For more than 20 years, Dream has been promoting innovative treatment and health education on the African continent which are crucial to pursuing and maintaining peace.
On 24 January, the conference ‘Defeating HIV in Africa, an achievable goal’, promoted by the Community of Sant'Egidio, in collaboration with Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), will take place in the Parliamentary Groups Room. Participants will include the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, main stakeholders of the project and the Health Ministers from the countries where the DREAM operates. The meeting will provide an opportunity to discuss the programme's future challenges as well as to recollect its importance for Africa over the past 22 years.
DREAM: the story of a dream for peace in Africa
When the HIV virus began to spread in the 1990s, the countries of the global North managed to get out of the crisis relatively quickly, thanks to the massive spread of antiretroviral drugs. However, African countries were stuck, for a variety of reasons, to a prevention approach to the disease. It was a choice that, although economically advantageous, doomed millions of lives to death and social marginalisation. Roberto Morozzo della Rocca's book, La strage silenziosa (ed Laterza) addresses this in depth.
At that time, thanks to some medical researchers of the Community of Sant'Egidio, the DREAM project (‘Drug Resource Enhancement against AIDS and Malnutrition’) was developed. It proposed prevention and therapy, with an approach based on the principle of free treatment. The first DREAM centre opened in 2002 in Mozambique, where the wounds of the civil war were still visible, ended thanks to the 1992 Peace Agreement promoted by the Community of Sant'Egidio. Read more
Since then, other DREAM centres have opened in the following years, and are currently present in 10 African countries. Thanks to its effectiveness, DREAM has come to mean ‘Disease Relief through Excellent and Advanced Means’. These centres offer treatment even in rural areas, which are often lacking hospitals, not least thanks to the use of IT and technological support. In addition to treatment and prevention, health education courses are also of key importance. These courses help raise awareness about the disease, and show that being treated is not a privilege, but a right. The role of women is crucial in this process, as they play a leading role in raising awareness in communities and in assisting pregnant women.
Promoting the right to health also contributes to fostering peace. The DREAM programme helps create citizens who are more aware of their rights, spread a scientific culture and live healthier lives. This helps to create more united, supportive and committed communities, thus contributing to the building of solid institutions to which citizens feel they belong.
The conference
The conference ‘Defeating HIV in Africa, an achievable goal' will take place on 24 January in the Aula dei Gruppi Parlamentari in Rome.
Follow it in streaming on the Sant'Egidio Youtube channel
