Aids sufferers die while NGOs prospers
HIV-Aids sufferers are said to be losing out as the number of organisations representing them continues to increase, resulting in a scramble for limited donor funds.
Umbrella organisations are also concerned that as a result, funds rarely filter through to remote parts of the country where a large proportion of HIV-AIDS sufferers spend their last days.
Most of the money meant for AIDS sufferers has ended up being gobbled up by salaries and transport costs for NGO staff.
"Millions and millions of funds have been given, but where are they?
Probably, they end up in ridiculously high salaries for the co-ordinators and consultants.
You have members of my organisation who don't even know what they will eat the next day," said Conny Samaria of Lironga Eparu.
Lironga Eparu is an organisation run by HIV-positive people with branches across the country.
Samaria said this week that despite having first-hand experience of the pandemic his organisation finds it difficult to get funding from both national and international donors.
"I guess it's normal with any pandemic that you get more people trying to get a slice of the cake," said Samaria.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are pumped into the campaign against HIV-AIDS each year.
As the amount rises with the United States' Global Fund to Fight HIV-AIDS, TB and Malaria, AIDS is no longer just a scary disease - it's big business.
"There is competition for funds and we need to root it out," said Zack Makari of Nanaso, the Namibia Network of AIDS Service Organisations.
NGOs with people who are "influential" with donors and have resources to hire experts to write neat funding proposals get money easily.
Poor ones lose out when their funding requests don't appear "professional", according to Abner Xoagub, co-ordinator to the National AIDS Co-ordination Programme (NACOP).
Some groups cannot even lay their hands on a typewriter and their handwritten requests are turned down without consideration.
"Most of the beneficiaries are Windhoek-based organisations, but do they really go outside where people give their last penny to accommodate people who come back from the cities with the illness? "None of these projects go down to Sesfontein or Berseba, they settle in the comfort of the cities," said Xoagub.
Nanaso, which was set up to co-ordinate the work of AIDS groups, has 60 member organisations, double the figure in 2001, with more applications still to be processed.
Makari of Nanaso believes there are as many as 110 community-based organisations (CBOs) and NGOs.
Only 20 per cent of these are in rural areas, he said. About 70 per cent of the groups in the towns are in fact based in Windhoek.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, an official from a leading NGO said AIDS groups have also been "springing up" in rural areas, but that those that get funding quickly are "run by expatriates".
Samaria complained that some NGOs hire a person who is HIV-positive as "a token" in order to attract donations.
As Government waits for more than 10 million from the Global Fund, Xoagub said they have appealed to the bigger NGOs to work with CBOs in remote areas.
"Beneficiaries [of the Global Fund] should get smaller NGOs involved ... so that the dollars will be able to reach the people and not just end up in four-wheel drives in Windhoek," said Xoagub.
None of those spoken to were willing to name the organisations that they complained about.
The Deputy Director for Social Welfare Services which registers non-profit organisations, Petronella Masabane, said several reasons have led to the rapid growth in the number of HIV-AIDS organisations - among them are increased awareness and "availability of resources (financial, technical)". But, she added, "nobody will come and tell you that 'I'm doing it for 'money'".
"Faith is like waiting for the bus:
just because you don't see it doesn't mean it's not coming"...Said Kakese Dibinga
- The Namibian, 2003-10-09
HIV-Aids sufferers are said to be losing out as the number of organisations representing them continues to increase, resulting in a scramble for limited donor funds.
Umbrella organisations are also concerned that as a result, funds rarely filter through to remote parts of the country where a large proportion of HIV-AIDS sufferers spend their last days.
Most of the money meant for AIDS sufferers has ended up being gobbled up by salaries and transport costs for NGO staff.
"Millions and millions of funds have been given, but where are they?
Probably, they end up in ridiculously high salaries for the co-ordinators and consultants.
You have members of my organisation who don't even know what they will eat the next day," said Conny Samaria of Lironga Eparu.
Lironga Eparu is an organisation run by HIV-positive people with branches across the country.
Samaria said this week that despite having first-hand experience of the pandemic his organisation finds it difficult to get funding from both national and international donors.
"I guess it's normal with any pandemic that you get more people trying to get a slice of the cake," said Samaria.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are pumped into the campaign against HIV-AIDS each year.
As the amount rises with the United States' Global Fund to Fight HIV-AIDS, TB and Malaria, AIDS is no longer just a scary disease - it's big business.
"There is competition for funds and we need to root it out," said Zack Makari of Nanaso, the Namibia Network of AIDS Service Organisations.
NGOs with people who are "influential" with donors and have resources to hire experts to write neat funding proposals get money easily.
Poor ones lose out when their funding requests don't appear "professional", according to Abner Xoagub, co-ordinator to the National AIDS Co-ordination Programme (NACOP).
Some groups cannot even lay their hands on a typewriter and their handwritten requests are turned down without consideration.
"Most of the beneficiaries are Windhoek-based organisations, but do they really go outside where people give their last penny to accommodate people who come back from the cities with the illness? "None of these projects go down to Sesfontein or Berseba, they settle in the comfort of the cities," said Xoagub.
Nanaso, which was set up to co-ordinate the work of AIDS groups, has 60 member organisations, double the figure in 2001, with more applications still to be processed.
Makari of Nanaso believes there are as many as 110 community-based organisations (CBOs) and NGOs.
Only 20 per cent of these are in rural areas, he said. About 70 per cent of the groups in the towns are in fact based in Windhoek.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, an official from a leading NGO said AIDS groups have also been "springing up" in rural areas, but that those that get funding quickly are "run by expatriates".
Samaria complained that some NGOs hire a person who is HIV-positive as "a token" in order to attract donations.
As Government waits for more than 10 million from the Global Fund, Xoagub said they have appealed to the bigger NGOs to work with CBOs in remote areas.
"Beneficiaries [of the Global Fund] should get smaller NGOs involved ... so that the dollars will be able to reach the people and not just end up in four-wheel drives in Windhoek," said Xoagub.
None of those spoken to were willing to name the organisations that they complained about.
The Deputy Director for Social Welfare Services which registers non-profit organisations, Petronella Masabane, said several reasons have led to the rapid growth in the number of HIV-AIDS organisations - among them are increased awareness and "availability of resources (financial, technical)". But, she added, "nobody will come and tell you that 'I'm doing it for 'money'".
"Faith is like waiting for the bus:
just because you don't see it doesn't mean it's not coming"...Said Kakese Dibinga
- The Namibian, 2003-10-09
publicado por MP às 12:20
