In the time it takes you to listen to this report, 10 to 15 Africans will be infected with the HIV virus. A program this week at Iowa State University aims to slow that rate. Four African women professors have been in Ames this week for a leadership program dealing with the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa. The International Women in Science and Engineering Program at Iowa State — they call it IWISE — is teaming up with eight universities in Africa to help women professors and researchers there do community outreach. Ardith Maney is co-director of the IWISE program at Iowa State. She says they’re trying to help them develop leadership skills to bring about community betterment.Maney says the reality of the AIDS epidemic is hitting everyone.Debra Meyer, a professor at South Africa’s Rand Afrikaans University in Johannesburg, says Africans have prevention information, it’s just difficult to get them to put it to use. She says some cultural practices in Africa interfere with HIV/AIDS prevention practices.As part of the continuing linkage with eight African Universities, a group of I-S-U professors will make a trip to Nairobi, Kenya this December for another session. South Africa alone contributes to 80 percent of the world’s new HIV infections every year.
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