Building AIDS Competent Communities works with all sectors of the community and focuses not only on equipping individuals but the entire community to become “AIDS competent”. The project is being conducted in three towns designated by the Department of Health: Makeleketla township in the small Free State township of Winburg; the townships and semi-rural communities of Paulpietersburg in northern KwaZulu-Natal; and the populous township of eMbalenhle near Secunda in Mpumalanga. We conducted a series of workshops with different sectors of the community; and provided them with a guide to take home and study. They then returned for further workshops where community representatives measured their level of AIDS competence against an assessment framework developed by the United Nations.

At the second workshop, people were invited to choose certain criteria from a list which they identified as burning issues needing attention. This was followed by combined workshops where all community sectors contributed and shared ideas on the way forward. They came up with concrete ideas about which activities they need to undertake in order to move forward in these areas. Each province identified its own issues and formulated their own plan of action in order to make these plans operational.

The idea is that AIDS is not the responsibility of certain sectors alone (church, youth, health) but everyone’s responsibility; and that it is only by involving all role-players that communities will be able to fight HIV and AIDS successfully. Follow-up workshops have also been planned in each community.

Our material was updated and revised in order to better reflect current realities. The core material was completely revamped; covering new topics such as multiple partners; starting a support group; and intergenerational sex, amongst others. It has different sections for easy reference and is fresh, vibrant and reader-friendly. The facilitator’s guides were also modified to be more community-orientated.

Communities are excited about these groundbreaking initiatives and we are extremely proud to be a part of them. ground-breaking initiatives!