South African women continue to make strides in their attempts to find health care solutions in needy communities. Two women doctors from two South African provinces won this year'€™s Shoprite Checkers/SABC2 Woman of the Year Awards for their dedication to the communities they serve.

The South African constitution guarantees the rights of learners to attend school even when they become pregnant. While pregnant learners may not be suspended or expelled from their schools, they should be supported and receive counseling. Apart from this, parents and school governing bodies should also become involved. Thandeka Teyise of Health-e News Service spoke to learners from Luhlaza Senior Secondary School in Khayelitsha and Fish Hoek Senior High School in Cape Town about their perceptions of HIV/AIDS, STD'€™s, pregnancy, sexuality and life in general.

US President George W Bush received a less than warm welcome from AIDS activists and health experts worldwide when he set foot on South African shores. Amid all the talking and photo opportunities critics questioned when Bush would make the money available he had promised earlier in the year or whether he would try to '€œspin'€ his way out of meeting his commitments.

June, youth month in South Africa, is being celebrated in a variety of ways. The Treatment Action Campaign together with health workers, including doctors and nursing staff, will celebrate by highlighting poor working conditions in some hospitals and clinics in the country. The campaign hopes to find a solution to the shortage of medicines in some local clinics and hospitals and to urge the youth to participate in matters of health. Vuyani Jacobs, of the TAC, says the main struggle is around HIV/AIDS and urged health workers to join activists in finding an amicable solution to the country'€™s health problems.

Rich countries have saved billions of dollars by employing doctors from African countries that have in turn lost thousands of physicians new research has shown.