Ignorance is not bliss

July 14, 2008 – A lack of knowledge is the major hurdle if South Africans are going to start halting the spread of HIV.

This was the message of people interviewed at the Walter Sisulu Square in Kliptown, Soweto, where the Nelson Mandela Foundation held the Community Conversation in collaboration with Cool Ideas on Friday, July 11.

The Community Conversation is aimed at precisely this problem of ignorance and provides a safe platform for the community to discuss HIV/AIDS as well as other social problems that people in the area are facing.

This is what the people in Kliptown had to say about HIV/AIDS and the Community Conversations initiative:

	“I think it’s a good thing. At least it’s going to educate the youth about the problems of HIV/AIDS.” – Modiehi Themane, 31.
	“The Community Conversation is a very good idea. Nelson Mandela is a great man and most people will react positively to something his Foundation is doing. We especially need to educate the youth. I think the youth are ignorant and also there is a lot of drug use and alcohol abuse which also contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS. When you are drunk you don’t think carefully, you just assume everything will be okay. I think we need to tell the world about the disease, maybe it’ll knock some sense into people’s heads. My brother died of an AIDS-related illness so I really hope people listen at this event.” – Bongani Ngongama, 27.
	“It’s actually a good idea. I do mentoring at schools to try to tell children about HIV/AIDS and I think it’s great that this Conversation is happening. The Conversation will have a wider reach than what I am able to achieve by myself.” – Sifiso Ndarha, 26.
	“It’s awesome that it’s going to happen. I think the biggest problem is that the media romanticises sex. You always see teenagers having sex on TV.” – Frans de Bruin, 24.
	“People are dying, and we are tired of doing nothing. We recently buried our colleague who died of an AIDS-related illness. There’s no trust between our partners. They [the partners] don’t want to use condoms. Maybe they will use a condom once, but after that they end up not using them at all. I think people think that they will be safe, they are arrogant. Our partners go out there, we test negative and they go out and have unprotected sex with other people. But hopefully we, the community, will gain from this Conversation.” – Lorraine Letsaba, 31.
	“I’m the manager of the Kganga Motsha Centre. We provide treatment for HIV, STI management – treatment and diagnosis – as well as psycho-social support. This Conversation is perfect; it’s exactly what we need in Kliptown. There’s a lack of co-ordination among the organisations here in Kliptown and hopefully this forum will allow us to co-ordinate our efforts with other agencies. Socio-economic conditions play a major role in the spread of HIV/AIDS in Kliptown and teenagers have unprotected sex. We deal with a lot of teenage pregnancies.” – Athol Kleinhans, 31.
	“These Conversations are a good idea. Each time something is mentioned some people can be saved from contracting HIV. The conversation gives people awareness and we get to know more. People are ignorant. Some aren’t aware of how you get the disease or what the symptoms are. Some think it’s the same as TB. They think that if they aren’t coughing then they are okay. I think we need to go from house to house with an HIV-positive person to tell the people in the house his/her story. If that happens people will end up using condoms. When I went for a test and it came back negative I totally changed my lifestyle. A friend of mine died from an AIDS-related illness so now I don’t misbehave.” – Shumani Muvhulawa, 23.