Motto: "Beyond Talk"

Objectives:

1.      Internal:

1.1.   Set-up a Support Group

1.2.   Promote healthy living

1.3.   Promotion of multi-departmental approach

2.      External:

2.1.   Identify and adopt a hospice

3.      Other

3.1.   Raise awareness levels

3.2.   Promote testing

Semester Update

Internal

1.      Support Group

A support group was initiated and it came into effect from the beginning of the 2^nd quarter. Participation is open to all interested members but as a minimum acceptance to the group, one has to abide to the group’s confidentiality requirements.

The meetings are on Monday evenings, 18h00 at the Ernest Ullman Recreation Center in Wendywood.

Key achievements include the creation of a core group which has defined its own path of growth. A number of topics have been discussed and researched and these include, ARTs and side effects, HIV and pregnancy, stigma, disclosure, etc. The benefits to the average member of the group have been enormous and have seen members discussing issues freely within a climate that is mature, non-judgmental, non-discriminatory and caring.

Disclosure of one’s HIV status is not a requirement and those who chose to disclose do so voluntarily and still their status is kept confidentially within the group. The right to disclose remains solely with the individual and will always be disclose to third parties by individual on their own terms.

The group has decided to also extend its mandate to have external parties and to this end the group will visit Dudu Zwane Home monthly basis, separately from the overall church activity.

Membership to the group is still open and those who need to find out more are welcome to speak to anyone who is a member of the group. The leader will happily forward the names of members of the group upon request.

2.      Healthy living

The healthy living object seeks to get all church members to live actively and as a start we have setup aerobics classes. The classes are held twice a week, Thursday – 18H00 to 19h00 and Sunday 09h00 to 10h00.

Attendance is completely voluntary and open to all members. We have established a core group that participates and the benefits have been immense.

3.      Multi-departmental focus

As we accept that there are a number of challenges that HIV and AIDS pose to the affected and the infected, we seek to foster a multi-departmental approach to the pandemic that we face. To this end we work closely with other departments and promote that other departments incorporate HIV/AIDS into their plans.

To date we have had joint initiatives with the following departments:

·         Counseling

·         Health

·         Adventist Men

·         Welfare

External

Dudu Zwane Home

We had wanted to find a HIV/AIDS home that is independent and underfunded to ensure that our influence and reach is above average. The Dudu Zwane Home is located in Malvern, in the eastern parts of Johannesburg. It is independent, does not have any form of structured support and is run on a completely voluntary basis.

The structure of our involvement is that as a department we are making the opportunity to be involved available to the church and ideally we would like to see members dedicating their own personal time outside of church time to the home. We thus seek to limit opportunities where the whole church goes there collectively with the hope that over time members can sacrifice their personal time to reach out.

Consequently, to date, we’ve only had two church wide visits. The support has been overwhelming; both in terms of members who have come physically come through and on the giving of food, clothing, utensils, curtains, etc.

The welfare department has incorporated the Home as a key part of the department’s focus such that the last visit was fully driven by the leader.

The Adventist Men department has also incorporated the Home into its object and we hope that soon we’ll have Adventist Men gathering at the home to paint and refurbish the home.

Individuals have also sought to help as best they could and through God’s grace, members in the employ of Outsurance have procured sponsorship for some of Adventist Men projects. To this end we remain eternally grateful to these members.

Other

Awareness Raising & Promotion of testing

In the first semester, we have only one HIV/AIDS day (in March) and have not had adequate opportunities to engage the general church membership on these objectives. In the second semester we’ll have two HIV/AIDS days and hope to meet these outstanding objectives.

Key Issues going forward

Sustainability of our programs and plans is a key issue and we hope that the foundation we’ve laid will see to the sustainability of these objectives.

The Dudu Zwane Home will remain a key focus to us and we’ll continue encouraging members to support as best as they could.

For the second semester we’ll focus on creating a conducive environment internally to ensure that we create a non-judgmental, non-discriminatory and caring church.