Girls’ education - a lethal blow to Aids

by Ann Cotton, Camfed founder and executive director

Angeline Mugwendere, 26, fears that almost half of her classmates from primary school in rural Zimbabwe are HIV positive by now. Some of her fellow pupils have already died from related illnesses.

The statistics are chilling. Across Zimbabwe, more than 3,000 people die each week from AIDS. The official HIV infection rate is one in four. That rate is far higher in the desperately poor rural areas, where life expectancy for women is just 34. (more…)