Return to Transcripts main page

INSIDE AFRICA

Is Foreign Aid Right Solution to Africa`s Problems?; Zambian Initiative Secures Better Future for AIDS Orphans; Woman Opens Preschool for Kids With Special Needs in Egypt

Aired June 122, 2005 - 12:30:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TUMI MAKGABO, HOST (voice-over): With the G-8 summit looming, Tony Blair is working to gain support for his African rescue effort, but even with that support, will it be the right solution for Africa?

Ordinary citizens are taking matters into their own hands. How a Zambian initiative is securing a better future for street children and AIDS orphans.

While in Egypt, cultural taboos are being broken, bringing quality education to children with disability.

And a woman's journey around the world and one community's response to her pleas.

All this and more coming up on this edition of INSIDE AFRICA.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MAKGABO: Hello, and welcome to the program. I'm Tumi Makgabo. Africa got a lot of attention this week in the international media as British Prime Minister Tony Blair pushed his Africa agenda. The G-8 summit is next month, and Mr. Blair appears to be going full force to get support for his ambitious plan to, as some put it, rescue Africa.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It seemed an uphill task for Tony Blair, convincing G-8 members to go along with his plan to rid Africa of poverty. But already it appears to be making headway.

GORDON BROWN, CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER: I can confirm that the G-8 finance ministers have agreed 100 percent debt cancellation for the heavily indebted poor countries. We published today the plan, which will go before IMF shareholders and World Bank shareholders, and with agreement from them, 40 billion pounds of debt owed by the poorest countries will be written off immediately.

CHURCH: Earlier this week, Blair won support for the debt cancellation plan from his ally, U.S. President George W. Bush, but the initiative is not welcomed by all Africans.

DR. ATODELE TARIBIA, ECONOMIC ANALYST: They're not talking about the economics of the debt. They're talking about some prime minister who wants to be benevolent, so African continent (ph) is fast becoming new campaign (INAUDIBLE). It's short-sightedness (INAUDIBLE) through debt forgiveness. It's like you're leaving permanent damage on the image of the country, and I think we should drop these (INAUDIBLE).

CHURCH: The British prime minister also wants G-8 nations to increase aid to Africa to $50 billion over the next 10 years. In March, a commission appointed by Mr. Blair, released a 500-page report, seen by some as a rescue plan for Africa. Back then, some analysts dismissed the plan, calling it a slap in the face for African leaders who have their own recovery plan, the New Partnership for Africa's Development, or NPAD.

DAVID NDII, KENYAN LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE: Africans themselves are the ones who are bringing up those issues. They don't want corrupt governments. They are protesting, they are participating, they are actively engaged in changing the governance of their countries. They don't need to be told. They know.

CHURCH: Some anti-poverty activists say talk of liberating Africa from its poverty is nothing new. African leaders raised the issue at nearly every G-8 gathering over the last three years, as they campaigned for support for NPAD.

In 2002, the group of eight pledged to work as partners with African leaders in ending poverty. Critics say wealthy nations have been slow in fulfilling pledges made over the years. Many are watching to see if things will be any different this time around.

Rosemary Church, INSIDE AFRICA.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MAKGABO: Well, as you've just heard, Mr. Blair is calling for increased aid to Africa, and the United States is offering an addition $674 million, but some argue that aid is not what Africa needs. Instead, they say, increased investment is a better alternative, as Robyn Curnow reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREW RUGASIRA, RWENZORI COFFEE COMPANY: Grown in Africa, processed by Africans, traded by Africans, promoted by Africans, owned by Africans.

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ugandan businessman Andrew Rugasira is in London to promote his pure African coffee. By the end of June, it will be on sale in over 150 supermarkets across the country.

RUGASIRA: This is real African, good African coffee.

CURNOW: In addition to selling his coffee in the U.K., Rugasira has also found himself marketing Africa's business potential.

RUGASIRA: It's critical that the world views African businesspeople as people who are interested in helping themselves and not seeking handouts.

CURNOW: This Sierra Leone investment forum in London is an example of how Africans are helping themselves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's more natural fit (ph) for small business...

CURNOW: These Sierra Leonian expatriates debating ways to stimulate the economy back home. Victor Mengot is one of the organizers.

VICTOR MENGOT, SIERRA LEONE INVESTMENT FORUM: We don't want Africans to come with a begging bowl. We want Africa to work with the West as equal partners. This is what we have, this is how we can contribute, this is what you have, this is what you can give back to us.

CURNOW: Business consultant Magnus Cole believes more expatriate Africans need to invest in the continent.

MAGNUS COLE, BUSINESS CONSULTANT: Wealth creation is very crucial to development. Wealth has to be created and sustained.

CURNOW: The wealth of Sierra Leone, its diamonds and other natural resources, has in the past been exploited. Local people and thus local economies missing out on a share of the spoils, but since the end of the civil war in 2002, foreign investment is being encouraged.

American Joseph James has invested in a USAID program to stabilize the diamond trade, financing diamond-mining companies and cooperatives in the Kano region.

JOSEPH JAMES, CEO, KANO'S HOPE: We are creating a new product, in a way. Some might call it a peace diamond, but it's a diamond that is really offering fair returns to those who dig them: Honesty and openness in the way that they're being both found and sold.

CURNOW: Joseph James is not doing this for nothing. He expects handsome returns on his investments.

(on camera): Trade, not aid is what many of these African investors are trumpeting. They say that breaking down trade barriers and encouraging business is the only way to break the cycle of dependency between much of Africa and the West.

Robyn Curnow, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MAKGABO: And time now for us to take a break. Still ahead on the program, a look at Africa's recovery through the eyes of an analyst.

And the Children's Town in Zambia that's providing hope for tomorrow. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MAKGABO: Welcome back. So British Prime Minister Tony Blair wants to write off Africa's debt, increase aid to the continent and help promote trade, but will he get the support he needs of his G-8 colleagues? Earlier, we asked South African analyst Chris Landsberg for his perspective.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LANDSBERG, SOUTH AFRICAN ANALYST: In fact, I think on debt relief, we have reasons to be very encouraged and hopeful, but I think the problem with this week's meeting and meetings before this, and I'm led to believe that even meetings to come is that we're not seeing this role or process as part of a package. It's almost as Mark Malloch Brown said, it's almost treated like an a la carte menu, where governments like the U.S. and others just pick and choose.

So I think that's a problem. For example, there is too much emphasis on aid and not enough emphasis on the others.

MAKGABO: The U.S. and Britain, it seems, have essentially agreed that they are willing to help provide aid for some 18 countries. Are we looking at a situation where even though it's expected that that agreement will come with conditionalities, that those conditions are realistic, one, and beneficial to the continent, two?

LANDSBERG: Tumi, I don't have a principle with conditionalities -- sorry, a problem with conditionalities in principle. I mean, I actually think it's good. Let me just give you an example. Even activists on the continent who have long been campaigning for debt relief, they should be concerned that we don't discuss enough just how do we keep African countries from falling back into debt.

Let me just give you a practical example. At the moment, Kenya is one of those countries which expects to benefit from debt relief, and yet as we're discussing debt relief to Kenya, Kenya is actually in the process of negotiating with both the World Bank and the IMF to take up new loans. So surely, you can't expect the World Bank and the IMF to engage in a write- off of current debt relief.

So here's the point. I don't have a principle with -- a problem with conditionalities in principle. The point is, are the Western industrial powers actually sitting down with developing countries and discussing those tough things, such as how do you prevent yourself from getting into debt? In fact, I would say this to you, that both aid and debt relief will not work for the continent unless the questions, as Tony Blair rightly said, of corruption and in particular governance.

MAKGABO: You mentioned earlier your concern that there was a lot of focus on aid and perhaps not enough on others. One very key issue being trade. Your thoughts on what might evolve from that, because it seems there is still a great reluctance to really significantly deal with that, particularly from Europe?

LANDSBERG: Oh, absolutely. In fact, in fact, the most contentious issue on trade are two-fold. One, will the Western powers open up their markets for African governments, African trading products? And I'm actually more hopeful, ironically, on that score.

But let me tell you what for me is the real problematic one. The -- the subsidies to the farming communities in Europe and the U.S. is more than the amount of debt relief, which Africa is seeking from the Western powers. The playing fields are just not open.

Secondly, if you're going to address those two issues, are you willing to say that to just willy-nilly open the markets on the part of African countries and resort to aggressive free trade? They actually need some cushions, they need some protection in the short term to adapt to these new realities.

And in fact, for me, one of the most critical challenges on the trade score, Tumi, on debt relief, on all of it is that when Trevor Manuel and other African finance ministers call for a voicing of the voiceless -- in other words, give some representation to Africa and other developing countries in the World Bank and IMF, it's not just because they want to be there at the table; it's precisely because they want to have a say and a stake in determining the policies that are, after all, carved out to help Africans development.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MAKGABO: That was analyst Chris Landsberg speaking with us earlier from Johannesburg.

Well, AIDS is often mentioned as one of the obstacles to Africa's development, but as the continent tries to remake itself, ordinary Africans are rising to the challenge and facing the crisis head on. In Zambia, for example, some citizens have joined forces to help AIDS orphans become productive citizens. Chandrika Narayan has that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHANDRIKA NARAYAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A message of hope from the official band of Zambia's Children's Town.

"Kids who live in the streets," the song goes, "do not live without hope."

And these kids have a reason to sing. The song is a reflection of their lives, having once been homeless themselves. Today, they are residents of Children's Town, in Zambia's Chibombo district, located some 100 kilometers northwest of the capital, Lusaka.

This is one of Zambia's answers to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country: A private initiative that caters to children who have been orphaned by the disease.

Moses Zulu is a project leader.

MOSES ZULU, CHILDREN'S TOWN PROJECT LEADER: If we won't assist Africa, we won't (INAUDIBLE), if we neglect the millions of HIV/AIDS orphans, we are talking of another epidemic.

NARAYAN: Zulu is passionate about his work. He started Children's Town in 1990, along with 10 other Zambians and one Danish citizen, making homes for hundreds of AIDS orphans over the years.

The children attend school in the town, and there are also vocational training centers, like this art workshop.

Brian and Musa, now college students, spent five years at Children's Town. Brian was rescued from the streets where he ended up after his parents died in the mid-'90s. Today, he is an art major.

Like Brian, music Major Musa Namasani credits Children's Town with changing his life. After his parents died, he began to smoke, steal and indulge in what he terms other bad habits. Now, he says, he's a different person.

MUSA NAMASANI, CHILDREN'S TOWN GRADUATE: I think this has changed my life. (INAUDIBLE).

NARAYAN: Today, Children's Town has 315 young residents, including Maria, who lost her mother when she was only eight months old. Her father died months later, and her uncle, who took her into his home, passed away when she was 8.

Since then, Children's Town is the only home she's known.

MARIA NGOMA, CHILDREN'S TOWN RESIDENT: I've learned how to take care of things. They taught me how to do many things, so life here is very wonderful.

NARAYAN: You won't hear the kids here say their parents died of AIDS. It's a social taboo to admit that. Hospitals here often list the cause of death for AIDS victims as malaria or other diseases. That makes it difficult to even determine how many AIDS orphans live in the country, but health agencies estimate that 60 percent of Zambia's orphans lost their parents to HIV/AIDS.

Children's Town has extended its services to nearby villages. It has an outreach program run by what it calls communities orphan committees. Here, project leader Moses Zulu is meeting with a committee in Tiki (ph) village. These are the people responsible for identifying orphans in the community and placing them in village homes. The kids attend nearby schools; their fees paid by Children's Town.

Zulu tells us there are more than 6,000 children in the outreach program. And to him, there is nothing more satisfying than helping these kids, something he calls an investment in Zambia's future.

ZULU: If we are going to have a better Zambia, if we are going to have a better way of living, this is the children that we invest in.

NARAYAN: Chandrika Narayan, for INSIDE AFRICA.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MAKGABO: And still to come when INSIDE AFRICA continues, more stories of Africans who are making a difference, beginning with a story of an academy in Egypt which gives equal opportunities to children with mental and physical disabilities.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MAKGABO: Hello again. Well, as you've already seen, world leaders are debating ways to help rid Africa of poverty. But Africans themselves are involved in projects that are helping to make a difference on the continent. In Egypt, Dina Abdel Wahab is one such person. She turned her personal experience into an adventure that's giving hope to parents of disabled children. Her story now from Shahira Amin. She's in Cairo.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHAHIRA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dina Abdel Wahab is the mother of an 8-year-old little boy, Ali, who has Down's syndrome.

DINA ABDEL WAHAB, FOUNDER, BABY ACADEMY: I wanted him to be part of the society. I wanted him to live independently, to have a life and not to be sheltered in a house or to be secluded in any way.

AMIN: After failing to find a preschool that would accept Ali, Dina decided to start her own. Not only to give her son the opportunity for an education, but to try and mainstream other children with special needs. She called it the Baby Academy.

WAHAB: I was absolutely convinced, if you want to talk about mainstreaming and if you want to talk about inclusion of children with special needs, you have to start at a very young age.

AMIN (on camera): Not only is there the difficulty of placement in public and private school, but special needs children are also often shunned in this society. Ignorance, lack of awareness and even fear are some of the reasons why many Egyptians turn their backs on those with disabilities.

(voice-over): When Dina's Baby Academy opened its doors five years ago to toddlers with special needs as well as normal children, some educators saw it as revolutionary, a whole new world opening up for these young people. A growing number of children are enrolling in Dina's preschool, so many in fact she opened a second location last year.

The preschools have been a learning experience for both children and grown-ups, parents and teachers alike.

HERMINE SOBHY, TEACHER AND PARENT: Experience of dealing with special needs children in Baby Academy has been an eye-opener for both me and my son. It has taught us to see disability in a new and different light.

AMIN: Seventy-five children have graduated from the Baby Academy the last five years, to join other schools across Egypt. Not a sizable number, but the preschool may be hoping to change Egyptian education and attitudes and prepare the society as a whole for the inclusion.

Dina's son, Ali, is now enrolled in a school for children beyond the age of preschoolers. His teacher is pleased with his progress.

UNA MULRENON, ALI'S TEACHER: I think he's done extremely well. When he first came into the classroom, he had to be helped with all his work, because he finds a bit of difficulty with motor control. But since he's arrived, he's now able to do writing by himself.

AMIN: The Baby Academy has paved the way for children like Ali, but until Egyptian law forces the inclusion of special needs children into all mainstream education, Dina is determined to continue what she has started.

For INSIDE AFRICA, Shahira Amin, Cairo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MAKGABO: And finally, we go to Burkina Faso, where one woman's global campaign has yielded positive results for the country's Dagara people. Sobonfu Somi traveled the world asking for help to provide safe drinking water for her village, and finally her call was answered by a young 17- year-old American. Danielle Elias has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOBONFU SOMI, AUTHOR: For me, water is everything, and without water, you know, there is no life.

DANIELLE ELIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are the simple yet deeply poignant words of author and teacher Sobonfu Somi. She grew up in Burkina Faso in West Africa, a desert-like country where the rains are hard to come by.

SOMI: It's a wonderful country, but it's also a very dry country, because it's a landlocked country, and most of it is in the Sahara desert. People don't really get a picture of it until they get there.

ELIAS: This year, Sobonfu took a group of Americans back to her country. This group, led by a 17-year-old high school student, Kristen Karinshak raised over $100,000 through two annual fund-raisers back in the U.S. to build filtered water wells in Burkina Faso.

SOMI: Look, I'm really coming with this group of people, and we are going to put some wells in. Now they start to panic, because they're going, now, where did you really get this money?

(LAUGHTER)

ELIAS: For more than a decade, Sobonfu has traveled throughout the U.S. and Europe, offering seminars on African culture, often telling stories of how people walk for miles every day just to get fresh water.

SOMI: You know, I always joke about it. I say, you know, I was supposed to be tall, because all my brothers are tall, but I'm short because I carried so much weight on my head.

KRISTEN KARINSHAK, VIRGINIA HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: When I met Sobonfu, she changed -- she opened my eyes to the world.

ELIAS: Kristen decided, what better way to raise money for Sobonfu's people than by walking. And called the fund-raiser walking for water.

SOMI: You're ready for a walk?

CROWD: Yeah!

SOMI: At first, when we had the walk for water last year, we collected (INAUDIBLE), I called my family and I said, go tell the villagers that we got money, and this is the amount. Everybody laughed at me. When we got there and they saw that these people really worked hard to fund- raise for these wells, and that they're seeing, it's not me, but it's all these people coming to help them, people were just in tears, they were just overwhelmed.

ELIAS: Now, the Dagara people combined this newfound drilling technology along with their village wisdom to reclaim their land and their rich culture.

KARINSHAK: It's amazing, because it's the hardest place to physically be, but it's emotionally, you never want to leave.

SOMI: My vision for life, if I really could make it the way I want it, after we get water, to really be able to preserve the wisdom we have.

Even among the poverty, the drought, the desperation and everything, there is something invaluable that you cannot replace with anything else.

ELIAS: Danielle Elias, INSIDE AFRICA, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MAKGABO: And that's our look INSIDE AFRICA for this week. I'm Tumi Makgabo. Thanks for watching.

END

TO ORDER VIDEOTAPES AND TRANSCRIPTS OF CNN INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMMING, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE THE SECURE ONLINE ORDER FROM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com