For the ANC three important events will mark this year: the third democratic national election, the tenth anniversary of democracy and the 60th anniversary of the ANC Youth League. But there is a fourth important event '€“ one that the ruling party'€™s election manifesto failed to mention over the weekend '€“ and that is the AIDS treatment roll-out plan, expected to kick in later in the year. With this in mind, Health-e News takes a look at the President'€™s election manifesto launch last Sunday.

In our first Living with AIDS feature for 2004, Health-e sobered up some revellers at a New Year'€™s eve party and reminded them of the reality of HIV and AIDS. Here, they reveal their thoughts and hopes on what needs to be done to address the issue this year.

In our last Living with AIDS feature for 2003, Health-e looks back at what has been a momentous year, culminating in the Cabinet'€™s approval of a Care and Treatment Plan for people living with HIV and AIDS.

Babalwa Cekiso is a HIV positive mother, a member of the '€œBambanani'€ women'€™s group and project manager of the University of Cape Town'€™s Memory Box Outreach Project. This month the project launched a book, '€œLong Life... Positive Stories'€, which documents, in works of body art and text, the lives of the 13 women of Bambanani. Babalwa explains that the Memory Box project was inspired by a similar initiative in Uganda and that it helps HIV positive people to disclose their status as well as explain what it is like to live with HIV.

Dr Kgosi Letlape, head of the South African Medical Association and Executive Director of the Tshepang Trust, said one of the most effective ways of dealing with HIV and AIDS is the formation of partnerships. Dr Letlape was speaking at the launch of an antiretroviral treatment site at the G F Jooste hospital in Cape Town. The initiative is being piloted in conjunction with the Nelson Mandela Foundation that handed over R5-million at the launch '€“ the first donation from the 46664 campaign.

Dr Loveness Kaunda, Dean of Students at the University of Cape Town, is one of a handful of South African leaders prepared to talk openly about HIV/AIDS. Here she shares the story of her younger brother and how his death affected her family.