@foreigninterest.com