Despite numerous success stories, especially from wealthier Western nations, the HIV virus continues to spread in many African countries. Treatment, however, has improved significantly compared to the early years of the epidemic. Today, antiretroviral therapy (ART) typically requires only one dose daily, and with early treatment, a good life expectancy can be expected. Unfortunately, this is not the case in sub-Saharan Africa. Out of fear, many forgo the necessary treatment. In a research project in South Africa, Uganda, and Kenya, HIV patients are receiving a new antiretroviral drug, administered twice a year, which can completely prevent transmission of the virus. According to UNAIDS, 39 million people worldwide were living with HIV in 2022. 1.3 million people were newly infected that same year, and 630,000 died from AIDS-related causes (source: Professor Dr. J. Rockstroh, 2024). UNAIDS, the WHO, and many NGOs identify three serious problems that make the fight against HIV particularly difficult: 1. The medications offered after an HIV infection are simply too expensive. Here, the profit-driven interests of the pharmaceutical industry clash with the poverty of the affected African population. Free healthcare or health insurance is unaffordable in most countries. Consequently, many infected individuals cannot afford the medication. 2. In many African countries shaped by fundamentalist Islamic or Christian moral values, restrictive prejudices prevail. Those infected are stigmatized, excluded from public life, and often even attacked. Many affected individuals therefore retreat to the slums of large cities to escape physical persecution. Public attacks, evictions, exclusion from education, and physical violence, even manslaughter, are a harsh reality in many regions. This leads to many people not seeking screenings or treatment, and HIV continues to spread. 3. The prevailing opinion in many fundamentalist circles is: "Only gays, lesbians, or particularly bad people get AIDS." Therefore, neither information nor education is provided about the HIV virus, the risk of infection, and how to prevent it. According to this mostly religious popular opinion, there is no danger for "good people." This leads to new infections and deaths continuing unchecked. Furthermore, infections are already occurring in the womb. In our projects, an increasing number of infected individuals are emerging, and we are trying to cover the costs of antiretroviral treatment, approximately €35 per six months, through sponsorships. Especially at our Riverside vocational training center in Kenya, many young people are waiting for help to stabilize their lives with these vital medications and complete their vocational training. Our help can save lives! "We fight the disease, not the infected!" (Rita Süssmuth) TRG 7/24 Links to further information: antiretroviral HIV treatment, safe sex despite HIV, World AIDS Conference in Munich, Green-Ocean eV
Health and nutrition
Project Pizza oven
The first step in building our Pizza oven is to built a sturdy table for it. It has to carry the weight of the Pizza oven und should be very stable and heavy.
You start with two brick walls, 140 cm (outside) distance from each other. The two walls have to be parallel and 160 cm long, each. The used bricks can be of the red, clay, type or concrete blocks. Important is, that the surface of the walls is even and smooth - it will be visible!
Outside measurements (see drawings) are 160 cm deep and 140 cm wide, outside. The thickness of the walls is unimportant, but it has to carry the weight. A single layer of brick should do it.
On top of the 2 walls you place two wooden beams, sturdy enough to carry the wooden bottom of the concrete plate on top. The space in between the two walls you cover with boards – so you can pure concrete on it to build the table top.
On the outside of the table top you have to build a wooden mold for the concrete table top.
Attention, the top of this wooden mold has to be level ... it will be the table top, where you build your pizza oven.
Inside this wooden mold, the boards you have between the walls (on top of the two beams) and the walls, you now place a wire mesh (5 by 5 cm) to stop the concrete plate from cracking. It is our metal reinforcement. Attention, you have to lay it on small bits of bricks, so it will be placed in the middle of the table plate, and not on its bottom.
Now pure concrete in the mold and fill it up. It should have a strength of 10 cm, and be perfectly level.
Allow a minimum of 24 hours to dry, before putting weight on top.
Next step is the wooden mold for our Pizza oven. You build it from wooden boards. The quality of wood is not important, it only serves as a mold and will be burned in the end.
You see in the drawing, that the mold for the inner space of the Pizza oven is 1320 cm deep, 100 cm wide, and 80 cm high. It has an opening of 40 by 40 cm in the front. The top is smaller than its base, so it is easier to cover with clay and bricks.
On the top of the wooden mold you have to place a pipe, which will fit inside your future stove pipe. It should be somewhere around 15 to 20 cm in diameter. Make sure you will be able to get a thin stove pipe to fit above it, for later on!
Like I said, this wooden construction will only serve as a mold. It doesn't have to be nice, just straight and level.
Now you get clay - like the one used for burning red bricks. You mix it with water and sand, so you get the right consistency so you can cover the entire wooden mold with a layer of 8 cm of clay. It has to be pressed tightly on the wood, so it doesn't move or slide off the mold. The stove pipe on top will be half embedded in the clay.
The outside of your mold should now be nicely smooth. Allow it to dry overnight.
The inside of your oven, the concrete plate, you cover 5 cm with clay - just to protect it and stop it from cracking.
The clay should have slightly dried. Now you paint it with a mixture of water and cement. You use as much water as cement.
This is done to harden the outside of our clay, and to prepare a good connection of the clay and the f following cement and bricklayer.
It has to soak in, but you don't have to let it try, before continuing.
Now you start to cover the clay with red bricks. Make sure to place each brick on a bed of concrete. Make sure you have an even space between each brick - of about 1 cm. Let each brick overlap the bottom brick by half . Work clean, because this brick wall will be visible.
Also make sure that you have minimum 2 cm concrete between the bricks and the clay. There has to be a good connection for its stability. All four sides are covered with bricks and the corners have to interlock.
The sides should lean towards the middle ... this way it’s easier to lay the clay and later the bricks ... of course the front door to the inside of the oven (40 by 40 cm) is not bricked up ... Its left open. Its edges and corners have to be nice and straight ... there will be a door, but the corners will be visible.
Once the brickwork is done you have to check all seems between the bricks. Add concrete, if necessary. Make sure all seems are looking nice and all spaces are filled with concrete.
The Stove pipe on top has to be surrounded by concrete.
For the door, to close the front opening of the stove, you have to include metal hinges in the brick and concrete ... don’t forget!
Now you allow the construction to dry for 3 days. You can use the time to fix the stove pipe. It has to be at least 2 meters long and should be higher that the nearest building. Make sure to have the okay of the owner. The stove pipe has to be securely fastened to the walls, so the wind cannot move it.
After three days drying, you start to fire up your pizza oven. You use a small fire of charcoal and let it burn for 2 days. Small fire ... the stove has to dry slowly, or it will crack! 3rd day you start a bigger charcoal fire. Let it cover the entire bottom of the stove, but keep from the wood. At the end of the day you add some pieces of wood to the charcoal.
4th day you start a charcoal fire and add wood to it. Make the fire big enough, so the inside wooden mold will start to burn. With this fire the clay should fully dry and burn red. During this last fire you have to close the front opening with a metal door.
The door you should have built by a mechanic and add the hinges while you lay the bricks.
You should be advice of a professional bricklayer.
HIV and AIDS are on the rise again in large parts of Africa
Modern Times - Traditional Cuisine - African Cuisine Remembers!
During my travels in Africa, experiencing Africa and its diverse cuisine was always a highlight.
It was a culinary masterpiece to witness the preparation of the most delicious dishes from various local ingredients. Unfortunately, many of these typical products are disappearing. They are no longer cultivated, and their preparation methods are being forgotten. Rice, palm oil, and chili peppers now form the basis of the diet in many places. They are expensive to import and, for many, not even well-tolerated. Many district nurses and doctors agree: they report a steep increase in gastrointestinal illnesses.
Where have all the typical African products gone? Cassava, millet, plantains, roots and vegetables?
We would like to ask for your help.
We're looking for recipes and information about traditional dishes. Please post them here as a comment! This way we can exchange information, counteract the loss of traditions, and make our diet more interesting and wholesome. Please ask your older relatives for help. Best regards, Hellmut
How about a barbecue today? New paths only emerge when you walk them!
Nine billion people – how will everyone be fed? Everyone has heard this question, but proposed solutions are being implemented only hesitantly. With the slowly increasing prosperity in emerging economies and some developing countries, the demand for meat and animal protein is also rising.
However, raising cattle, pigs, sheep, and poultry requires a lot of land, water, and energy. From an ecological and economic perspective, it would be more sensible to eat insects or use them as animal feed (for pig or poultry farming) – which is already common practice in many tropical countries!
Caterpillars, beetles, and crickets provide valuable proteins and nutrients at low production costs for both humans and the environment. Insects are often even considered a delicacy – in Uganda, a kilogram of grasshoppers currently costs around 40% more than a kilogram of beef.
The learned and ingrained aversion to insects as food, supplement, or animal feed could be overcome - 2 billion people, more than a quarter of the world's population, already eat insects, but the preference of the Western world, as portrayed in the media, is now lowering the willingness to eat insects in developing countries.
This resistance could also be overcome by processing insects into powder or paste. Insects can be preserved by drying. As a consumer, you can no longer tell from fish sticks that they were originally made from fish... Protein-rich insect meal could therefore soon reach the Western market.
Ten kilograms of feed yields varying amounts of meat. Crickets are around 12 times more efficient than cows and contain similar amounts of fat and protein to our conventional meats. However, insect production generates fewer greenhouse gases and uses less land. Since flies and beetle larvae convert organic waste into high-quality protein, which can then be used as animal feed, a simple and highly effective circular economy is made possible.
Food products made from or containing insects can satisfy the world's growing demand for protein at low prices and with minimal environmental impact. Producing meat and fish products is becoming increasingly expensive, which is driving the search for insect-based food alternatives. Even today, in the Western world, insects are an ingredient in many medications and cosmetics, and they are also used to flavor spirits.
SQUARE 8/23
If insects could be used as feed or food for them, we would like to learn more about their ideas and perhaps their project in order to better support them.
You can also find more information on Facebook.