Community conversation facilitators with Deputy President Kgalema MotlantheDecember 3, 2009 – On World AIDS Day, December 1, 2009, some of the facilitators who have been involved with the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s community conversations on HIV/AIDS went to Tshwane to witness the announcement of a significant and positive change in government’s HIV/AIDS policy in South Africa.
Facilitators Lindiwe Dyamara and Olebogeng Nkoliswa responded to a call to be part of the high-profile event, where the South African National Aids Council (SANAC) brought together people working with or affected by HIV/AIDS and government officials, including President Jacob Zuma, Deputy President and SANAC Chairperson Kgalema Motlanthe and Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi.
On this year’s World AIDS Day, SANAC sent a strong message to all South Africans to take personal responsibility for overcoming HIV/AIDS.
The national theme was: “I am responsible. We are responsible. South Africa is taking responsibility.”
Dyamara and Nkoliswa, who have been facilitating the Foundation’s community conversations on HIV/AIDS over the past year, observed a high-level panel dialogue chaired by Tim Modise. Representatives from across the country presented their concerns about government’s response to HIV/AIDS in their areas and were given a chance to challenge the health minister and the deputy president on these issues.
The deputy chairperson of SANAC, Mark Heywood, said: “The theme this year encourages everyone in South Africa – individuals, communities, businesses and government – to take personal and collective responsibility to stop new HIV infections, to provide care and support to those living with HIV and to ensure access to treatment for all people in need.”
After President Zuma delivered his keynote address, the facilitators went around the exhibition area and made valuable connections with people interested in creating partnerships to help fight against HIV/AIDS.
They were enormously inspired by the president’s words. He said: “Fellow South Africans, at another moment in our history, in another context, the liberation movement observed that the time comes in the life of any nation when there remain only two choices: submit or fight. That time has now come in our struggle to overcome AIDS. Let us declare now, as we declared then, that we shall not submit. We have no choice but to deploy every effort, mobilise every resource, and utilise every skill that our nation possesses, to ensure that we prevail in this struggle for the health and prosperity of our nation.
“History has demonstrated the strength of a nation united and determined. We are a capable, innovative and motivated people. Together we fought and defeated a system so corrupt and reviled that it was described as a crime against humanity. Together we can overcome this challenge. Let today be the dawn of a new era. Let there be no more shame, no more blame, no more discrimination and no more stigma. Let the politicisation and endless debates about HIV/AIDS stop. Let this be the start of an era of openness, of taking personal responsibility, and of working together in unity to prevent HIV infections and to deal with its impact. Working together, we can achieve these goals,” President Zuma said.
Dyamara, from Kliptown, and Nkoliswa, from Soshanguve, are two ordinary people who decided to make a difference by helping to break the silence about HIV/AIDS in their local communities. Last year they volunteered during the Foundation’s community dialogues and were trained in the Community Capacity Enhancement (CCE) methodology.
This year they have been part of a cadre of facilitators who have convened dialogues at least once a month in their communities, as part of the NMF’s commitment to complete 120 community conversations in 10 communities across all nine provinces.
The NMF community-based dialogues will continue in 2010 using the partnership model adopted in 2007, when this programme was initiated.