In this issue:
Website of the month
EI Campaigns
Affiliate's Activities
General News
Three Questions to...Caroline Nabi

Global Action Week takes place from April 23-29 this year. With its theme ‘Education as a human right’, the Campaign seeks to highlight the plight of all those who are still being denied their right to education. In order to get this message across human chains will be created around the world whereby people ‘Join up for Education Rights now’.

This year you are likewise encouraged to remind your governments that we have already reached the halfway point between the commitments made to Education for All back in 2000, and their intended achievement in 2015. Still, a shocking 80 million children are not going to school and many millions more are subject to a poor quality education due to lacking investment. Education is a fundamental human right and it is time for governments to stop forfeiting on their duty to make that right a reality!

To launch Global Action Week activities a special event will be held at the European Parliament on January 30th to lobby European leaders, particularly Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, who took over both the Chair of the G8 and the Presidency of the EU this month. Children from Senegal, Argentina, Denmark, the UK, France, Spain, Ireland, Greece and the Netherlands will travel to Brussels to pose questions to Ministers, Members of the European Parliament and the European Commission about their level of commitment to education. They will also ask these leaders to sign specific pledges e.g. on securing predictability of aid and increasing the level of ODA allocated to basic education.

We have already sent EI participation forms to all affiliates, allowing you to order Global Action Week materials (stickers, posters, flyers), request finance and kick-start your campaigning activities! For more information on Global Action Week, please see the EI website which will go online on Wednesday January 24.

On December 15 Meqcha Mengistu, a member of the Ethiopian Teachers’ Association Committee for the implementation of the EFAIDS Programme, was reported missing. He had been under constant surveillance by government security agents following his participation in an ETA conference held on 8-9 December in Addis Ababa. Today his relatives know nothing about his whereabouts.

Meqcha Mengistu, aged 38 and father of 4 children, teaches at a secondary school in Dejen, in the Eastern part of the country. He is chairperson of the ETA East Gojam Zonal Executive. Meqcha was arrested along with Tilahun Ayalew and 66 other teachers in November 2005.

For more information on EI’s appeal for the release of Mr. Mengistu, please click here.

In a recent interview, Anthony Fuentes, National President of the Belize National Teacher Union (BNTU) said that “The BNTU must play a critical and proactive role in fighting not only HIV and AIDS, but also stigma, isolation and discrimination, which threaten the human and constitutional rights of both our teachers and students.”

To this end over a three day period in early January, twenty members of the BNTU took on an intensive training workshop on HIV and AIDS prevention to learn how to spread the word, the knowledge and the skills on to their teacher colleagues and students. In the first phase of training, twenty-five master teachers were trained. These individuals will then train representatives in their own union branches.

On December 4 2006, UNATU convened a meeting with over 140 people including Education Ministry officials, representatives from collaborating organisations such as World Vision and the Teachers Anti-AIDS Action Group (TAAG), learners, representatives from the local media and their own members and Executives.

Emmanuel Fatoma of Education International and Scott Pulizzi of the Education Development Center were also in attendance. School children from the HIV/AIDS Club, Uganda Railways Primary School presented poems, music, dance and drama. Their presentations brought to the surface clear messages on HIV/AIDS issues which have emerged at their school.

At the event the Chairperson of UNATU pledged that UNATU was committed to making the EFAIDS project a success. Commenting on the rising HIV prevalence rate among adults in Uganda, the Director For Education said that initiatives such as EFAIDS would prove crucial in the response. He also gave an update on the ongoing changes in relation to Education for All in the country, for example, the move to introduce Free Universal Post Primary Education in certain schools in 2007. The Director declared that the EFAIDS Programme was free to be incorporated at all levels of the education system from Kindergarten to University.

Over the four days proceeding this event, a workshop to train ‘master trainers’ took place. 28 participants carried out training on the Teachers’ Exercise Book which was highly participatory and involved role plays, discussions and experience sharing among others.

In December seven of EI’s Latin American affiliates: SUTEP (Peru), FETRAENSEÑANZA (Venezuela), CTERA (Argentina), COLPROSUMAH (Honduras), CNTE (Brazil), STEG (Guatemala) and FAPROUASD (Dominican Republic) gathered together with Education International to discuss issues related to EFA and HIV/AIDS in their respective countries.

During the three-day meeting, union representatives analysed HIV/AIDS incidence and its impact in their countries, as well as the action taken by the unions hitherto to deal with the problem. The link between the realisation of EFA objectives and the prevention of HIV/AIDS pandemic was also highlighted.

In addition, some exercises from the HIV/AIDS Book were undertaken demonstrating how to deal with issues such as sexual behaviour and risk.

Finally, and as a result of the meeting, a Latin-American network of teachers unions was established with the purpose of sharing information and fostering collaboration among them on the issue of HIV and AIDS.

The EFAIDS Programme now has a contact person at each of the national WHO offices in Africa - a huge boost to the implementation of the Programme there. The WHO recently appointed these staff members to work specifically on health promotion and act as the first point of contact on EFAIDS matters.

EI is also pleased to report that the WHO is in the process of drafting a framework document on health promotion which will include an education component. Likewise it will take part in the joint development of materials on gender safe schools, one of its priority areas for the future.

For more information, please contact us.

A new ILO report estimates that more than a million new jobs a year are being lost because of AIDS. It says the workplace should become a major focus for prevention and access to treatment.

The relentless advance of HIV/AIDS is markedly reducing economic and employment growth in the countries hit hardest by the epidemic, jeopardizing their efforts to reduce poverty, create new jobs for young people and fight child labour, says the new ILO report released in December. ‘HIV/AIDS and Work: Global Estimates, Impact on Children and Youth, and Response 2006’ reports that about 36.3 million people of working age are now living with HIV/AIDS - the vast majority of whom are in sub-Saharan Africa.

The report may be downloaded here in pdf format.

A milestone was laid down in Cape Town, South Africa on December 13 last when teachers and teachers' organisations from thirty-nine Commonwealth countries got together to discuss access to quality Education for All.

What made this meeting particularly special is that for the first time in history, teachers were given the opportunity to feed their opinions directly into the Ministerial Conference (Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers or CCEM). This opportunity was welcomed by the teachers as a commitment from Commonwealth Ministers to institutionalised social dialogue. The call was made for this forum to be replicated at the country level, ensuring dialogue, consultation and negotiation - particularly on EFA strategies - between teachers and governments.

The Teachers’ Forum focused particularly on the role of teachers and their organisations in the achievement of high quality public education throughout the Commonwealth. The Forum recognised that education is the best ‘social vaccine’ against HIV and AIDS. It highlighted the fact that the higher the level of education reached by individuals, the lower the risk of becoming infected with HIV. To download the final statement of the CCEM, please click here.

At a meeting late last year, Uganda National Teachers’ Union (UNATU) and TAAG discussed how the union can support teachers living with HIV/AIDS through policies and by ensuring that the HIV/AIDS Workplace policy is popularised. Caroline Nabi from TAAG attended the event.

“ Julias Kisakye, the Chairperson and Coordinator of TAAG, had disclosed his HIV status to the Minister of Education at his school. There they had lost at least five teachers to AIDS-related illnesses. One HIV-positive teacher was transferred. Realising that he could face the same situation, Mr. Kisakye decided to seek retirement on medical grounds. He was threatened to be deleted from the payroll. Subsequently, he, along with seven others, launched the TAAG in 2005. It now has 77 members from primary to tertiary levels.”

“ The objectives of the organisation are to:

• Advocate for sensitisation on HIV and AIDS workplace policies for the teaching sector.
• Enable infected teachers to obtain formal and non-formal education.
• Get a voice as a group on the issues that concern HIV-positive teachers.
• Network with others to access medical care and support.
• Solicit support for children living with HIV and AIDS in schools.
• Advocate for psychosocial support of teachers and those infected by HIV
• Encourage teachers to organise their employment files to facilitate pensions and gratuity assessments when the need arises

“ People need support socially, professionally and psychologically. HIV positive teachers have these same needs. Striking teachers off the payroll makes the situation worse as they lose access to this support and suffer from additional stress.

HIV positive teachers can live a normal life when they feel that they can open up and have nothing to hide. The biggest challenge is that many do not see a reason to open up. We try to emphasise the personal gain of opening up and living in a freer environment.

In case you are suffering, know that you are not alone. There are others who are struggling. Likewise being HIV positive does not mean that you have come to the end of your life.

You can live positively and for longer if you are positive about your own status (accepting, following medical advice, seeking support). With one voice we can seek support. Self pity is the worst attitude.

Take heart and reach out to others. ”

With thanks to Scott Pulizzi of the Education Development Center for conducting this interview