OVC in Africa Conference - don't turn a blind eye

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Eating nutritional food, sleeping in warm beds and being sheltered in a safe environment are necessities and human rights which many children are not experiencing. With the recent up raw caused by the Union strikes more and more children are left without care placing them in vulnerable positions.

Don't turn a blind eye!

The OVC Africa Conference is providing a platform for discussion to assist orphans and vulnerable children with the increasing challenges they face. The Conference provides the opportunity to evaluate where we are in terms of assisting orphans and vulnerable children, making plans to increase our support to them and finally emphasising the need the act now!

The conference will be chaired by Dr Ashraf Grimwood, CEO at Kheth'Impilo and co-chaired by Dr Siobhan Crowley, Chief of Health & Nutrition at UNICEF South Africa as co-chair.

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The OVC in Africa Conference promises to be a great benefit to its participants, as the panel of plenary speakers include the following:

Dr Zosa De Sas Kropiwnicki Topic: Child Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation of Children across Boarders

Dr Zosa De Sas Kropiwnicki is the Research Manager for Health and Development Africa (Pty) Ltd. She was awarded a doctorate in International Development Studies at the University of Oxford, on the basis of her ethnographic research on adolescent female prostitution in Cape Town. She also has two Masters degrees in Political Science and International Development Studies awarded at Rhodes University and the University of Leeds respectively. Dr De Sas Kropiwnicki has designed and managed community-level, national and regional research projects to inform evidence-based policy and programming on issues pertaining to child abuse, exploitation and trafficking in South East Europe, Central Asia, Southern Africa and West Africa for international non-governmental organisations such as UNICEF, IOM, Save the Children UK, Save the Children Norway and USAID.

Dr Brian Eley Topic: Reducing Child Mortality ( MDG 4) - Progress made to 2015

Dr Brian Eley is an Associate Professor at the School of Child and Adolescent Health, University of Cape Town and Head of Infectious Diseases at Red Cross Children's Hospital. Dr Eley trained at the University of Cape Town and Imperial College, London. His research interests include paediatric tuberculosis and anti-retroviral therapy in children. Past and current research includes the short-term outcome of antiretroviral therapy at Red Cross Children's Hospital; evaluation of inexpensive methods for determining the CD4 count in HIV-infected children; factors influencing HAART adherence in HIV-infected children; the pharmacokinetics of efavirenz or kaletra when combined with rifampicin-based anti-tuberculosis therapy; and the psychological and behavioural wellbeing of HIV-infected children in a resource-poor setting.

Prof Lorraine Sherr Topic: Bringing up Orphans - Why we Need Support of Families

Prof Lorraine Sherr is a Clinical Psychologist and Professor in Clinical Health Psychology at the Royal Free and University College Medical School and has been involved in HIV infection and studying psychological aspects of the disease since the beginning of the epidemic in the mid 1980's. She is currently executive editor of the International Journals AIDS Care and Psychology Health and Medicine, co-editor of Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies and has jointly co-ordinated the European study on Policy on HIV in pregnancy.
Prof Sherr chaired the British Psychological Society Special Group on HIV and AIDS, and the Special Group on Teaching Psychology to Other Professions and represented Psychology on the International Scientific Board of the International AIDS Conference in Geneva and is on the International Organising committee of the AIDS Impact conference.

For more information or to register as a delegate go to www.ovc-conference.co.za or call +27 (0) 12 816 9034.