When Agnes Nyamayarwo'€™s son, Peter, was four years old, he discovered from a boy at his school that his mother was HIV positive."This boy warned the other children not to share Peter'€™s food because they would get AIDS from him," says Nyamayarwo."I felt very bad that he heard it from school. We think we are protecting them [by not telling them about our HIV status] but somehow they get to know
In the latest South African Airways advertisement the airline talks about the one thing that gives it more pleasure than flying South Africans to a foreign destination: flying them home. "Because the grass may not always be greener on the other side," the narrator says.This is a concept that young community service doctor Colin Wittstock can relate to.
Within the space of less than a year, a doctor has managed to turn a Mpumalanga hospital and its clinics into one of the jewels of the public health care system. ANSO THOM reports.
Living with AIDS is a weekly audio feature which can be heard every Thursday on SAfm radio on the programme, "AM Live" at 6.45am. It's presented by Sue Valentine.
"Never give up. No, never give up. Never, never, never give up. No, never give up." Swaying and clapping in unison, the women of Mzinoni outside Bethal seem to draw strength from singing before dispersing to visit their patients.
Mpumalanga women in Bethal have banded together to visit bars and shebeens on a daily basis to arm their community against the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Anso Thom joined them during one of their campaign visits.
After Mercy Makhalemele disclosed that she was HIV positive, she lost almost everything. But she fought back and is now presenter of a TV series that offers practical advice to people living with HIV/AIDS. Kerry Cullinan reports.
According to the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), the recent announcement by Western Cape Minister of Health Nick Koornhof that the mother-to-child prevention of HIV/AIDS programme would be rolled out to five new areas next year may be little more than an election ploy.
The Treatment Action Campaign held a picket in Cape Town recently, protesting the Western Cape's government selective implementation of its mother-to-child HIV/AIDS prevention programme. Jo Stein reports.
In South Africa, there is no co-ordinated national policy specifically targeting the sex industry to prevent the spread of HIV infection. But such a policy may be less appropriate for South Africa than for other developing countries. By Jo Stein.
Developing countries like Cambodia are following the Thai example and implementing successful 100% condom use programmes for commercial sex workers. But some argue that the approach discriminates against commercial sex workers. Jo Stein reports
Regular virginity testing is seen as a solution to HIV/AIDS. But for the majority of virginity testers, assessing virginity has nothing to do with whether a girl's hymen is intact. Many testers also not see virginity as an absolute state. There may be "grades" of relative virginity. One virginity tester from Zululand reported recently on his technique for testing boys.
Western Cape pupils from Grade one are going to be taught about HIV/AIDS as past of the National Life Skills programme that will be implemented at all schools in the province within the next three years. More than a thousand primary school teachers in the Western Cape will undergo life skills training before March next year as part of the province'€™s renewed drive to tackle, among others, the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
There is little doubt of the urgent need to involve citizens in community development. But current labour legislation discourages, rather than encourages, volunteering in South Africa. Non-governmental organisations operating on shoestring budgets cannot afford to employ additional staff and need all the voluntary help they can get.
There is little doubt of the urgent need to involve citizens in community development. But current labour legislation discourages, rather than encourages, volunteering in South Africa. Non-governmental organisations operating on shoestring budgets cannot afford to employ additional staff and need all the voluntary help they can get.
Be in the know with our free weekly newsletter. We deliver a round-up of our top stories and insightful reads from across the web.