July 19, 2007

Swaziland princess involved in combating AIDS epidemic to visit Purdue

Princess Ncengenencenge Dlamini will have a series of meetings with Purdue faculty and administrators throughout the day.

Purdue has several engagement initiatives being planned with Swaziland, said Gilbert Rochon, associate vice president for collaborative research in the Office of Information Technology at Purdue. He also is director for the Purdue Terrestrial Observatory.

"The terrestrial observatory plans to work with counterparts in Swaziland to help support their preparedness for emergency humanitarian efforts on an array of natural and man-made disasters," Rochon said. "The initial emphasis will be on monitoring drought conditions and infectious disease vector habitat."

Dlamini will be accompanied on her visit to Purdue by Cynthia Prime, president of the Indianapolis-based Seeds of Hope Outreach, a nonprofit organization devoted to improving the lives, health, nutrition, education and future prospects for children in Africa who were orphaned as a result of HIV/AIDS, and their elderly caregivers.

Prime said some 120,000 children have been orphaned as a result of the deaths of their parents from AIDS.

According to a U.S. government Web site, USAID - From the American People, the HIV/AIDS rate in Swaziland is 38.6 percent, second only to Botswana. About 50 percent of the country's children have lost one or both parents to the disease, and 60 percent of the hospital admissions are due to HIV/AIDS-related illnesses.

Purdue is part of Seeds of Hope Outreach's network that is working to alleviate suffering there, Prime said.

Dlamini's own organization has taken on the financial responsibility for 200 orphaned children.

Representatives of Purdue's Cytometry for Life program, including its director, J. Paul Robinson, and research coordinators Hildred Rochon and Lova Rakotomalala, traveled throughout Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. Their mission was to ascertain the specific need and implementation constraints for a low-cost, portable, battery-operated T-cell testing device to be used for HIV/AIDS testing in rural areas within Africa. Swaziland is a prime candidate to be among the first countries to benefit from this. Such testing and ongoing monitoring is a prerequisite for effective anti-retroviral treatment.

Purdue's College of Agriculture and School of Veterinary Medicine also are teaming with Seeds of Hope Outreach and counterparts in Swaziland to address food security issues, sustainable agriculture, poverty reduction, animal production and zoonotic disease epidemiology initiatives in Swaziland, according to Abdelfatah Nour and James Lowenberg-Deboer, directors of international programs in veterinary medicine and in agriculture, respectively. It is anticipated that study abroad programs for Purdue students in Swaziland and graduate school opportunities at Purdue for Swazi students will ultimately accompany joint research projects between Purdue faculty and their counterparts at the University of Swaziland.

Purdue's College of Liberal Arts' Department of Communication also continues to be involved by producing video documentaries on the work of Seeds of Hope Outreach in Swaziland and Lesotho on the need for implementation of Purdue's Cytometry for Life program in Nigeria, Swaziland and throughout Southern Africa.

Writer: Jim Bush (765) 494-2077, jsbush@purdue.edu

Source: Gilbert Rochon (765) 496-2274, rochon@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

To the News Service home page