HIV/AIDS Education & Support 2003-2004

Report to donors on HIV program activities in South Africa.

Background

The National Movement of Rural Women (NMRW) was formed as a network of 16 rural women's organisations in 1990. NMRW supported hundreds of local/village groups (7-25 women in each), engaged in a broad range of health, education and income generation activities such as brick-making, gardening, pottery, bead-work, sewing, poultry raising, candle-making, pickling, and artificial flowers. The average age of women in the groups is around 40 years, most are mothers or grandmothers, and around 90% are illiterate. Most women active in the village groups are also involved in other community structures (Women's League, church, burial societies, stokvels/credit unions, various "civic" forums, as volunteer community health workers etc). NMRW was historically based in areas of apartheid forced resettlement, so most of the members are in remote and poor rural communities, with poor access to primary health care services. In addition to income generating projects, the NMRW educated and mobilised women around their rights in relation to land, water, literacy, legal and sexual equality, gender violence and health. NMRW has been a key advocacy organisation on a national level for women's rights.

In 2002-03 NMRW reconsitituted itself as the Rural Communities Development Programme (RCDP), with a national project coordination office in Johannesburg. The five regional clusters of Rural Women's Movement groups now support independent community-based HIV responses:

• Lethimpilo Youth Organization (LYO) and Sinethemba Community Organization: SCO, in Vryheid in northern KwaZulu-Natal
• Tholimpilo Youth Organization (TYO) in Estcort, also in KwaZulu-Natal
• Platinum Light Givers Aids Programme (PLGAP) in the mining areas near Brits in the North West province, near Tshwane/Pretoria
• Sizonqoba Community Organization Against HIV/AIDS (SCOAHA) in Ermelo in Mpumalanga province, east of Johannesburg
• Moutse Health, Development Information Centre, (MOHEDIC) in Dennilton, (former kwaNdebele) in Mpumalanga.

HIV in South Africa

The members prioritised HIV because in their local groups and communities women are finding it hard to care for the sick or the surviving family members after the young adults have died, and also have difficulty accessing information they can understand about HIV. In rural areas, where most people use traditional healers, there is still strong community denial of HIV as a fatal viral illness that can be sexually transmitted. Women members complained that they are infected with STDs and HIV by their husbands, who then blame them for the infection.

In South Africa's annual ante-natal HIV survey, completed in October 2002, women tested positive in the relevant provinces as follows:

• Limpopo 15.6%
• North West 26.2%
• Gauteng 31.6%
• Mpumalanga 28.6%
• KwaZulu-Natal 36.5%

Three million adult women were estimated to be living with HIV in South Africa at the end of 2003 (of approximately 24 million women in the total national population). Compared to previous years, there is some slowing of the expansion of the epidemic, but this "stabilisation" phase obscures the fact that several thousand new infections occur in the country each day, and the onset of significant illness and mortality is profoundly affecting even rural communities in provinces such as Mpumalanga and KZN. It is estimated that in South Africa 250 babies were infected every day in 2002 during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding.

Although since 1994 over 300 new PHC clinics have been built, women in poor and rural communities still cannot easily access health services to manage reproductive/sexual health and HIV concerns, since medicines and staff are frequently lacking.

Project objectives

1. To strategically increase the capacity of the NMRW at national, regional, district and local levels to respond to community and women's needs in relation to HIV
2. to consolidate a training process on HIV-relevant skills within the NMRW, so the membership can effectively promote safer sex, assist families affected by AIDS, and increase social integration of women with HIV
3. to produce and promote education materials on HIV suitable for rural women with little education
4. to consolidate linkages between the local NMRW groups working on HIV and provincial and district HIV and community health services, so that initiatives are locally sustainable
5. to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of the training and education materials in the local groups

Project work

The NMRW, now Rural Communities Development Programme, operates a national office in Johannesburg, with Boitumelo Seabi as coordinator. In each of the five areas, the groups have defined education and support tasks, with regional coordinators and a team of 48 active and trained volunteers. In three areas, the groups run volunteer home care programs for people with AIDS. For example the Moutse group was taking care of 34 people at home in early 2004. The group in Vryheid supports an AIDS orphange.

In the first half of 2003, over 4,000 rural people, mainly women and youth, were trained in sexual health and HIV workshops run in the five regions. In the first three months of 2004, each group distributed between 6,000 and 16,000 condoms during education outreach.

RCDP networks very closely with mining unions, Lonmin Mines, local health departments, Red Cross, traditional healers' associations, women's and youth organisations, People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) peer groups, and many local schools. It takes part in campaigns for sexual rights, gender rights and treatments advocacy. A second evaluation of the project effectiveness will be completed in late 2004.

This project received funds from AusAID, but Union Aid Abroad is committed to providing the additional funding that allows the project to properly meet its objectives in each area.

You can support this work in South Africa by becoming a donor today. Your support will give us the reliable income we need to ensure these programs continue.

© Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA 2003.
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