now, but Mpho says that treatment alone will not save lives. Not unless the problems of Aids stigma, poverty and economic dependence are all dealt with too.
"Treatment with rejection is not half as effective
as treatment without rejection," she says. "I have known people
with an Aids diagnosis to improve just with better care and hygiene."
Her home province, Limpopo, is renowned as one of the worst-governed in
South Africa, and access to drugs continues to be very bad. It's the practical
problems around community care and family life that Mpho's work concentrates
on.
"In these areas, villages suffer from bad electricity and water supply
and poor sanitation. What we're trying to do is encourage the community
to come together and be involved in taking care of their own. If they
do, things will get better.
"If they learn how to overcome rejection, communities can improve.
Those with more compassion become more self-sufficient.
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"Good nutrition and personal hygiene improvement
is our goal. We also advise: 'bring in a pastor' or 'bring in a doctor'.
"And we encourage traditional village leaders to get involved and
provide fields for ploughing, allowing the communal cultivation of crops
and produce. We motivate the people with local power to pressurise government
to ensure that things like water and sanitation supplies improve."
Support for her work also now comes from the church.
"Power is in the churches," she says. "They are the most
powerful NGO in South Africa! They are supporting the use of condoms much
more wholeheartedly now (although some Catholics still aren't too happy).
Every Sunday, I visit various churches such as the Dutch Reform and other
Christian
denominations to talk about HIV and Aids."
Has Mpho seen any changes over the last few years in infection or death
rates, or in
