Issued by: Office of the Presidency
5 October 2001
Deputy President Jacob Zuma will be addressing the main event on October 9 at the PE stadium marking the third anniversary of the Partnership Against AIDS.
The partnership was launched as an inter-sectoral alliance against HIV/AIDS.
In December 1999 the partnership took the form of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC). SANAC is comprised of ministers and reps from the following sectors:
The anniversary will reflect the advances made in these sectors to consolidate the efforts of government and civil society. The anniversary is marked at a time when the government campaign against HIV/AIDS is stepping into a new gear. Government recently appointed two agencies to handle the HIV/AIDS account worth about R50m.
This comes in the wake of government introducing education programmes at primary school level. The national Department of Health (DoH) has also increased its allocation to NGOs working on HIV/AIDS to R40m. The Home-Based Care (HBC) approach aimed at providing a support network for those touched by HIV/AIDS has been rolled out in all nine provinces. DOH and the Department of Social Development have been working closely in fast tracking grants to 'AIDS Orphans' as well as providing other forms of relief including food hampers.
More than 10 000 women have accessed counselling at sites set up for the Nevarapine trials. This is part of government's efforts to stem mother to child transmission of the HI virus.
Government's communication campaign, which will be launched on October 9, builds on the two phases of the Beyond Awareness Campaign run since 1996.
The current campaign is aimed at:
For further information contact:
Abba Omar (Deputy CEO)
082 414 3383