I figured that it was high time that I filled you all in on some of the work that I´m doing here (life in Maputo isn´t all cervajas and chapas you know!!). This morning marked the beginning of a four day conferance that MMF-MEDA was organizing here in Maputo on "microfinance tools for confroting the HIV/AIDS crisis in mozambique." This workshop really could not have been more topical for my research project and I was very excited to meet some of the excutive members of the microfinance banks and members of the Mozambican government that would be attending the workshop. We have participants from all over Mozambique as well as Angola, Zambia and South Africa. Over the past two weeks, much of the work at the MMF office has been spent preparign for this conferance (including some late nights on Saturday and Sunday!!).

We´re holding the event at the Kaya Kwanga (which is sort of like the Mozambican Club Med). After a greeting from a representative of the Mozambican Central Bank and the Canadian High Commission, we got down to business. We started off by comparing two microfinance institutions (MFIs) that took differant approaches to the HIV/AIDS crisis...one that ignored the problem and saw it´s default rates and client drop out rates skyrocket, and the other that adjusted it´s programming to meet the financial demands of their HIV impacted client base. It was very interesting to see how the participants reacted to these scenarios while sharring ideas with each other over how MFIs can play a better role in confronting the AIDS pandemic in this country.

We then has a presentation by a Mozambican doctor on the facts and myths behind HIV/AIDS. The problem with a lot of rural communities in Africa is that they have a severe lack of reliable information on the disease and as a result a lot of urban myths are allowed to circulate. For example: AIDS is God´s punishment for sinners, one can cure themselves of AIDS by having sex with a virgin, or having sex with a condom actually increases one´s chance of getting the virus. There is so much stigma attached to HIV/AIDS in many places of Mozambique that many people refuse to talk about the virus and how it is passed on. This conferance is great because it is getting people within the microfiance sector to confront the facts head on and come up with financial solutions to confront the problem. Mozambique currently has a 16% infection rate that is rising steadily. In the central part of the country, a hot spot for infected miners, truck drivers and sex trade workers, the rate is much higher...one out of four people have HIV/AIDS. This is the reality that faces the country and it is quite an experience to be a part of a conferance where the participants are serious about finding practical answers to this tragic problem.