We sent an application for funding to the Premier’s Office of the North-West Province in September. That application made them aware about our organization and they brought us in contact with Soul City, an organization that is well known in South Africa for its movies and media involvement tackling issues around HIV.
When the representatives of Soul City came to assess our organization, they were impressed that we have so many peer educators and care givers and that we have sound financial management systems in place. They told us that they were tasked by the South African National AIDS Council to partner with organizations with strong links to the local communities who would help them to fight stigma and discrimination especially directed against those who live with HIV but even against other groups like foreigners and homosexuals.
We know from our experience that stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV is still wide spread in the communities we serve. The result is that people delay going for HIV testing and those who were tested positive are hesitant to disclose their results even to their closest relatives. Many of them avoid going the clinic to start the life- saving Antiretroviral Treatment because they fear what people will say about them more than they fear death.
That’s why we welcomed the opportunity to engage in a fresh attempt to fight stigma and discrimination. We sent a strong team to become the ambassadors and master trainers for the unfolding multipronged campaigns. Itsholeng Moepi, who is currently the Deputy Chairperson of our support group Amogelang and is in charge for the support group of children living with HIV; Dimakatso Ikaneng, our new project manager in Tlamelang and Jasmine Mathews, our financial manager were trained for one week in Randburg by Soul City officials in the second week of October.
They came back full of enthusiasm and were eager to pass on what they had learnt to those who are supposed to become community mobilizers. We identified in total 27 of our members from all three Action Groups to undergo this training giving preference to those who live with HIV and can openly talk about it.
The training of the community mobilizers now took place from 22.11. to 24.11. 2017 at Gasteplaas outside Mahikeng. It gave our members a deeper insight in the mechanisms that lead to stigma and discrimination in our communities. They are now tasked to identify “hot spots” where stigmatization and discrimination is rife in their local communities and to engage with the relevant stakeholders in order to find ways to address these issues. The “hot spots” may include a school, a local shebeen or even a church.
We are happy that Soul City has signed a contract with our organization and that their payments even include a stipend for the community mobilizers. With this stipend our members can make up for the losses that they had to endure due to the poor funding by the South African Bishops Conference and the National Lottery Commission.