Cape Town - The HIV challenge
John Barnard
Serena Flynn
Tracey Rom
Chinatsu Ogata
Johanna Lindahl
Ilse Kwaaitaal
Cape Town – The HIV Challenge
Table of Contents
Background .......................................................................................................................................... 3
HIV/AIDS ........................................................................................................................................................ 3
Urban Agriculture and Women Empowerment .......................................................................................... 3
Sangoma – Traditional Healers ..................................................................................................................... 4
Global Poverty and HIV/AIDS ..................................................................................................................... 5
A HIV/AIDS Education Centre ..................................................................................................................... 6
Personal Capitals ................................................................................................................................ 7
Human Capital................................................................................................................................................. 7
Natural Capital ................................................................................................................................................ 8
Economic Capital ............................................................................................................................................ 9
Social Capital................................................................................................................................................ 11
Cultural Capital............................................................................................................................................ 12
Physical Capital ........................................................................................................................................... 13
Action plan – Centre for HIV Education and Development Cape Town ........................... 15
Teaching for Teachers ................................................................................................................................. 15
Sex and gender education ........................................................................................................................... 15
Sangoma project ........................................................................................................................................... 16
Urban farming for safety and security ...................................................................................................... 16
Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 16
References........................................................................................................................................... 17
Cape Town – The HIV Challenge
Background
South Africa has one of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates and the greatest number of
infected people by number in the world (Kaiser Family Foundation 2006). In the Western
Cape this rate has almost doubled in recent years from 7.8% in 2003 to 15.2% in 2006 (Hope
Cape Town 2011). This means an approximate increase of 251 600 people with HIV/AIDS in
Cape Town over this period (Strategic Development Information and GIS Department
2008). There are many areas to consider when considering such a widespread problem such
as this. This section of the report will attempt to cover some of the surrounding factors that
influence the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Cape Town, South Africa.
HIV/AIDS
Human
immunodeficiency
virus
(HIV)
is
the
retrovirus
that
causes
acquired
immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is estimated that in 2009, 33 million people were
living with HIV and 1.8 million deaths occurred due to AIDS. Even though sub-saharan
Africa only has 10% of the world’s population, there are 67% of the worlds HIV cases, of
which 80% are women, and 75% of the deaths due to AIDS (Kharsany et.al. 2011). Since the
virus was first discovered in the 1980s it has developed into a pandemic, but how the virus
developed from the Simian immunodeficiency virus in monkeys is still not known. The
success of the virus depends on the characteristics of the retrovirus, which cause it to lay
latent for years or decades during which the infected individual can transmit the virus to
others without having any symptoms. Risk behavior, sexual networks, globalization and
mobility, and gender imbalances increase the spread, which is further enhanced by poor
infrastructure, poor education, poverty and hunger (Kharsany et.al. 2011).
Urban Agriculture and Women Empowerment
It has been observed that women in South Africa have a seroprevalence of 21% for HIV. In
the age group 15-24 the seroprevalence in women was double the prevalence in men (12 and
6% respectively) (Pettifor, Measham et al. 2004). This difference was explained by the
cultural view that men should have multiple partners and that women should stay
monogamous without questioning the behavior of their partner. Women refusing to have sex
are often met with violence and especially poor women tend to use sex to achieve safety and
money, in this case transactional sex is often used and the men are often older. The study by
Pettifor et al. (2004) also reported that 10% of the women had been forced to sex. HIV
positivity was associated with low educational level (not finishing high school) and a low use
of condoms was associated with having less power in the relationship and being in
Cape Town – The HIV Challenge
relationship with older men. Economic empowerment was shown to increase the sexual power
and the health of the women.
Urban agriculture and food gardens can be an important mean of empowering women. Urban
agriculture has been claimed to give an additional burden to women but they still appreciate it
(Bryld 2003). Even though the food gardens give little economic input to the households they
seem to have a lot of additional values and women claim that it gives them increased safety,
increased control of the food in the household and a social network (Slater 2001). This is
especially important in the poorer communities where the women often have to watch the
children to protect them from rapes and the urban agriculture gives women a chance to work
at the same time. The control of household food supply is important when people are starving
and traditions may have rules for which food that can be eaten by women or men, and since
women can be met with violence or even murder when they can’t provide their husband with
food. The social networks give the women support against violence, rapes and theft.
Urban agriculture is a good and sustainable way of producing food in cities, since it doesn’t
require transports and storage. Cape Town has a high ecological footprint and low levels of
recycling (Swilling 2006). Also, almost 20% of the portable water in Cape Town is used for
irrigation and filling pools in richer areas, making the resources very unequally distributed.
According to Swilling (2006) only increasing the recycling industry would create 3000 new
jobs. Unemployment is mostly a problem in the poor areas with the highest prevalence’s for
HIV (de Swardt, Puoane et al. 2005). Therefore working with sustainability issues in the
center would both directly and indirectly affect the problems with HIV. The continuous
urbanization will cause increasing problems with unemployment and food insecurity (Nugent
2000).
Urban agriculture is also a way of helping the people already infected with HIV. When the
infected people start to get sick they have problems keeping an employment, but they still
need food. Creating a network for urban agriculture could relieve this situation and could also
help the children that get orphaned by the disease to sustain themselves.
Sangoma – Traditional Healers
A Sangoma is a traditional healer in societies of Southern Africa who practices herbal
medicine, divination and counseling. They perform holistic and symbolic form of healing
which is based on belief that ancestors in the afterlife provide the living with guidance and
protection through this life and each Sangoma is connected to, or an incarceration of an
ancestral spirit. The cultural roots are intertwined with spirituality and tradition. Sangoma are
Cape Town – The HIV Challenge
more commonly women but can be male or female. Over 80% of the population of South
Africa visit a Sangoma more than 3 times a year (www.southafrica.net), meaning that they
exert a huge influence over the people of South Africa and are, therefore a crucial element to
consider with reference to raising awareness and prevention of HIV/AIDS.
Global Poverty and HIV/AIDS
At a global level, there is a significant connection between HIV/AIDS prevalence and
poverty. In general, the higher level of HIV/AIDS, the lower the level of socio-economic
performance measured by the rate of growth in GDP per capita.
Many factors of poverty have been related to the spread of HIV/AIDS on a global scale,
including increased migration to urban areas, limited health care, lack of education, nurtirion
and sexual exploitation and inequalities.
Statistic shows that 86% of HIV/AIDS transmissions are caused through unprotected sex,
especially in poorer locations in the world. (S. Nathalie 2009)
Due to the infected areas being poverty stricken leads to the problem of unemployment, with
a greater percentage leading towards prostitution which is a breeding ground for the virus.
With around 800,000 people unaware that they have adopted the virus, caused the possibility
of spreading quickly from person to person from unprotected sex.
On a global level another issue that impoverished people throughout underdeveloped
countries deal with is the transmission of HIV/AIDS from mother to child during birth. It has
been recorded that around 95% of childen infected with the virus has been transmitted during
childbirth (predominately Africa). However, 99% of of mother to child transmissions are
avoided in the Western World through to a simple procedure and medicine used to prevent the
transmission of the virus. (S. Nathalie 2009)
Lack of primary education in low socio economic areas has been a predominant factor in the
spread of HIV/Aids in areas of poverty. It has been evident that orphan children have dropped
out of school due to the death of their parents caused by AIDS.
The graph below shows that number of people living with HIV has risen from around 8
million in 1990 to 33 million by the end of 2009. The annual number of new HIV infections
has steadily declined and due to the significant increase in people receiving treatment
(http://www.avert.org/treatment.htm), the number of AIDS-related deaths has also declined.
(Worldwide HIV &AIDS statistics 2010)
Cape Town – The HIV Challenge
Sourced from: Worldwide HIV & AIDS Statistics
Therefore it has been proven that on a global level there is a direct correlation between
poverty and HIV/Aids as results show that poorer countries are the ones most affected by the
virus due to their low socioeconomic status. (Worldwide HIV &Aids statistics 2010)
A HIV/AIDS Education Centre
As a disease without a known cure, HIV/AIDS is currently something that an infected person
carries for life. One of the best ways to combat a disease of this nature is to ensure that the
population is well educated on the topic from a young age (Ahmed et al. 2009). HIV and sex
education was implemented in all public schools in South Africa in 2002 (Avert 2011).
However, HIV/AIDS education in schools is a challenge itself in South Africa. Often
educators feel at odds with teaching safe sex practises as the message goes against their
personal beliefs and values. Another issue is the fact that South Africa is still recovering from
racial tension and various levels of segregation because of apartheid (Ahmed et al. 2009).
These factors raise the need for professionals educated specifically in teaching safe sex
practices in South African schools.
Our group is proposing a community centre for HIV/AIDS education in Cape Town to
directly address the problems associated with educating the population with an ultimate goal
of reducing the prevalence of HIV in the local population. The primary function of the centre
Cape Town – The HIV Challenge
would be in training up professionals who would be hired out to schools to teach sex
education.
Personal Capitals
Human Capital
My role character is Kim Li, and I’m a public health nurse. According to the Health Ministry
of South Africa government, Counseling and Test Campaign has been conducted as one of the
most important strategy to try to combat against HIV and AIDS prevalence, and I have been
participating in this campaign for more than 5 years, not only working in the Health care
center in Cape Town. For example, in May of 2011, this campaign was put into practice
towards the employee working in one certain power plant by the Health Ministry of the
government and it caused to more than 2000 employees checked concerning their infection
status, whether they get infected with HIV. During these campaigns, I came to realize that
education of HIV and AIDS at an early stage could be one of the critical strategies to prevent
HIV and AIDS from developing.
How can I contribute to prevent this HIV and AIDS prevalence in Cape Town. Here are the
ideas that I can come up with to combat HIV and AIDS. The first strategy is to continue the
Counseling and Test Campaign for the residents, especially those who find it difficult to
access testing centers because of living in rural areas in Cape Town and I’m thinking of
visiting them in their homes, giving the right medical care for the people who have
unfortunately got infected HIV or developed AIDS symptoms, and also sharing the right
knowledge on the prevention from HIV and AIDS with others through counseling. Through
this campaign people can be expected to know the correct way of prevention from HIV and
AIDS such as use of condoms and it also can lead women to empowerment and gain more
independence from forced sexual intercourse, for instance. The second solution to this HIV
problem is, that after conducting the campaign, I collect and bring back to the education
center the data from the screened residents and feedback how we can improve the campaign
to let more people get involved and educated in a correct way by assessing the way of
counseling. In other words, it is inevitable to know the correlation between ignorance of how
to prevent HIV infection and the rate of prevalence of HIV and AIDS. Feed backing all this
information enables the whole education center to reconsider or create more effective
education programs through this campaign. The last one is related to creating new human
Cape Town – The HIV Challenge
resource. As a public health care nurse, an expert of health care I’m more familiar with HIV
and AIDS so that I establish education programs in order to increase the number of people
who have skills and can educate others to behave in healthier way from the scientific point of
view. In this case I spend my time instructing people such as teachers in the school. It requires
to keep close relationships with the government to give all the public school teachers
opportunity to take training service by this Education center in Cape Town.
Natural Capital
I am Jo Hanna and I am a farmer from a part of Cape Town with extensive urban agriculture.
Since I am a single parent and HIV infected I got worried about what would happen to my
children after my death and thus got engaged in questions on food security for HIV infected.
Where I live, in Khayelitsha, one of the poorest areas of Cape Town, more than half the men
and three quarters of all women are unemployed and 80% are under the poverty line and
experience a lack of food (de Swardt, Puoane et al. 2005). One out of ten of the people in my
area keep poultry, but we have large problems with theft and in fact half of the children here
never, or only very seldom, get to eat meat or eggs. In these poor areas the prevalence of HIV
is around 30% and one out of five believe it is safe to have sex with someone who looks
healthy (de Swardt, Puoane et al. 2005). It seems to me that a lot of the HIV problem in Cape
Town is due to the poor education of people and the un-equality between the genders.
Therefore I believe that it is important to work with empowerment of women. I realized how
important it was with our urban farming network when one woman was almost beaten to
death by her husband after serving him spinach from the garden. It was the only thing they
had to eat, but some meals with spinach are not considered suitable for men to eat in the
Xhosa culture. Since we had the network we could help her leave him, and we also managed
to make the children to go with her, even though that is not traditional among Xhosas.
As with me, that woman was HIV infected by her husband, who had been sleeping with other
women. Two of her children also have the virus, but I managed to keep my children safe
because I was lucky to get in contact with a nurse that provided me with the stop medicines I
needed. It was difficult to get access to all the good quality water I needed for the formula I
fed to my children, since I could not breast feed them. In the center I want to work with giving
this knowledge to more women to prevent the children to get infected.
I believe it is important that there are people within the center that have experience of living
in these poor areas and understand the people and the risks there. If people are too hungry
they will care more about their income and their food supply than a disease that is endemic. If
Cape Town – The HIV Challenge
people die of AIDS and leave orphan children not being able to support them self, they will
not be able to go to school and educate themselves and it forms a bad circle. I want to create a
forum within the education centre to broaden the perspective and open opportunities where
poor people and children can get education on HIV but also on how to support themselves.
Economic Capital
My role character is Richard Watkins, who has been a finance executive in the budget
department for the city of Cape Town for the last 5 years. Richard completed a Bachelor of
Commerce in Economics and Finance at the University of Cape Town in 2005 at the age of
22. He began working for the city council in 2006, and has assisted in writing the city budget
since then.
If the city council were proposing to build a HIV/AIDS centre, it would need to be assessed
by the budget team to ensure that resources were available for such a task. Richard would be
directly involved in this procedure and play an important role in determining wether the
project could go ahead or not.
In the past 6 years the format of the Cape Town City Budget Report has changed 3 times.
This makes budget costs associated with specific areas difficult to track. Some data is
included in the table 1 below, which gives an idea on the amount of money that the city and
province spends on HIV/AIDS every year. All sums are in Swedish Krona using an exchange
rate of 1.22:1 (X-rates 2011).
Cape Town – The HIV Challenge
Year Details
Allocated Sum
Forecasted Sum
Forecasted Sum
2011 No information
n/a
n/a
n/a
2010: 46.1 m
2011: 49.3 m
2012: 53.3 m
2009: 22 m
2010: 28.52 m
2011: 31.4 m
2008 No information
n/a
n/a
n/a
2007 No information
n/a
n/a
n/a
2006: 2.54 m
2007: 6.85 m
2008: 2.17 m
2005: 1.02 m
2006: 2.7 m
2007: 2.7 m
2010
2009
2006
2005
Provincial allocations
to HIV/AIDS
Provincial allocations
to HIV/AIDS
Minimize impacts of
HIV/AIDS and TB
Minimize impacts of
HIV/AIDS and TB
Table 1– (City of Cape Town 2005 p18, 2006 p13, 2009 p54, 2010 p57)
It is difficult to indicate a trend in the data, however it is evident that the allocated budget has
fluctuated a lot between the forecasted and actual sum in some cases. Table 2 compares these
fluctuations.
Year
Forecasted
Actual
Difference
2006
R2.7 million
R2.54 million
R-0.16 million
2010
R28.52 million
R49.26 million
R20.74 million
Table 2
A fluctuation worth nothing is the difference of R20.74 million between value allocated for
2010 in the 2009 budget, and the actual provincial budget for HIV/AIDS in 2010. While it is
difficult to pinpoint the exact reason for such a large increase in budget allocation, it can be
theorised that the government is keenly aware of the issues and effects that HIV/AIDS is
having on the district and that they are prepared to significantly increase resource allocation in
order to fix this problem.
The centre our group is proposing is staff roughly 40 people and take up an area of
approximately 850m^2. A capital cost can be approximated by comparing the cost of the
project to other projects undertaken in the past with similar size, function and facilities. The
present value of such a project can then be calculated. A good example of this is the Tsoga
Environmental Resource Centre that began construction in Cape Town in 2005 and was worth
Cape Town – The HIV Challenge
2.16 million at the time (Holcim Foundation 2005). The centre is also used for education
purposes and was constructed with sustainable materials. Using the equation below and
including a safety factor of 20%, a present day value of 3.48 million can be found for
constructing the HIV education centre when assuming inflation of 5% over a 6 year term. The
largest operating expense for the centre will be wages, since apart from teaching the centre
would not offer any other specialised services. This will be approximately 3.14 million for 40
people earning a wage of 78688/year (Wage indicator network 2011).
𝐹𝑢𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 = 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒(1 + 𝑖)𝑛
In 2011/2012 the capital budget for Cape Town is to increase to 4171 million, from 3275
million in 2010/2011. The operating budget increases from 15 936 million to 17961 million
(City of Cape Town 2011 p6). This is an increase of 896 million in potential capital
expenditure in the city, and 2 025 million in operating expenditure. When comparing these
sums to the relatively small cost of building and maintaining the centre and bearing in mind
that between 2009 and 2010 the budget allocation for HIV/AIDS had an unplanned increase
of 20.74 million; and taking into account the importance of the issue being addressed and the
growth the extra jobs would bring; it can be strongly argued that the City of Cape Town are
capable of and in need of building an education centre for HIV/AIDS.
Social Capital
My role character is Klara Johnsson. She is a 27 year old teacher who wants to work for the
centre. She has been teaching for 5 years now. Klara is really passionate about teaching and
wants to contribute to a better HIV/AIDS knowledge in Capetown. My Role Character will
one of the teachers who is working as a consultant for the centre. She will go to different
schools and teach about HIV/AIDS whereas the teachers who are working at that school have
difficulty teaching about this subject. She will think about the best way to teach children
about this sensitive subject and will the direct contact person in between the schools and the
centre. Besides giving actual lectures about the case she will also invent a way to give
children a ‘foundation of values’ before they leave their school. Her main goal will be to
improve the children knowledge as much as possible in an ethical way.
Being inspired by the lecture of David Kronlid on the 15th of November 2011 about the role
of ethics in sustainable development I think one of the most important issues when it comes to
reduction of HIV/AIDS infections is changing and adjusting people’s values.
Cape Town – The HIV Challenge
According to Noëline de Goede who is the director of the HOPE Cape Town Association the
myth about HIV+ males raping young girls (virgins) to "cure" themselves of HIV true.
Communicate social and behavioural change needs to carry on to take in hand the way people
make decisions about their sex lives (Burnett, 2011), the myths there are and the problems
which they face in their communities to health seeking behaviour. Giving pills and spreading
condoms is not enough to reduce the still increasing numbers of AIDS/HIV infected (health
statistics). We have to find a way to change the way people behave in relation to spreading
AIDS and HIV.
As it is really hard for people to act non confirmative manner we will always fall back on
existing norms (e.g., Homans, 1965; Schachter, 1951). The typical script for sexual relations
is to have them without a presex discussion regarding protection against sexually transmitted
diseases (STDs), people will fear sanctions for failing to conform to this script (Fisher, 1988).
A big issue is the position of woman, in South Africa 60% of new infections are among
women and girls (UNAIDS, 2008).
There also seems to be a relationship between power inequity and intimate partner violence to
increased risk of incident HIV infection in young South African women (Jewkes, Dunkle,
Nduna & Shai, 2010).
Alberto Bandura (1990) writes about received self-efficiency in the exercise of control over
aids infection. His conclusion is that teaching communities how to take charge of their own
change, self-directedness fosters at the community level as well as at the personal level.
In conclusion we should invent an education program which include as well sex education as
a consisting education program where in teachers give their students a foundation of values.
Cultural Capital
I am Misty Snook, an anthropologist originally from California but now living in Cape Town.
I graduated from Berkeley with an MA in Cultural Anthropology, specializing in research in
South Africa and specifically the region of Cape Town. Having lived and conducted
fieldwork here for over 5 years, it’s difficult not to feel connected in some way with the issue
of HIV/AIDS and I have now decided that the best way in which I can put my research to
good use is through direct action by getting involved in the opening of this HIV/AIDS
education and research centre.
Having been an academic and researcher for so long, it feels great to be finally putting my
knowledge to good use. I have such enthusiasm and high hopes for this centre and have a very
Cape Town – The HIV Challenge
clear vision of what I would like it to be and believe I share this vision with the other
founders. I understand that conflicts will probably occur at some point and that there will be
some hiccups along the way, and you can call me idealistic if you want but I genuinely
believe that as long as we all know our goal is good and have a shared vision, then we can rise
up above our egos and truly create something great.
I also apply this framework of thinking to the project working with Sangoma’s that I am
going to spearhead. I have researched and worked with many Sangoma and understand and
respect their powerful position in South African society. I recognize that if we are going to
change things at all, it is essential to have as many Sangoma’s as possible on board and
working with us. For many South Africans, the Sangoma’s are usually the first port of call,
long before they would consider visiting a clinic (if at all). I get so frustrated and tired of time
and time again seeing expensive modern medical clinics popping up, without the thought even
crossing the developers minds that it might be important to try and understand Southern
African culture before throwing their money down the toilet on a clinic that many South
Africans wouldn’t go near. I know it sounds typical coming from an anthropologist, but it is
so important to culturally contextualize these things. This is where I see myself contributing
to the centre. As well as initiating the ‘Sangoma Project’, I see myself as a central figure that
people can come to regarding any issues of cultural diversity or sensitivity. I also want to
ensure that all aspects of South African culture is represented within our centre as I have a
vision of a space in which cultural prejudices, discrimination and small-mindedness should be
left at the door.
Physical Capital
The role that I am taking on is a 35 year old property developer, Jewel Montanna from city of
Cape Town, South Africa. My major projects have been contributing to the development of
infrastructure mainly focusing on developing facilities for HIV/Aids in infected areas of Cape
Town.
I have been approached by to contribute to the development of an education centre focusing
on HIV/Aids in Cape Town. I took an interest into this project because I am aware of the
social, health and cultural issues of HIV/Aids that affect South Africa and in particular the
City of Cape Town. Due to HIV/Aids having a high incidence rate, it can be counteracted by
the presence of community facilities across Cape Town.
Furthermore, the development of this research centre will bring benefits to the city as it will
potentially reduce the rampant and social health problems of HIV/AIDS in Cape Town.
Cape Town – The HIV Challenge
My involvement in this project will allow me to work closely with the group to build a
sustainable centre that is environmentally friendly and ensuring that there are appropriate
facilities for the stakeholders involved within the education centre.
My role will mainly contribute to developing a sustainable education centre for HIV/Aids In
town of Khayelitsha located in the Western Cape Town. This location was chosen because
statics show that in 2010 5.3% of South Africa’s population were affected by HIV/Aids in
Western Cape. It has also been noticed that there are several facilities location in this area
where people are able to get tested for the virus and an education centre is would be useful in
the town. Therefore, it is in our best interest to develop the education centre at this location as
it will help minimise HIV/AIDS in such an infected area.
The main focus of the construction of the building ensures that sustainably is a key factor. It is
vital to take into account that the building needs to respond to both environmental and socioeconomic issues of sustainability. In order to ensure that sustainability is implemented, the
property should be constructed using community self materials, by optimising local materials,
usage of waste such as utilisation the city waste streams including, building rubble, industrial
rejects and domestic and industrial waste. Other factors that were taken into consideration are
minimising external dependency and reduce consumption of energy.
With help from professionals such as architects, urban designers and planners, an energy
engineer, a sustainability engineer, an anthropologist and landscape architect will be required
to contribute their insights and understanding to the project thereby enhancing the end result.
The education centre’s aesthetics comprises of two levels including three main lecture rooms
where educational classes will take place, a large open plan library and common areas where
the teachers and students are able to increase their knowledge and have the opportunity to
spend time in the centre for their personal use. The landscape of the building aims to integrate
the indoors with the outdoors. With lush gardens where students can have the opportunity to
grow and use natural produce with high nutrients and give them the chance to enrich their
sustainable knowledge. It is evident when looking at both the exterior and interior of the site
that the landscape of areas designed to create not only cosmetic value but also emphasises the
importance and significance of using environmentally friendly materials which do not harm
the environment but at the same times presents a building that is attractive.
Thus, the building would be useful to accommodate the 40 staff who will be occupying the
facilities in order to gain knowledge and education regarding sex education and ultimately
reduce the occurrence of HIV/Aids.
Cape Town – The HIV Challenge
Action plan – Centre for HIV Education and Development Cape Town
As stated previously the solution proposed by our group is to build a centre for HIV education
in Cape Town that addresses the needs of the local population. The purpose of the centre is to
strive to better understand the underlying surrounding this problem, these are recognised by
the City of Cape Town as: resistance to practising safer sex and the use of condoms; high
levels of other sexually transmitted infections; social norms which accept/encourage high
numbers of sexual partners; sexual violence and rape; poverty and unemployment; informal
settlements with inadequate services; commercial sex work, including child prostitution;
illiteracy and low levels of education; stigma and discrimination; migrant labour; low status
of women; and hopelessness (City of Cape Town 2007). By studying the causes and effect
that all the surrounding issues have on the prevalence rate of HIV, teachers, psychologists and
social workers will work together in order to create different methods of teaching practises for
all the different groups in society who are affected. To begin with the following campaigns
have been created which can be used to address the issue: Teaching for teachers; Sex and
gender education, Sangoma Project and Urban farming for safety and security. It is also
important for the centre to remain flexible to the needs of the community and to create
different strategies and solutions as underlying factors shift or change.
Teaching for Teachers
The main idea of this campaign is to ensure that the teachers are all in agreement with the
content that the centre plans to teach in schools. The centre will run workshops designed to
educate teachers regarding common misconceptions regarding HIV/AIDS. The purpose of
this is to ensure that the teachers are better informed with for students, which is to begin sex
education at an early age, slowly introducing new complexities to the learning content as
children grow.
Sex and gender education
As we want provide sex education we thought about a way to give children all the knowledge
that they need without getting bored or forgetting it. That means we have to keep on making
children aware of the risks without making them ignorant because of the overload of
information.
The best way to do this is to this is to divide different age groups and think about the most
suitable way to teach them in an ethical way. In a research of James, Reddy, Taylor and
Jinabhai (2004) they conclude that we have to include elements as addressing gender
discrepancies and promoting skills for communication through planned intervention
Cape Town – The HIV Challenge
programmes to remove the discrepancy between awareness and behavior. Because knowledge
is not enough for changing behavior we were thinking of giving them two actual lessons and
try to make an educational program for the teachers in giving them a program how they can
give children a set of values before the leave school.
Sangoma project
The Sangoma project acknowledges that only close co-operation and mutual respect between
traditional healers and our centre can be successful in combating HIV/AIDS. Therefore, this
project will create a network of traditional healers and western medical health practitioners to
promote common understanding and goals and enable them to work together.
This will take place through a series of interactional, practical workshops where discussions
and demonstrations will take place in the hope of leading to an agreement that there will be
future co-operation and communication.
Urban farming for safety and security
This is a project that focuses on increasing the food security for people in the poor areas,
through increased education on sustainable urban agriculture. By raising the education and
creating networks for the farming women, these will be empowered and this will in turn
provide a foundation for poverty alleviation and further education on HIV and safe sex.
Conclusion
As a group, we spent a long time discussing the most effective functions of an HIV/AIDS
centre. Through research we realised that there was no shortage of sexual health clinics in the
Cape Town area so decided to go more in the direction of an educational/outreach centre. We
believe this targets one of the most important aspects of the HIV/AIDS problem in Cape
Town. This is because at the moment the only way to reduce the effects of this disease is to
ensure that infections don’t occur. By educating the local population, we empower them to
ensure that they are not infected with HIV. It is apparent that this is not a solution that will
change the HIV/AIDS situation in Cape Town overnight. It will be many years before the full
benefits of a successful education campaign can fully be felt in the city. However the benefits
will be long lasting and permanent. In order to educate the population we located three key
themes that we felt were important; educating, working with traditional healers and
agriculture, which we later developed into campaigns for the centre. We are sure that more
Cape Town – The HIV Challenge
campaigns and areas for improvement will become apparent over time. The centre would
need to be open to providing custom education programs for different groups in society to
ensure that the benefits of the program continue to be enjoyed well into the future and ensure
that our centre can be truly sustainable.
References
Bryld, E. 2003, ‘Potentials, problems, and policy implications for urban agriculture in
developing countries.’ Agriculture and human values, vol. 20, pp. 79-86.
Burnett, S 2011, 'Change behaviors’, The Times 15 augustus. Available from <
www.timeslive.co.za>. [22 November 2011].
City of Cape Town 2005, City of Cape Town2005/2006 - 2007/2008 Draft Capital Budget
Projects per IDP Theme per Programme, Government of South Africa, Available
from:
http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/Budget/Pages/Budget%202005-2006.aspx
[21 November 2011]
City of Cape Town 2006, City of Cape Town2006/2007 - 2008/2009 Capital BudgetProjects
per IDP Theme per IDP Programme, Government of South Africa, Available from:
http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/Budget/Pages/Budget%202006-2007.aspx
[21
November 2011]
City of Cape Town 2007, HIV, AIDS & TB PLAN 2007/2008, Govenrment of Aouth Africa,
Available
from:
http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/IDP/Documents/Statutory%
20compliance%20plans/S2%20City%20Health%20HIV%20AIDS%20TB%20Plan
%200708%20updated%20March%2008.pdf [21 November 2011]
City of Cape Town 2009, City of Cape Town Budget 2009/10-2011/12, Government of South
Africa,
Available
from:
http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/Budget/Pages/
OriginalBudgetMay2009.aspx [21 November 2011]
City of Cape Town 2010, City of Cape Town Budget 2010/11-2012/13, Government of South
Africa,
Available
from:
http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/Budget/Pages/
Budget2010-2011.aspx [21 November 2011]
City of Cape Town 2011, City of Cape Town Budget 2011/2012 - 2013/2014, Government of
South
Africa,
Available
from:
http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/
Budget/Pages/Budget2011-2012.aspx [21 November 2011]
Cape Town – The HIV Challenge
De Swardt, C., Puoane, T., Chopra, M. & du Toit, A. 2005, Urban poverty in Cape Town.
Environment and Urbanization, vol. 17, pp. 101-111.
Fisher, J D 1988. Possible Effects of Reference Group-Based Social Influence on AIDS-Risk
Behavior and AIDS Prevention. American Psychologist, Vol 43(11), Nov 1988, 914920. [22 november 2011].
Health system trust, 2011. Available from: <http://indicators.hst.org.za/healthstats/84>. [22
November 2011].
Holcim Foundation 2005, Tsoga Environmental Centre Local Sustainability Catalyst,
Available from: http://www.holcimfoundation.org/Portals/1/docs/ZA2_booklet.pdf
[21 November 2011]
Homans G C 1965. Group factors in worker productivity. In H. Proshansky & L. scidenberg
(Eds.), Basic studies in socialpsychology (pp. 592-604). New York: Holt, Rinehart &
Winston.
James S, Reddy S.P., Taylor M. and Jinabhai CC 2004. Young people, HIV/AIDS/STIs and
sexuality in South Africa: the gap between awareness and behavior. Acta Paediatrica,
Vol 93. [22 November 2011].
Jewkes R, Dunkle K. Nduna M, Shai N. 2010. Intimate partner violence, relationship gender
power inequity, and incidence of HIV infection in young women in South Africa: a
cohort study. The Lancet, Vol 376, (9748), October 2010, 1219. [22 November 2011].
Kharsany, A.B.M. & Karim, Q.A. 2011. ‘HIV Epidemiology and Prevention’ HIV-infection Impact, Awareness and Social Implications of living with HIV/AIDS, ed Barros, E.
ISBN:978-953-307-343-9,
InTech,
Available
from:
http://www.intechopen.com/articles/show/title/hiv-epidemiology-and-prevention
Kronlid, D 2011, Balance sheets, the role of ethics in sustainable development at
Nugent, R. 2000, ‘The impact of urban agriculture on the household and local economies.’
Growing cities, growing food: urban agriculture on the policy agenda.(N. Bakker).
Feldafing, Germany, Deutsche Stiftung fuer internationale Entwicklung (DSE)
Pettifor, A. E., Measham, D. M., Rees, H. V. & Padian, N. S. 2004, ‘Sexual power and HIV
risk, South Africa.’ Emerging Infectious Diseases, vol. 10, pp. 1996-2004.
R.Dorrington. “The Demographic Impact of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. National indicators
for 2004”. Cape Town: Centre for Actuarial Research, South African Medical
Research Council and Actuarial Society of South Africa.
Cape Town – The HIV Challenge
S. Nathalie 2009, Global citizens Corp, “Relationship between HIV/AIDS and Poverty”, blog
available from http://www.globalcitizencorps.org/groups/issue-global-health/10507
[18 November 2011]
Schachter S 1951. Deviation, rejection, and communication. Journal of Abnormal and Social
Psychology, 46, 190--207.
Slater, R. J. 2001, ‘Urban agriculture, gender and empowerment: an alternative view.’
Development Southern Africa, vol. 18, pp. 635-650.
Swilling, M. 2006, ‘Sustainability and infrastructure planning in South Africa: a Cape Town
case study.’ Environment and Urbanization, vol. 18, pp. 23-50.
Uppsala University, Uppsala on 15 November 2011.
Wage indicator network 2011, Training or teaching professional. Available from:
http://www.mywage.co.za/main/Paycheck [22 November 2011]
Worldwide HIV & Aids statistics 2010, available from: http://www.avert.org/worldstats.htm
[20 November 2011]
X-rates, Swedish Krona International Exchange Rates, Available from: http://www.xrates.com/d/SEK/table.html [22 November 2011]