Health and Water

: Mural in the Raphaela Secondary School in Orange Farm close to Johannesburg, South Africa, where GEZA operates a HIV- prevention project

The dimension of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is dramatic: more than 25 years after the detection of the virus and despite intensive efforts to fight against it, the disease spreads faster than ever.

Particularly sub- Saharan Africa is affected: two-thirds of all HIV- infected persons (more than 20 million people) live in this region where also 72% of the AIDS victims come from. Their children (about 11,4 million) grow up as orphans. By now, HIV/AIDS demands more victims in Africa than wars and famines altogether.

Particularly in developing countries, the rapid expansion of the virus is attributed to a plurality of factors. Alongside poverty and insufficient quality of persisting health systems, mainly lack of knowledge concerning transmission paths and prevention possibilities are crucial for the increasing number of infections.

Therefore, GEZA engages in education and prevention concerning the subject of HIV/AIDS. Currently, GEZA operates a HIV/AIDS project in South Africa while organizing events in Austria concerning this matter.