Summertown or Carletonville?

I was under the impression that Summertown and Carletonville were the same place. Same project. Same outcome. Yet the picture painted by D'Adesky of this project is drastically different from the one depicted by Catherine Campbell in "Letting them Die."

D'Adesky touts the Carletonville AIDS project as a major success peer education programs, the intense focus on STI's, mass distributions of condoms, and high community involvement...She writes, "The PPT program's initial results were already encouraging in 2000." (p. 196)

I believe these are the same programs that Campbell describes here when she writes, "many of its proposed goals have yet to be implemented, consistent and widespread condom use remains low, and many project participants feel exhausted and demoralized." (Campbell, p. 185) As Campbell points out, condoms were distributed and sex workers, miners and youth were educated about proper use and importance but that didn't necessarily translate into condom use. Many sex workers would use them initially with a client, but as the relationship became more regular they discontinued use. Miners on the other hand experienced stressful and dangerous situations on the job daily, so whats one more risk.

Maybe in an attempt to gloss over the non-rosy realities of the situation, D'Adesky spends the remainder of the chapter discussing the role of business in HIV treatment/prevention programs. She encourages the emergence of big corporations into the global AIDS arena, and praises the work of businesses such as Heineken, Pfizer and Viacom for their financial contributions to the effort.

Again, here she seems to be living on a different planet than Campbell, who criticizes the lack of long-term commitment of the business community, as well as the lack of sustainability of the projects.

Who is right? I think both in a way. Campbell is overly critical of the business contribution to HIV programs. Money is too little, too slow, with too many strings attached. Yet there is much needed money coming in, and the concept of Corporate Responsibility is gaining strength. A conference on the role of big business in achieving the Millennium Development goals will be held this week, as politicians and corporations come together to highlight achievements and call for renewed support for humanitarian programs. And while I generally tend to agree with Campbell's more realistic version of SummerCarletonvilletown (?!) I think that D'Adesky does make a key point in this chapter; Treatment is the only short-term intervention for HIV available at this point. ARV's have allowed the AngloGold mine employees to return to work, reducing the loss of productivity that comes from sickness. This short-term intervention is exactly the short-term monitory support by businesses can provide. In fact, maybe that is the solution. Businesses can fund soley treatment programs, while governments and humanitarian organizations allocate their resources towards prevention programs.