Areas where the Global Fund should provide more guidance
On the issue of the Illiteracy Spectrum: If you permit me, I would like to add, that if our people aren’t educated on priorities and how their gifts/skills/funds and efforts can be channeled and maximized, this will be a wasted opportunity and we will not see results compared to the heartfelt effort. It is important that people understand the priorities so that we can work on the root cause in unison, instead of applying bandaids.
In the same vein, I would like to say that if the illiteracy spectrum that I referred to isn’t addressed, MDG # 6 will not be achieved. I can say that with a high degree of confidence and will not tone down this statement. This is a matter of do or die. Illiteracy, Functional Illiteracy and lack of functional literacy skills and competencies in varying degrees are all heavily loaded constructs and major contributors that fuel HIV/AIDS new infections & TB infections, transmission, lack of condom use, lack of adherence to drug regimens leading to drug resistance and is also responsible for people not being able to make critical decisions about their health -- how far this has deteriorated to the point where they have developed opportunistic diseases that are irreversable; however, some are actually preventable.
The illiteracy spectrum is also responsible for people ignoring sleeping under pyrethrine dipped bednets or selling the bednets and their medications for money to live on. This also explains why people buy fake drugs from Quacks and can't differentiate the real drugs from the fake ones because they can't read. This also explains why they seek the advice of witch doctors and traditional healers even though they are critically ill. Traditional peoples hold an a-scientific worldview that is spirit - originated. When you deal with matters of cause and effect (which are part and parcel of a Western scientific worldview) - for example: If you don't use protection by condomn you can become infected with STD's etc...this doesnt link up with their a-scientific worldview with other words their is incongruency...hence so many people don't use condoms...and the new infections go up.
I have educated the e-forum facilitators on this matter extensively and can't go extensively into that because I am in pain. I would like to request that there is a need for the GF to go into a health literacy e-forum since this has never been covered extensively and is most critical in solving the headaches of TB, HIV/AIDS and Malaria. We cannot continue putting the cart before the horse and use bandaids to fix programmes that are not delivering. Fenna E. Bacchus