Click here to see Mary Donohoe on TV 3 Ireland AM show

Mary Donohoes message for World Aids Day: Help needed to address acute shortages of doctors and nurses providing health care for those living with HIV or AIDS in African countries.

Mary Donohoe founded The Rose Project five years ago.  In this time, over 6,000 mothers in East and Southern Africa have been tested for HIV and where neccessary, received treatment.  Despite this significant progress, The Rose Project faces continuing challenges in preventing mother to child transmission of HIV and delivering support to its 28 programmes.

Marys message on the eve of World Aids Day:  “The single biggest obstacle to providing healthcare to people living with HIV or AIDS in African countries, is the acute shortage of doctors and nurses. Countries in the Northern hemisphere, need to examine their policies in relation to recruitment of healthcare professionals from Developing countries and in addition, look for ways they can assist these countries in the  current crisis.”

All support and donations are appreciated.  Please check out Ways to Help on this website. Thank you.

Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV - World Aids Day 2008

The Rose Project has launched a multi-level media campaign this week to raise awareness of their work to prevent transmission of HIV from mother to child in East and Southern Africa.

This multilevel awareness campaign will raise the profile of The Rose Project and their new ‘Mother to Child’ campaign on World Aids Day 2008, using TV, press, radio and web.   The intent is to attract interest to contribute to The Rose Project by buying their new ‘Rose Project Giftwrap’, This will then fund access for 50,000 expectant mothers to antiretroviral treatment by 2010.

The media campaign will include radio and TV interviews with national broadcaster RTE, and media partner Newstalk.  Opinion pieces and interviews in press will raise awareness on key issues relating to HIV and AIDS in Eastern and Southern Africa.

The Rose Project welcomes interest from business, media, schools and most vitally, the public in support of its programmes.  A new website has been developed to launch around the time of World Aids Day 2008.  All visitors are encouraged to spend some time understanding the work of The Rose Project through project descriptions, video and photography, and to consider ‘New Ways to give’.  All support is appreciated.

The Rose Project has a group on Facebook. Join the group and keep informed about what we’re up to. Or if you’re a Twitterer, follow us on Twitter and we promise we’ll only give you good news!

Recent news from the Love and Hope programme, Nakuru Kenya - where Rose’s family continue to live. The Love and Hope programme was set up ten years ago by Patricia  Speight and Kenyan woman Genevieve  Ololo, a committed  humanitarian. In 2007 GOAL provided the team with a disused 40ft container and in 2007 a new community healthcare centre was funded by The Rose Project.

There are now 12 Kenyans providing the programme with Patricia. The centre has continued to expand its services over the past 10  years, reaching many people living with or affected by HIV or AIDS.

The Rose Project has also provided funding for food, drugs,  salaries and an ambulance – to try to reach patients in  the rural areas. The new Love and Hope Community healthcare centre has added to the programme. Due to the additional space, the centre has been able to expand its services and has started adding new programmes for  adolescents who have experienced sexual violence.

In the words of its Founder, Franciscan Missionary Sister for Africa, Patricia Speight:

The centre is working to capacity and at the moment is using the garage for additional space! Patricia also remarks on how it is so wonderful that patients can come to  the centre and be seen in privacy assuring their dignity.

In the recent ethnic violence in Nakuru the new centre provided sanctuary to more than 100 people - in some  cases, saving lives. In addition, many of the patients had their homes burnt down and fled Nakuru. For the patients this is very serious, as many are on active AIDS treatment and to discontinue or to have a break in  treatment puts the patients at risk. The team are working to ensure  those on treatment have access to it.

The 2008 Radharc Awards were presented at a lunchtime ceremony in The Davenport Hotel on Friday September 26th, hosted by Mary Kennedy.

The Overall Award was presented to Adrian McCarthy of Wildfire Films for AIDS in Africa – A missing generation.  This documentary tracks the work of The Rose Project and its founder Mary Donohoe in East Africa, and in Malawi in particular.

The Radharc Awards are presented to the producers of documentaries of outstanding quality which address national or international topics of social justice, morality or faith.  They honour the memory of the late Fr Joe Dunn, co-founder of Radharc Films.  There is no requirement that the documentary be of any specific religious adherence, but it should portray positive human values and should imply a challenge to the moral conscience of the kind that distinguished many of the Radharc films.

Background to the Radharc Films

The Radharc team was the first independent production unit making television programmes for broadcast on RTE, and made over 400 documentaries in 75 different countries on social and religious issues between 1961 and 1996. Radharc films won numerous national and international awards.

They became ‘part of the fabric of Irish television broadcasting’ and were popular with audiences and critics alike.  Production ceased in 1996 following the death of founder-director Fr Joe Dunn. Today the films are stored in the Archives of the Irish Film Institute and RTE.