Unisa online - First things first: testing tomorrow's leaders today

Dr Thandi Sidzumo-Mazibuko leading the campaign at Unisa with focus and determination

Breaking stigmas, advocating HIV/AIDS awareness and encouraging continuous testing are what the National 2012 First Things First (FTF) HIV Counselling and Testing (HCT) campaign is all about.

In embracing the national call to turn the tide against HIV/AIDS, the higher education sector launched the FTF campaign in 2010. FTF is a collaborative initiative between Higher Education South Africa (HESA) and strategic partners: Innovative Medicine South Africa (IMSA), the Foundation for Professional Development (FPD), the National Department of Health (DoH) and the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC).

This massive campaign aims to test at least 35 000 students at all campuses of South Africa’s 23 public higher education institutions, at the same time reaching out to other members of the higher education community – academics, administration and service staff.

In 2011 the campaign effectively touched the lives of 22 000 students across 17 universities. Fifty-eight percent of these students had never been tested before. Now the campaign is ready to increase efforts, ensuring that higher education institutions are leading the way in awareness and testing.

Explaining its importance, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, Minister of Health, drew attention to the principle of prevention. He said, “It’s important that young people are at the centre of our prevention strategies. We are excited therefore by the amount of enthusiasm displayed by young people in institutions of higher learning.”

‘Know your status’ is the message that Sister Thabisile Thwala and Vicky Malefo are driving through the campaign.

It is this very vision to which Unisa is committed, not just on an institutional scale, but also in global terms. Executive Director for Diversity Management, Equity and Transformation, Dr Thandi Sidzumo-Mazibuko, who is also the Chairperson of the Higher Education HIV/AIDS Programme (HEAIDS) Institutional Coordinating Committee, is leading the campaign at the university with focus and determination.

Sharing her view of the campaign, Dr Sidzumo-Mazibuko said that she sees this as a platform for informing the community of South Africa about what HIV/AIDS is by bringing knowledge in a very simple but profound way. “Through this we can educate our nation about HIV/AIDS and its connection or intersection with other communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and sexually transmitted diseases.”

Her stance is that HIV/AIDS is indeed a transformation issue because transformation begins with knowledge. She said, “I believe very strongly that we as a university and the higher education sector as a whole must recognise that transformation depends on changing people’s mindsets around the issue of HIV/AIDS awareness and their responsibility to test. Transformation is personal, touches the hearts and minds of people and begins with you.” Dr Sidzumo-Mazibuko urged each and every person in the higher education sector and beyond to lend their efforts towards transformation by getting tested, knowing their status and changing the way they live for the better.

Driving this campaign in a way that services a global cause is Unisa’s HIV/AIDS Division, headed by Vicky Malefo. She said, “This is the first time we get the opportunity, together with the entire higher education sector, to set out and explore the risk that HIV/AIDS holds for both our staff and students. By virtue of subscribing to the guidelines of the World Health Organization on global health and HIV/AIDS, we are already lending our support towards the greater global effort of reducing the impact. One principle of governance regarding HIV/AIDS is that you have to measure it to be able to manage it. So this is our opportunity to do just that.”

Statistics indicate that more people are tested during Unisa’s campaigns, and Malefo ascribes this to the university’s efforts to make testing more accessible.

For many people testing is accompanied by fear. Assuaging such fears, Sister Thabisile Thwala, HIV/AIDS Practitioner and Professional Nurse at Unisa’s Campus Health Clinic, said that individuals can rest assured that the process is simple, and that extensive counselling is available irrespective of one’s status. “I would encourage those who have not been tested to get tested. The journey is challenging if you are undertaking it for the first time, but remember that knowing your status is better than not knowing it because you will know what action to take in order to live a healthy life.”

For more information on the campaign, go to http://www.firstthingsfirst.co.za/

*Written by Kirosha Naicker