KHOPOTSO: The report, titled ‘€œTalking about AIDS’€, suggests that workplace HIV/AIDS peer educators are important instruments to get people inside and outside the workplace to talk about AIDS. Peer educators are not experts on AIDS. They are normally volunteers from the workforce, who have a lot in common with their colleagues and are then trained to become peer educators. According to Professor David Dickinson  from Wits Business School and author of the report, that is what makes it easy for employees to respond to AIDS messages.

Prof. DAVID DICKINSON: We think that if we train people from all groups in society around issues that they actually do a much better job of communicating’€¦ of getting behavioural change. And we think that’€™s true because people listen to people who are closer to themselves. People don’€™t listen to professors, unfortunately. They listen to their family, their friends, their colleagues and so on, much more. And that’€™s really at the heart of peer education’€¦ Peer educators need to be active change agents involved in a dialogue with their peers, which is ongoing and is not controlled by experts, but is informed and helped by experts.        

KHOPOTSO: The research is a follow up on another conducted last year. While the former outlined the extent and nature of workplace HIV/AIDS peer education, this one focuses on activities peer educators engage in informally ‘€“ inside and outside the workplace, such as in their communities. Over a 20-month period, a small group of peer educators at a mining company were given diaries to record the conversations that they’€™ve had informally with their co-workers and members of their communities.          

Prof. DAVID DICKINSON: On average, each peer educator was conducting 14 informal interactions (and this doesn’€™t include standing up and talking formally. It doesn’€™t include distribution of condoms, etc) per month’€¦ Just over 40% of those interactions recorded in the diaries take place in the workplace. The majority, in fact, take place either in the community within the family or within the church.    

KHOPOTSO: Topics in these interactions were varied.

Prof. DAVID DICKINSON: Top of the log, so to speak, was condoms and femidoms, a lot of just open talk about HIV/AIDS’€¦ tuberculosis, VCT, mobilisation, adult relationships were also very common’€¦ There was a smaller number of the more difficult issues, but they were certainly there: Domestic disputes, violence, fear, stigma, disclosure of HIV-positive status and sexual abuse… Peer educators build reputations. They build trust.              

KHOPOTSO: With continuing HIV infections, reluctance to test and fear and stigma, the work of peer educators remains vital in changing the beliefs and behaviours of their colleagues, families and communities.      

Prof. DAVID DICKINSON: One peer educator records in their diary that there’€™s a condom burst (and) he wants advice about what to do. Six weeks later, the same person approaches the peer educator and said ‘€˜partly as a result of the discussion they now want to go and test and find out their status’€™. And the peer educator at that point gives them some advice and refers them to a specific nurse who he knows will give them a good counselling process.

KHOPOTSO: During the research period, peer educators also had to deal with a lot of myths surrounding AIDS.

Prof. DAVID DICKINSON: National level confusion filtered down into these low level discussions. Over this period we had this Jacob Zuma trial with the shower, and so on. We had the Minister of Health at Toronto and we had a lot of debates on circumcision. And you could see this confusion coming down into the discussions and the peer educators really having to pick the pieces ‘€“ the mess that our leaders have caused’€¦

KHOPOTSO: Being a workplace HIV/AIDS peer educator is an unpaid commitment.  The rewards come with the knowledge that one is making a difference in another person’€™s life. Betty Zuma, the Wellness Programme Manager for Standard Bank, says extending it beyond the workplace into communities is a greater incentive.      

BETTY ZUMA: I don’€™t see a need to be paid for doing what I do because I do it out of love and because I’€™ve seen people suffer’€¦ We come from these communities’€¦ We are taking the HIV education through our champions to the communities’€¦ You get recognition that you are doing a great job.

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