Issued by: Department of Health
YOUTH IN SOUTH AFRICA BEAR A TERRIBLE BURDEN - HIV/AIDS
PRETORIA - The National AIDS Programme in the Department of Health and the National Youth Commission will launch an HIV?AIDS youth awareness initiative on Youth Day, June 16th.
Traditionally Youth Day (June 16th) celebrates the vital role South African youth played in freeing the country. Sadly, on Youth Day 1998, vast numbers of children and young people will find themselves shouldering burdens too heavy for the average adult to cope with. Most of the new HIV infections in South Africa (annually 60%) affect young people under the age of 25. Young women and girls are especially at risk: they mature physically faster than boys, and are therefore subject to sexual advances from a young age; and the immature reproductive system is more prone to HIV transmission.
The ratio of infection is two to one for females as opposed to males in this age group, reflecting the vulnerability of young girls. At the same time, a great deal of the care given to older people with full-blown AIDS is provided by children. A programme run in Southern KwaZulu-Natal has found that, very often, the primary care givers for many people living with AIDS are under the age of ten. So children are not just being infected with HIV - they are being affected in many other ways. Some find themselves acting as de facto heads of households; others are left orphaned, young caregivers miss out on schooling and deal with terrible suffering and even death.
What can be done to empower children and young people in this regard? Can we help them to bring down the rate of infection? How can we equip them to deal with HIV and AIDS in their lives?
YOUTH IN SERVICE OF THE NATION
These are the questions that the National Youth Commission and the National AIDS Programme of the Department of Health will be joining forces to address on Youth Day 1998 Youth workers and AIDS activists across the country will be encouraged to team up to tackle this threat to young people together. Young people themselves can play a vital role in the crusade against AIDS, in keeping with this year's Youth Day theme, chosen by the National Youth Commission: "Youth in Service for National Development."
Young people should be encouraged to volunteer to give their time and energy to services which offer HIV and AIDS counselling - advice from a person in your own age group is bound to be more acceptable and accessible to young people. The youth should also be encouraged to talk openly among themselves about the disease and the realities of living with HIV/AIDS, without prejudice or discrimination. With so very many young people infected it is vital that the disease be de-stigmatised as far as possible.
MEDIA CAMPAIGN
In an effort to reach as many young people as possible, the Department of Health's "Beyond Awareness" campaign will culminate with a mass media campaign centred on Youth Day 1998. Radio ads will be aired countrywide from 15 June to 10 July on different stations in six langagues and TV ads will run from 12-24 June after the Bold and Beautiful and around SABC's coverage of the World Cup Soccer. The ads will publicise the AIDS HELPLINE (run by Life Line), 24 hours a day, for the Department of Health, on the easy to remember toll-free number of 0800-012-322. It is there to inform young people about HIV and AIDS and empower them to protect themselves. Throughout the year, the young people in tertiary institutions have also been assisted by the "Beyond Awareness" campaign, in all provinces, to initial and run AIDS awareness campaigns on campuses and amongst their neighbouring communities.
The first concern, says Rose Smart of the National AIDS Programme in the Department of Health, is to make sure that everyone is aware of the threat of AIDS to the young people of South Africa, and to enable them to understand the centrality of the youth in the AIDS crisis. The second concern is to make information available to children and young people, and to make services that offer counselling and care as youth friendly as possible.
"We need to re-orient existing services to make them accessible and user-friendly for the youth, she says. Confronting finger-wagging, judgmental adults is the last thing a young person needs when he or she is looking for advice, guidance and comfort. "HIV and AIDS should become a primary focus of all services aimed at the youth, such as schools health services. Schools are an excellent medium for reaching children through such programmes as "Life Skills" education, but, "we also need to target those who fall outside the schools system," Smart adds. "We need to draw in churches, NGO's and even political parties who can reach these children."
The media campaign centred on Youth Day will serve to raise awareness of the impact of HIV/AIDS on our children and young people throughout South Africa.