The AIDS helpline exists to offer advice and information to anyone wanting to know more about HIV and AIDS. Should I have an HIV test or not? What can I do if I discover I’m HIV positive? Who can I talk to about any concerns I have? Informed support is literally just a phone call away, on 0800-012-322.

With a prevalence rate of almost 39 percent and some 300 000 of its 1,9 million people estimated to be HIV positive, Botswana has taken bold steps to address the AIDS epidemic in their country. But even with government commitment and so many people affected, stigma runs deep and only a handful of Batswana have spoken openly about living with HIV/AIDS. In this audio package we hear about the origins of stigma, what is being done to support those who are HIV positive and about the antiretroviral therapy programme that goverment is rolling out over the coming weeks.

Matthew Damane is 26 years old and lives in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. In June this year, with his CD4 cell count down to 138, he decided to take up the offer of free antiretroviral therapy as supplied by doctors working for the international non-government organisation, Medecins Sans Frontieres. It’s been almost six months since he started taking the drugs and he is delighted with the results. The Khayelitsha drug therapy programme is one which is highlighted by the Treatment Action Campaign in its latest call on government to seriously consider rolling out a national antiretroviral therapy programme.

The danger of HIV notwithstanding, the number of teenage pregnancies in schools around the country is clear indication that students are having unprotected sex. Despite it being part of the school curriculum, life skills education generally takes a back seat when compared to those subjects that require students to write exams. At Msudukeni High School in Gugwini in the Eastern Cape, ill-equipped with old textbooks and short-staffed, the pressure to give his students the best education possible in the circumstances weighs heavily on the Principal.

In Umzimkulu in the former Transkei, chiefs and pastors chastise the youth for contracting HIV and reprimand them at funerals as they bury those who have died. In this judgemental environment, very few young people will test for HIV, let alone disclose their status. Nozuko Ngcaweni is a remarkable exception. She is determined not only to speak out, but to educate her community so that midwives can take precautions when delivering babies and parents and children can begin to talk to each other.

There is no single “face of AIDS”. It is not black or white, old or young, homosexual or heterosexual. HIV knows no boundaries or stereotypes. In this audio report, one man speaks about the need to see people with HIV/AIDS as multi-dimensional people who, besides being HIV positive, live full and active lives.

Despite the stigma that all too often accompanies people who declare their HIV positive status, a 26-year old woman in a small town in the Eastern Cape is determined to talk to her community to educate them about the virus and to get on with her life.

Volunteers are the backbone of care and support for people with HIV/AIDS. At the Red Cross Home Based Care centre in Nyanga, Cape Town a small team of dedicated workers has been caring for people with HIV/AIDS across the Cape Flats since 1993. Unemployment, poverty and hunger wittle away people’s resistance and make those infected with HIV even more vulnerable to the course of the disease. In this audio package, home-based care workers describe the impact of HIV/AIDS and explain their commitment to helping those who are ill.