Tijuana, a city of 1.2 million people, is located amidst the busiest land border crossing in the world. Commerce, employment, migration and tourism bring a constant flow of millions back and forth across the border each year, and with the multitudes of people come a multitude of issues. One of the most serious issues is a growing HIV infection rate in the Tijuana border region that is estimated to be three times higher than Mexico's national average.
There a many factors contributing to the spread of AIDS in Tijuana, including a booming sex tourism industry – a business being fueled affordable prostitution rates and Americans willing to pay good money for services and will pay more if not required to wear a condom.
A study published last year by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine indicated that the rate of HIV/AIDS infections in Tijuana, Mexico are increasing and numbers are much higher than had been previously estimated.
According to the study, the number of men and women aged 15 to 49 years who are infected with HIV may be as high as one in 125 persons – a dramatic increase from 20 years ago. In turn, infection rates on the San Diego County side of the border are spiking as well.
San Diego County currently ranks third highest in the state of California for HIV infections, trailing only behind Los Angeles and San Francisco. As of October 2007, the California Department of Health Services found over 13,000 people infected with HIV/AIDS in San Diego.

Saturday, December 1st is World AIDS Day. In recognition of this annual event, here are a few things YOU can do to help fight this global epidemic:

> Be a part of the solution! Volunteer with PCI on December 1st at the San Ysidro-Mexico border port of entry as we raise HIV/AIDS awareness in our region.
> Educate yourself about the ever-present dangers of HIV/AIDS and understand that no person or region is immune from this disease.
> Talk to your partner, children, younger siblings, or other young people in your life, about the dangers of HIV/AIDS and methods of prevention (using condoms, avoiding illegal drugs).
> Learn more about PCI’s HIV/AIDS programs in Africa and India.
> Urge your government representatives to support HIV/AIDS eradication programs.
> Get tested.

Hernando de Soto is a revolutionary economist who is helping impoverished communities worldwide rise out of financial struggle. Recipient of Project Concern International’s 2007 Humanitarian Award, de Soto is the founder of Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD) in Lima, Peru. Time magazine included de Soto as one of the five leading Latin American innovators of the century and among the 100 most influential people in the world. In his award acceptance letter, de Soto shared the following:
"[The people who work for me see]…the economic potential in the shantytowns of Lima and every other city we work in, and thus the opportunity to really change the world – where two thirds of the people, four billion of them, are stuck in poverty. They share with me a love of the challenge of helping poor and struggling countries make the transition to modern, market economies – and convincing their Governments (and the US Government in Washington and non-profit organizations like Project Concern International) that the poor are not the problem, but the solution.
Over the past 25 years, what we at the ILD have discovered is that there is a large constituency for change in developing countries. They’re called the "poor," and what we’ve revealed about these people is that they wouldn’t survive at all if they weren’t hardworking, clever entrepreneurs. They have assets in the form of houses, property, and small businesses. But they need something else to prosper – i.e. the same legal tools that rich nations (and country elites) take for granted: property rights, legal ways to organize their businesses productively, and mechanisms to operate in expanded markets outside the confines of family and friends.
No matter what populist and anti-globalization leaders might say, we know that these entrepreneurs are eager to take their place in their national and then international markets, because, even though costly bureaucracies and just plain bad law keeps them from these legal tools, they replicate them in their underground economies: informal property titles, contracts, wills, credit – all in an effort to do business and protect their assets. But these "extralegal" practices are inadequate.
What the ILD does is to identify the bad laws and the good extralegal practices, and then help Governments make the kind of institutional reforms that will engineer an inclusive market economy under a single rule of law. That’s the only way it can be done, and the good news is that it has been done before – in Europe, the
U.S., and Japan, for example, when these were still developing countries full of migrants, squatters, and peasants trying to make a better life for their families."

Four Ways to Improve the Fight Against AIDS

"Hunger can drive decent people to take terrible risks"

Walleligne Beriye

On October 9th, Project Concern went to Washington. Well, to be fair, PCI is always in Washington. We have a fully staffed office in our nation’s capital, working closely with government officials to promote the important work we do around the world. Earlier this month, however, one of our staff had the opportunity to participate in a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee Hearing on Africa and Global Health.
Entitled "The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR): Is It Fulfilling the Nutrition and Food Security Needs of People Living with HIV/AIDS?," the hearing was conducted with a full audience and broadcasted nationally on C-SPAN. Participating in the hearing was Project Concern’s own Walleligne Beriye, Country Director for our program in Ethiopia.
Walleligne delivered powerful testimony, describing his personal experiences working to help families struggling with HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia. Adults that are HIV positive, Walleligne explained, can require up to 30% more food than a healthy individual. Moreover, children suffering from this disease might need twice as much food as a healthy child. HIV positive adults who are malnourished when they begin receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) are six times more likely to die after received treatment than a person receiving adequate nutrition. Thus, the effectiveness of ART is greatly diminished if the person is malnourished.
Working on the frontlines in Ethiopia, Walleligne has seen firsthand the effects of malnourishment on communities with HIV/AIDS. For example, women who are starving are more likely to engage in prostitution, further spreading the virus. Ensuring people suffering from HIV/AIDS have adequate access to food is of a key tool in preventing desperate and risky behavior.
Walleligne suggested four ways to increase food security and thus improve drug-effectiveness in the fight against HIV/AIDS:
1. Expand food programs in schools and orphanages
2. Provide meals at centers where pregnant women go for counseling and testing; these women will most likely return again.
3. Expanding food programs at treatment centers.
4. Creating economic opportunities by supporting gardens, farms, and collective businesses owned by HIV positive individuals.
The continuous danger presented by the combination of HIV/AIDS and hunger is always present, it never sleeps or takes an extended vacation. Shortly after giving his testimony, Walleligne returned to Ethiopia to once again take his post on the frontlines of this ongoing struggle.