SOUTH AFRICA/AUSTRALIA: Local Cape Town NGO brings hope to impoverished families ravished by HIV/AIDS

Record ID: 402647

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA/AUSTRALIA: Local Cape Town NGO brings hope to impoverished families ravished by HIV/AIDS
  • Date: 24th July 2014
  • Summary: BLIKKIESDORP, CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA (REUTERS) GENERAL VIEWS OF BLIKKIESDORP EXTERIOR OF BLIKKIESDORP RESIDENT, MAUREEN PHILANDER'S HOUSE VARIOUS OF PHILANDER WALKING INTO HER HOUSE TILT DOWN FROM PHILANDER'S CHILDREN TO PHILANDER FOLDING LAUNDRY (SOUNDBITE) (English) BLIKKIESDORP RESIDENT MAUREEN PHILANDER SAYING: "I am afraid because people are dying in Blikkiesdorp
  • Embargoed: 8th August 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: South Africa, Australia
  • City:
  • Country: South Africa Australia
  • Topics: Health,Politics,Social Services / Welfare
  • Reuters ID: LVA2YR51RF9MM8ITG900R7M294SG
  • Story Text: This is Blikkiesdorp, a shanty town on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. Blikkiesdorp is a collection of used shipping containers and tin shacks that are now homes for about 15,000 people.
    Maureen Philander lives here with her three children. Maureen is HIV positive. She found out her status five years and tried to commit suicide.
    Like many Blikkiesdorp residents, Maureen has no job and can barely eke out a living. She says one of her greatest fears is the rampant spread of HIV/AIDS in the area.
    "I am afraid because people are dying in Blikkiesdorp from HIV and AIDS and I am afraid as a mother and a single mother with kids and I tried to talk to the doctors to tell them to listen that there is no change what must we do as single parents because I am worried about my kids with no income," said Maureen.
    But all's not lost in Blikkiesdorp. Hope Cape Town is a local charity that works with the local community here. The organisation provides care and assistance to children and families affected by HIV/AIDS.
    Started in 1999 in response to the growing numbers of HIV infections, HOPE Cape Town now runs 22 health care facilities in low income communities in the region.
    Social workers from the charity often conduct visits around Blikkiesdorp.
    "You can easily get ten to fifteen people per household and if you think about TB; it's an airborne disease so you definitely get it, it's very high and HIV also people are poor, there's some prostitution around here and just the lifestyle of people," said Pauline Jooste, HOPE Cape Town's Outreach Facilitator.
    According to the United Nations (U.N.), new HIV infections and deaths from AIDS are decreasing. The number of people dying from AIDS-related illnesses has fallen steadily in recent years.
    In 2013, some 1.5 million people died, compared with 2.4 million people in 2005, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
    Leading health experts, scientists, activists and journalists are currently meeting in Melbourne, Australia for the 20th International AIDS Conference which opened on Sunday, (July 20).
    Addressing delegates at the conference, former U.S. President Bill Clinton expressed optimism about the strides made in HIV/AIDS treatment, saying an AIDS-free generation is within reach.
    "Stepping up the pace is the perfect theme for this conference, for at this point we are on a steady march to rid the world of AIDS. The theme says 'Good work has been done' and we have proven to others and to ourselves that an end to AIDS is possible, but the theme remind us also that the achievements can't be an excuse to slow down," he said.
    In Blikkiesdorp, social workers are stepping up their efforts to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS by encouraging male circumcision. Male circumcision is said to reduce the risk of contracting HIV.
    "In Blikkiesdorp this morning, we are running our MMC programme. MMC stands for Male Medical Circumcision whereby we offer free male medical circumcision to the community to males from the ages of 12 years and older, that's basically what we do; that is to reduce the number of STI (Sexually Transmitted Infections) and HIV infections. It's also in partnership with the government's HIV Awareness Programme," said Deon Martin, Male Medical Circumcision (MMC)Programme Co-ordinator for Care Works, a local NGO working in collaboration with HOPE Cape Town.
    With about six million people infected with the virus - more than 10 percent of the population - South Africa has the world's highest HIV/AIDS caseload. About 2.5 million people are taking antiretroviral (ARV) drugs daily. South Africa has largest treatment program in the world.
    But despite the progress made, medical charities warned last year that many clinics were running short of life-saving HIV/AIDs drugs.
    Social workers in Blikkiesdorp also fear some patients are developing resistance to the current regime of ARV cocktails being issued by the health care facilities the country.
    "Another challenge that we face is the resistance to the current regimes or cocktails of ARV's that we have at the moment and that is a huge challenge and the concern is what is going to happen if it's not addressed now, what is going to happen ten years down the line when you have a whole new generation of people suffering from HIV/AIDS that are now resistant to regimes of medication? So we call for research; we call for the availability of different kinds of cocktails," said HOPE Cape Town's Donor Relations Manager, Fahim Docrat.
    UNAIDS estimates 35 million people were living with HIV in 2013. 75 percent of the global population with HIV/AIDS is in Africa.
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