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B8 - The Oakville Beaver, W ednesday December 8, 2004 FOUR FLOORS! Continued from page H5 'Intricate lace of horror and wonder' five people you see is HIV posi tive." Anti-retroviral medication is free in Malawi, said Rouleau, "and we're starting to see some positive effects among the peo ple, a better quality of life and longer life," but there's a catch. "The drugs may be free but the costs involved to access them - the cost of transporta tion - is high. People are dis pensing of their assets to access the drugs, they remove their kids from school, sell some of their pots and pans, and cloth ing. It's a thin line of poverty. "It's not easy for somebody in Malawi to show up at a clinic (to get the free drugs). A lot of peo ple in Malawi are sick and dying and cannot work. Human resources are quite thin in Malawi." Rouleau said when Dignitas came to Malawi, it proposed to hire one-third local staff and train them, but there weren't enough people available. "Dignitas wants to partner with Malawi and just parachute its own staff into the country," said Rouleau. "HIV/AIDS not only shortens life, it makes life harder as it takes away people's vitality and make them weak and tired." In Malawi, there is a strong feeling of community and the locals try to deal with the prob lem by helping each other out whenever possible, said Rouleau. "Neighbours check on each other...the community is quite mobilized." Although the drugs "go a long way to treat the HIV/AIDS epidemic,1 ' counseling and edu cation i£ needed to teach^iothers how to prevent passing the virus on to their children and how to stop sexually transmit ted diseases. "TVeating HIV/AIDS is actu ally about treating the people living with HIV/AIDS - it's more than just medication. "HIV/AIDS is a disease of poverty. It's (spread is) fueled when people don't have the financial resources to live prop erly. The same is true in Canada. You find HIV/AIDS among mar ginalized people. When you're dealing with HIV/AIDS, you also have to deal with poverty." In Canada, more than 50,000 Canadians have HIV, and an estimated 4,200 become infect ed annually, according to statis tics gathered by the DignitasAppleby Youth Initiative. About 15,000 Canadians aren't aware they have been infected with HIV, the student's Powerpoint presentation states. For more information, visit www.dignitasintemationaI.org. Gift Ideas & Home Accessories 217 Lakeshore Rd. E . (905) 844-3530 Downtown S w iss tints Jltd. · Oakvillefor over 50 years "Not facing the issue is what has caused the spread of this virus," said Simengwa Stigma is the biggest barrier to getting tested and treated for HIV/AIDS, as the disease is linked to promiscuity. The message to convince people that HIV/AIDS is not linked to promiscuity but can be passed on from a mother to her children or from blood transfusions, and to be tested and seek treatment, is best delivered via the church "-since 98 per cent of the people in Malawi belong to a certain faith," Simengwa said. Dr. Katherine Rouleau, a family physician associated with St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto and medical advisor to Dignitas International, had just returned from three weeks in Malawi and found the situation "overwhelming. The reality is a very intricate lace of horror and wonder." In her `good news, bad news' speech, she said "the numbers are staggering for AIDS/HIV" 40 million worldwide, 25 mil lion in Africa, and 12 million AIDS/HIV orphans. In Malawi, one-fifth of the population is HIV positive. 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