Like Garrawarra Cemetery, TB also needs to be consigned to the history books

by Maree Nutt, CEO of RESULTS  Australia

I’m proud to call myself a South Coast girl who grew up in Bulli. I live in Sydney now and have taken many trips back visiting family over the years.  Until I read an article from The Illawarra Mercury in January, I never realised that with every trip I had been passing the final resting place of over 2000 sufferers of tuberculosis who are buried at Garrawarra Cemetery - they had spent their last days in isolation at a nearby sanatorium. The graves of Garrawarra are significant to me today because I’m trying to help end the scourge of tuberculosis once and for all.

I was gripped as I recounted with great imagery, a forgotten and overgrown graveyard, dating back to the turn of the last century. Buried there are the men, women, teenagers and children who died of a highly contagious, and at that time, virtually untreatable disease. With the advent of antibiotics to treat tuberculosis, the sanatorium and its cemetery thankfully became obsolete.

Today, the cemetery is a piece of local history worth preserving.  And tuberculosis? Surely, that too, is a disease of the past. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Until I became an advocate for ending poverty with RESULTS, I had no idea that tuberculosis still remains such a huge killer, with more than half of the global burden of TB found in the Asia-Pacific region.

The 100-year-old graves of Garrawarra reflect the fact that back then, tuberculosis was the leading killer of women. Today, it remains the third-biggest cause of death for women worldwide and also kills 74,000 children every year. In total, 9 million people are infected with TB annually and it kills 1.3 million. Most victims   are amongst the poorest people in the world. 

Monday, March 24 is World TB Day. It marks the day back in 1882 when German Doctor Robert Koch announced to the world his discovery to the world that tuberculosis was caused by the bacterium, mycobacterium tuberculosis. His discovery was very important given that TB was raging through Europe, the Americas and to some extent Australia. 

The incidence of TB in the industrialised world fell dramatically with the development of antibiotics. However, there have been no new TB drugs developed in the last 50 years meaning that whilst TB is totally curable, these old-fashioned antibiotics need to be taken every day for at least six months.  The test used to diagnose TB in most of the world is over 120-years-old as well as being slow and unreliable. There is also no effective vaccine for TB.

Fortunately, the last 12 years has seen a dramatic increase in the number of people receiving TB treatment thanks to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis. I am proud that Australia, along with other wealthy aid donors, is supporting the Global Fund which now provides more than two-thirds of international funding to combat TB.

However, more could be done including supporting the medical researchers both here and globally working to develop a long overdue vaccine, more effective drugs (that you would only take for a few weeks rather than six months) and more reliable and efficient diagnostics.

The graves of Garrawarra are a part of history now. It’s time that tuberculosis also became a relic of the past.

First steps

The launch of the Sydney City group

By Gina Olivieri, RESULTS Grassroots Engagement Manager

Recently I had two experiences that showed me just how long, but rewarding, the journey is to become an advocate and build champions.

The first was in Canberra, meeting with an MP. We were hoping our meeting would result in him taking some sort of action, and were confident as he has a reputation for being ‘on board’ with various social justice issues. But we were pretty shocked when he said he could make a ten minute speech. That afternoon! Luckily we were prepared and could provide information and answer questions to help the speech get prepared in time.

The second was launching our new Sydney City group. A crowd of people gathered to hear how they could make a difference by building relationships with their MPs and talking to them about issues that matter to them. At one point, we asked “who knows the name of their MP?” About half of the room did. For the other half, learning the name of their MP represented the first step on the journey to being an advocate.

It’s that same first step we have all taken - leading to writing letters, meeting MPs, helping hone parliamentary speeches, or even appearing in the media to talk about an issue. An MP giving a ten minute speech on an issue that’s important to us – that wasn’t pure luck. Somewhere along the line, an advocate took the first step of finding out his name.

What step will you take today to become an advocate?

Sam, Alan Griffin MP and Gina

Sarah's first visit to Canberra with RESULTS

Maree, Sarah, Andrew Wilkie MP, Gina and Camilla.

by Sarah Kirk, RESULTS Australia's Global Health Campaigns Manager (Tuberculosis)

As a new RESULTS staff member, I was excited to head down to Canberra last week with the RESULTS team and watch advocacy in action. Wow, was I in for a lesson in how being prepared sure does pay off!

Armed with our extensive briefs, trusty folders and personal stories of some of the beneficiaries of the Global Fund’s projects in PNG and South Africa, I headed to my meetings.  One of my highlights was meeting with Sharman Stone, the Federal Member for Murray, Victoria. Dr. Stone was a straight talker who was extremely knowledgeable about the issues, in particular education and GAVI. I am excited to work with her on TB/HIV issues, especially where they affect women and girls.

Another highlight was meeting Andrew Wilkie. Andrew has been a long standing supporter of ours and I was unprepared for his generosity and interest in the issues of aid and development.

It was really exciting to hear Andrew Wilkie tell us that RESULTS was the best advocacy organisation that he had ever dealt with! Far better than professional lobbyists!

International Women's Day 2014

This year's theme is INSPIRING CHANGE

We can't think of anything that inspires change more than education. 

If you agree (or not), why don't you join our global webinar with the Global Partnership for Education's CEO Alice Albright to learn more and ask questions on the global education crisis.

Click here for more details on how to join

The Power of One - Samantha's story

Baulkham Hills resident Samantha Chivers realised from two recent eye-opening trips to Thailand that one individual has the power to make a real difference when it comes to fighting global poverty locally.

The social justice worker spent two years working on the frontline on the war on poverty in the small town of Sangkhlaburi, six hours north-west of Bangkok.

She remembers vividly the poverty-stricken conditions the town’s people endured and the aid efforts that occurred. “The people living there had some serious nutritional issues” Samantha remembers.
“Part of my job was to deliver the necessary drugs to them, but because of all the red tape and impractical policies, it made it unnecessarily difficult.

“In what should be taken as one small pill to combat Vitamin A deficiency, children had to take up to 8 different pills. It was then that I realised that change had to happen and it had to happen at the top,” Samantha added.

Upon returning home, Samantha joined us here at RESULTS International (Australia). For you who don't know we are a small but extremely effective anti-poverty grassroots organisation, who influence and inform Australia’s most powerful politicians and key policy decision-makers on the best practices of poverty alleviation.

“When you grow up in Australia and you think of global poverty you have a certain vision of poverty, of small children sitting in a hut with flies on their faces,” Samantha continued.

“While that vision is sometimes true, poverty is more often about having limited choices and opportunities. In Asia it’s more about inequalities within societies. There are a million ways to help, but if you want to make a real lasting change, it’s more effective to meet with your local Member of Parliament and talk about proven lifesaving practices and policies.”

Samantha, and a group of dedicated anti-poverty volunteers, visited the halls of power in Canberra in October last year and met with several representatives of RESULTS electorates to discuss the value of the GAVI Alliance, an effective public-private global health partnership committed to increasing access to immunisation in poor countries.

“The GAVI Alliance improves health systems, and helps cut through all that red tape and deliver the lifesaving vaccines to where they’re needed,” Samantha said.

Due in large part to the tireless advocacy work of RESULTS, Australia invested over $260 million to the GAVI Alliance between 2009 and 2013. With our pledge completed in January, RESULTS is upping its campaign for Australia to show regional leadership and invest in a proven mechanism for delivering vaccines.

“You can make a huge amount of difference with just a small contribution; meeting your MP to go into bat for lifesaving organisations that need our funding, for example,” Samantha added.

RESULTS is creating a new band of poverty-fighting volunteers in Sydney on March 5 at Level 27, Aurora Place 88 Phillip Street, from 5:30pm. The group, who meet once a month, learn about proven anti-poverty practices, write letters-to-the-editor and set up face-to-face meetings with their parliamentarians.

“A lot of people don’t realise that as a constituent you actually have a lot of power to create real change,” Samantha said.

To find out more about RESULTS and the new group please visit www.results.org.au or call 1300 713 037.

Adapted from RESULTS media release March 5 2014.

TB/HIV Advocate Carol Nawina Nyirenda Honored By Dalai Lama

This weekend, ACTION partner and RESULTS' friend Carol Nawina Nyrienda was honored by His Holiness the Dalai Lama as an "Unsung Hero of Compassion" - an award recognizing leaders around the globe who work to alleviate the suffering of others without expectation of reward.

Carol spoke at AIDS 2012 and will return to AIDS 2014 in Melbourne. Many of RESULTS Australia's advocates will recognise her from her attendance at our National Conference 2010.

Carol is the Executive Director of CITAM+ in Zambia, a  patient-led organization providing Zambians with life-saving information and care. The profile below is reposted from Unsung Heroes of Compassion.

Carol Nawina Nyirenda is tireless—one day advocating at the World Health Organization, another speaking at an international AIDS conference, yet another building a rural health clinic in her native Zambia. What gives this passionate, articulate activist her energy is that, unlike many of her friends and family, she has survived HIV.

“There must be a reason why I’m still alive,” she says. “I went to rock bottom, but I survived. I want to inspire people by showing them that you can be HIV-positive and still lead a normal, productive life.”

Born in rural Zambia in 1963, Carol was leading a middle-class life with her husband and two children when people around her began dying of a disease not seen before. Soon her world began to collapse. Her husband got sick. They lost their home and then separated. Carol and her daughter moved in with relatives, apart from her husband and son. Months later, she got a phone call telling her that her husband had died; HIV was never mentioned.

In 2001, Carol became ill. She was diagnosed with Kaposi’s sarcoma, a cancer common in people with HIV. When she began coughing, her brother, a doctor, suspected she had tuberculosis (TB). He urged her to be tested for TB and also for HIV. “I was highly offended,” she remembers. “I had been a faithful wife and thought I was safe.”

In 2002, Carol received the diagnosis that changed her life. “I felt very angry,” she says. “My husband was gone. I had HIV, cancer, and TB. Why had God done this to us?” The AIDS epidemic hit Zambia hard in the 1980s, but even 20 years later when Carol was diagnosed, HIV was seen as a death sentence: it wasn’t a question of if you would die, only a question of when.

Carol sought treatment in a neighboring town to keep her condition secret, but news of her illness soon leaked out. People stopped coming to her restaurant. She ran out of money for expensive antiretroviral drugs. The hospital providing her chemotherapy told her brother to save his money for her funeral rather than spending it on more treatment. Feeling hopeless, she went home to her mother to die.

Then, in 2003, through George W. Bush’s President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the U.S. sent antiretroviral medications to Zambia and Carol was able to access free treatment. “I wanted to survive for my children,” she says. “I dreamt that one day I could start an organization to help others like me.”

Her mother encouraged Carol to join an HIV support group, but Carol hesitated. Then, she says, “I heard about the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, and helped write a proposal to fund our patient group.”

Carol has since become an internationally known TB and HIV activist, launching numerous projects to help people recover from what she calls “the Thriller Syndrome.” She explains: “In the Michael Jackson video, people come out of the grave walking around like zombies. That’s what it feels like—when people are diagnosed with HIV, they are alive but not really living. I want to help them wake up and bring them back to full lives.”

In 2008, she founded the Community Initiative for Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and Malaria, a patient-led organization providing Zambians with life-saving information and care. She chairs the Coalition of Zambian Women with HIV. She is president of the Africa Coalition on TB. Her latest endeavor, the Nambwa Project, is creating access to health care, education, and self-sustaining income for a rural community in Zambia heavily affected by HIV. “I bridge the gap,” Carol says. “People are willing, sometimes they just need a little help.”

Carol is indefatigable in her activism, and optimistic about the future. “I refuse to be beaten,” she says. “Life gave me a lemon, but I wanted a banana. So I made lemonade, sold it, and bought the banana I wanted.”

Originally posted on the ACTION partnership blog

New Report Highlights the Role of the Global Partnership for Education

Teaching and learning: Achieving quality for all

2013/14 Education for All Global Monitoring Report stresses the need for education funding.

by our colleague in the US, Tony Baker, RESULTS Educational Fund

The 2013/14 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, the world’s most comprehensive annual report documenting progress towards the Education for All goals, was launched yesterday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Developed and published by UNESCO, this year’s Education for All Global Monitoring Report (EFA GMR) bears the theme “Teaching and learning: Achieving quality for all.” The report draws attention to the learning in many parts of the world:

• 250 million children (38% of the world’s children of primary school age) are not learning the basics in reading and mathematics, let alone higher skills.
• Even with four years in school, one out of four young people in low and lower middle income countries cannot read a sentence.
• In a third of the countries analyzed, less than 75% of primary school teachers are trained.
• By 2015, only 56% of countries are likely to achieve universal primary education.
• The poorest girls in sub-Sahara Africa won’t complete lower secondary school until the 22nd century.

To support teachers and end the learning crisis, the report lays out four strategies: (1) attract good quality teachers, (2) improve teacher education, (3) ensure the best teachers teach the most disadvantaged students, and (4) retain good teachers with incentives including better salaries and attractive career paths.

The Global Partnership for Education targets low and middle-income countries

The 2013/14 EFA GMR also highlights the increasingly important role that the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) is playing in basic education, particularly in some of the most critical education environments in the world:

“The GPE is an important source of external financing for education for some low and lower middle income countries, although currently it only accounts for a small proportion of education aid. Between 2004 and 2011, donors paid in US$2 billion to the GPE. By comparison, donors spent US$32 billion in aid to basic education to low and lower middle income countries over the same period. However, the GPE’s influence appears to be increasing over time.”

In the 31 countries that had GPE program implementation grants in 2011, GPE support represented 24% of their basic education aid. Designed to act more as catalyst to crowd in additional resources, GPE program implementation grants constituted no more than one fifth of aid to basic education in one third of the countries which had received GPE funds in 2011. In other countries, however, the Global Partnership provided the primary means of support to basic education, making up more than 50% of basic education aid to Guyana, the Gambia, and the Central African Republic in 2011.

Source: 2013/4 EFA GMR

The Global Partnership for Education alone cannot fill the gap

With disbursements to basic education climbing to an all-time high of $385 million, GPE was the fourth largest donor to low and lower middle income countries in 2011. However, the EFA GMR points out that this increase in spending “is unlikely to have filled the gap left by the World Bank’s reduction in aid to low income countries.” While World Bank support to basic education increased by 13% between 2010 and 2011, the amount going to low income countries fell by 23%.

The report also warns of the alarming rate at which education aid is declining in general. Between 2010 and 2011:

•     Total aid to all levels of education declined by 7% between 2010 and 2011.
•     Aid to basic education fell for the first time since 2002, by 6%.
•     Aid to secondary education declined by 11% from an already low level.

The June 2014 GPE Pledging Conference

As the Global Monitoring Report clearly precautions, the overall decline in education aid “puts at risk the chance of meeting Education for All goals and any hope of more ambitious goals to include universal lower secondary education after 2015.”

While the Global Partnership for Education alone cannot fill the education finance gap, its replenishment conference to be held in June 2014 offers the international community the opportunity to commit funds to drive the partnership’s increasingly important work over the 2015-2018 period. The conference will also help   to raise bilateral and multilateral aid to the levels needed to end the learning crisis, ensure a quality education for all in a post-2015 world, and unlock the national and global prosperity promised by a quality education.