Media statement

AfroAIDSinfo celebrates 10th anniversary

The Medical Research Council celebrates the tenth anniversary of the AfroAIDSinfo Project in conjunction with World AIDS Day today. MRC board chair, Professor Lizo Mazwai will open the proceedings and welcome everyone present while Ms Amanda Brinkmann, Special Advisor to the Minister of Health and Leader of Government Business of the Western Cape, Provincial Government will deliver a keynote speech.  

The Jesse Jordan Band will be joined by two Mitchells Plain primary schools at the MRC conference centre in Parow to demonstrate how, through community events, the AfroAIDSinfo Project has managed to successfully disseminate HIV information over the past decade. This project initially started as information packaged in a Web portal for five specific audiences but has since expanded to include eLearning, Peer Education and community events. The Jesse Jordan Band will perform an inspirational song which they were commissioned to compose for the project in 2010 at the event today.

Special events have been held since 2005 at primary schools from Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain, focussing not only on learners, but also on educators and parents thereby involving the whole school community to allow a greater impact. Over the years, the focus of these events has been to develop youth leadership by making use of a community role model to whom the learners could relate. This was achieved through encouraging learners and developing feelings of self-worth, thus empowering them to become leaders among their peers.

Learners from schools in Mitchells Plain, South Africa and Dublin, Ireland were involved in an HIV eLearning project. Information and lesson plans were provided on the AfroAIDSinfo Web portal and educators guided learners through all the material. South African learners received special training to gain sufficient levels of computer literacy, as many of them had never touched a computer before.

The programme was used to create awareness of HIV as part of both the South African and Irish schools’ curricula. Both education departments of South Africa and Ireland reviewed and approved the material that was used. Parents and educators from each participating school were taken through an accredited peer educators training course to prepare them for role playing during the special events

This training course guided community members through role-play and interactive learning to expand their knowledge on HIV and AIDS. This in turn, enabled them to take on the role of educating peers on the disease, explaining prevention by using everyday situations, developing motivational techniques, as well as the skills and confidence to talk about sensitive sexual topics. The interactive approach of the course made it an excellent learning process to build capacity among volunteer community members.