Out with the old, in with the new...

THANK YOU ICASA, THANK YOU ZIMBABWE, 

THANK YOU GLOBAL VILLAGE, 

THANK YOU SOUTHERN AFRICA TRUST AND ALBION!

Icasa Zimbabwe 2015 is over and it has been a week of intense debate, networking, meeting brave activists, organisations and academics.  A week of making new friends and plotting a way forward for the people who this conference is all about... the HIV Aids and STI affected people of the world.

The Hivos Daily News at Icasa

From the Reach Bulleting our very own e'Pap hero Nassio

ICASA 2015 ZIMBABWE - WORLD AIDS DAY - WORLD DISABILITY DAY

World Aids Day 2015 - Getting to zero; end Aids by 2030 was marked with demonstrations, workshops and great music at Icasa in Harare.  

The Condomise Stage at the Global Village

UNAIDS Director at the e'Pap Stand

Pepfar Ambassador Burke engages with
the HIV affected to hear their stories

A flashmob of HIV+ women celebrating their womanhood

 UNAIDS Executive Director opened the Community Village at ICASA and urged countries to leave no one behind in the response to HIV

From the UNAIDS Press Statement

On the eve of World AIDS Day 2015, the Executive Director of UNAIDS, Michel Sidibé, stressed the need to reach people most affected by HIV as he spoke at the opening of the Community Village at the 18th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA). 

Condom Fashion!

Mr Sidibé joined hundreds of civil society members, people living with and affected by HIV and other participants at the official opening of the Community Village, where he also underlined the importance of engaging key populations in global, national and local responses to HIV. 

“Key populations are helping us to break the conspiracy of silence,” said Mr Sidibe. “I commend your courage and leadership for building an inclusive and effective response to HIV.”

The Community Village provides a space for grassroots and community-based organizations to present innovative, local responses to the AIDS epidemic and to share information on programmes that are working best among their communities.

Health workers from Senegal to South Africa engage and share.

“Being here is an opportunity to stand in solidarity with African key populations—sex workers, men who have sex with men, women who have sex with women, trans-diverse persons, people who use drugs, people with disabilities and people living with HIV—in order to end AIDS,” said Regional Coordinator and Executive Director of the African Sex Workers Alliance, Daughtie Ogutu.

The knowledge shared in the Community Village is critical as the most marginalised in society continue to face the greatest challenges in accessing HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services. This is due in large part to persistent stigma and discrimination and other human rights violations, which are drastically increasing the vulnerability of key populations to HIV.

Icasa is the forum for rights for all

“Coming from a network of women living with HIV, this is a safe space to learn and share with fellow communities,” said Lilian Mworeko, Executive Director, International Community of Women Living with HIV East Africa. “It gives a voice to some of the issues and concerns we have and helps us find solutions.”

Ahead of the conference, UNAIDS joined representatives of key populations including people who inject drugs, gay men and other men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender people and people with disabilities who came together at a pre-conference meeting to discuss common challenges and approaches to advancing health and protection for their communities. The participants explored innovative programmes and solutions led by key populations to increase access to HIV services, monitor human rights violations, eliminate discrimination in health-care and other settings and create the leadership required for inclusive AIDS responses in Africa.

The 18th ICASA conference comes at a critical time in the response to HIV in Africa, as UNAIDS urges countries to Fast-Track their efforts over the next five years, focusing on the locations and populations most affected by HIV to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

ICASA 2015 AND WORLD DISABILITY DAY

The conference has also coincided with this auspicious day and disabled people from across Africa unite to end discrimination, share their right to sexuality and safe practices.

Icasa 2015 Zimbabwe in Harare and a Rhino Walk in Bulawayo - all in one weekend

e'Pap Technologies is very proud to be part of the largest international Conference on HIV and Aids this week in Harare.  We will be exhibiting at the Global Village so pop in to see us where you can get your e'Pap at wholesale price, buy some of the e'Pap recycled bags made by women from Gwanda and find out how e'Pap can help your community.

e'Pap would like to thank The Southern Africa Trust and Albion Minerals for their fantastic support in bringing the knowledge e'Pap has to share with the conference delegates, the Zimbabwe community and activists from around the world.  Their sponsorship allowed us to be at this incredible event.

At least 5 000 delegates from all over the world are expected in Zimbabwe for the I.C.A.S.A. conference which has attracted attention from various parts of the globe.

The seven-day conference, which will be officially opened by President Mugabe, will run under the theme “AIDS in Post 2015 Era: Linking Leadership, Science and Human Rights”.
The scientific programm would see a number of presentations on bio-medical advances, elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV, achieving the United Nations targets of ensuring that at least 90 percent of populations know their status.

The programm also aims at making sure that 90 percent of those who know their status have access to treatment and that at least 90 percent of those on treatment have their viral load suppressed by the year 2020.

The conference will also deliberate on Sexually Transmitted Diseases, including Ebola, in high risk populations such as commercial sex workers and hepatitis, among other topics.
The World Health Organisation is also expected to announce the new recommendations on treatment and management of people living with HIV and Aids.

The only patient in the world, who was “cured” of HIV, Mr Timothy Brown popularly known as the Berlin patient, is also expected to make a presentation at the conference. Mr Brown was “cured” of the HIV, but doctors and scientists are not sure if the virus was completely eradicated from his body or is in recession.

I.C.A.S.A. will also explore HIV issues affecting communities such as those in prisons, gays and lesbians, sex workers and people living with disabilities.


In line with community participation, Zimbabwe has also created a community village where issues to do with activism will be held.

AND A RHINO WALK THIS WEEKEND!

Sam Nkomo and e'Pap have long been working together in defence of the Rhino, with Sam having walked over 1000km in the past year to create awareness about this endangered species.

Sam started his walk in defence of rhino on the 28th November. The e'Pap Zimbabwe team will be serving breakfast to the walkers 5am the next day at the Matobo boat club. We will join him on the walk and also have our team meet him at Gifford. We wish them all a successful walk.

UNIVERSAL CHILDREN'S DAY - IF ONLY...

"The one thing all children have in common is their rights. Every child has the right to survive and thrive, to be educated, to be free from violence and abuse, to participate and to be heard. "

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

If only we could be celebrating a world where we were guaranteed that all children were receiving education, that they did not know the horror of violence and abuse and could participate freely and be heard.

  e'Pap is not just about selling food and making a profit, the overriding ethic of this organisation is to ensure that all people, and especially children, are enabled to grow, develop, learn and thrive with the critical foundation of a nutrient replete diet.  

Today, and every day we at e'Pap celebrate children.  But today is also a day to recognise and galvanise, the drought is real and affecting most of southern Zimbabwe and beyond.  Binga has always been ravaged by poverty and this is highlighted by VOA's report from the 18th November...

"The Ministry of Education recently reported that the number of school dropouts in the country is alarming as parents struggle to raise fees due to poverty.But in remote Binga district, Matabeleland North, parents say it is not only about school fees but hunger that has forced the majority of school-going children to pull out of school.

Speaking to Studio 7 in Muchesu, which is about 80 kilometres from Binga town, parents said the current drought in the area has forced their children to stay at home."

"Idah Sibanda, who has two school-going children that had to travel about seven kilometers to get to school, said she was forced to stop them from attending classes at Muchesu Primary School as they had no energy to walk to school and participate in classes.

“Here in Binga we have a big problem, that of the drought. We do not have food to feed our children and now they can no longer go to school because of the hunger. Last year we had too little rainfall and we did not harvest anything and our children do not have food,” said Sibanda."

 The recent UNICEF report EL NIÑO’S IMPACT ON CHILDREN: A WAKE-UP CALL  estimates that as many as 11 million children are at risk from hunger, disease and lack of water in parts of Eastern and Southern Africa as El Niño strengthens, threatening to undo gains in nutrition, health and education. This comes after a series of climatic shocks in 2014 and 2015 ruined harvests, leaving many children and their families dependent on food aid to survive in several countries in the region.  In Zimbabwe, the number of food-insecure people is expected to reach 1.5 million by the time the January-March “lean season” sets in.

Filling bellies with sterile carbohydrate will keep children alive, but what about the "Hidden Hunger"?  Without their micronutrients children will never reach their potential.  For as little as $2 a month children under the age of 6 can be helped with a bowl a day of e'Pap at school.  

If only we could give every child the right nutrition every day.  

Mine Entra at Zimbabwe International Trade Fair 2015

e'Pap Zimbabwe is looking forward to boosting the nation's mining force with a presence at Mine Entra from the 22 - 24 July.  

According the 2014 Global Nutrition Report  

"For every $1 spent on Nutrition at least $16 will be returned in economic benefits"

The stand is ready, and so is the team.

 

The Formulation Strategy Behind e’Pap

The main goal of e’Pap is to help create a nutrient replete human being, by addressing what has now become known as ‘hidden hunger’ (vitamin and mineral deficiencies).  One in three people in the world suffers from hidden hunger today.

Victims of low health, poverty and disease can begin to cope better with their own poverty and health challenges once they are ‘nutrient replete’, i.e. physically and mentally able human beings. In the case of highly malnourished poor people, the reality is that ‘part solutions’ are ineffective: people will remain dysfunctional if their nutritional deficits are increasing daily.

Our challenge was to innovate a nutrient-dense food matrix with the following qualities:

• Must contain the essential nutrients missing from the target groups’ diet

• Must be affordable, easy to use, palatable and culturally acceptable to target groups

• Must be presented as a single-step portion of real food (i.e. not a tablet)

• Must contain the most efficacious, food-state nutritional supplements available

• Must be carefully balanced so that nutrients do not ‘block’ or conflict with each other

Fyi here is a table with some of the micronutrients in e'Pap and some of the benefits of those vitamins and minerals...

 

Studying for exams - "It all starts with just a bowl of e'Pap"

Two students share why they eat e'Pap every day to get them through the stresses of student life.....

 Donna and her love of e'Pap

To hear what Donna has to say click on the link above

WHY I RECOMMEND E’PAP TO VARSITY STUDENTS

Dear Dr Basil Kransdorff 

The life of a Varsity student can be extremely stressful and demanding, from adapting to a new environment to keeping up with hectic work load of assignments and studying for an upcoming test or exam. This leads to students trying various kinds of ways to keep up with this new demanding lifestyle they have just entered into, from waking up early in the morning from a night of staying up late studying for a test and having to rush off to an early lecture.

So what could help students cope with all this? Well most students turn to energy drinks to increase their energy levels and to remain active during lectures. Some students even use expensive supplements to help them receive those needed nutrients which they need to expand their concentration during important lectures. These become heavily expensive to purchase to both the parents and students which leads to a number of things being cut out of monthly budgets in order to afford the essentials that an average student need to live a stress free varsity lifestyle. Some students even come across the problem of not having enough money to purchase enough food which would last for Semester or month which leads to them going back to their own accommodation/varsity Res without anything to eat or cook and that also contributes to fatigue and lack of concentration between lectures because of an empty stomach.

I believe that a healthy student achieves the best out of him/her selves as they work better and efficiently to achieve their goals through a healthy stress free lifestyle. 

How can a student achieve all this? Well I recommend a simple bowl of instant e’Pap a day. Why I recommend e’Pap? Simple, Because as a former varsity student I too went through all sorts of challenges that a student studying towards their career. e’Pap helped through these challenges as I had a hard time adapting to this new kind of lifestyle and at times couldn’t cope with the workload given to me by lectures and having to concentrate during lectures as I didn’t have the energy to concentrate after a night of studying or being busy with a stressful assignment. 

My mother soon started purchasing vitamin supplements which helped me when I had to study for upcoming exams but these soon ended being an extra expense. I soon started trying out e’Pap and had a bowl of it in the morning before going to school, I didn’t actually enjoy having instant porridge as a young boy as compared to having a bowl of Corn Flakes or Coco pops, I started realising that the vanilla flavoured e’Pap tasted so good and become an instant fan of in the morning before having to rush off for my morning early lectures. I then read the packaging and noticed that an adult had to take 4 table spoons which is equivalent to 50 grams per day, with this I soon saw results from this dosage as I went to all my morning lectures and still felt full by my midday break. This then meant that I didn’t have to buy lunch and used that time to go to the library and catch up on notes I missed in the previous lectures. 

I soon noticed that my concentration span grew and I didn’t find it hard to concentrate during lectures or when studying, I found that e’Pap increases your energy and concentration as it helps to addresses the body’s nutritional requirements such as iron. It also helps with fatigue which played a major role when I had to attend lectures in the morning and when coming home from a late lecture where you’re just exhausted and feel like sleeping or taking a nap. 

With taking e’Pap on a regular basis I also then refrained from drinking energy drinks which we all know have negative consequences which are created by refined sugar and caffeine. 

I believe e’Pap made my time in varsity a whole easier as it helped defeat a whole lot of challenges I experienced as a student studying towards my qualification and truly believe it would help a lot other students the same way it helped me. 

As young adults we all love following trends and need to start making wise decisions for ourselves whether popular or not and e’Pap proves that a healthy student achieves excellent results for their future careers and lives as young future adults and parents to the next generation which will be taught the same....IT ALL STARTS WITH JUST A BOWL OF “e’Pap.

With Kind Regards

Kagiso Lesejane