attitudes?
"It's hard to say - the big change has been in disclosure.
People are still dying at the same rate they have
over the
last six years, but whereas before the death would not
have been attributed to Aids, now it will be, although not at funerals
where it's still the case of: "She died of 'Poisoning' or 'a Stroke',
even 'Cancer', but never from Aids or TB.
"In more informal and personal settings more people will come out
and say they're HIV positive. This is encouraging. Although I still wish
people would disclose more. HIV is like a pin always pricking away at
you. You can't pretend one day to have flu, next to have a sore throat
and get treated for these when you should be treated for the real thing."
There are also problems around gender issues. Generally, in South Africa
more women are active in support. There are also more women than men infected
in the region, and women are far more likely to be the carers in families
where Aids has hit hard.
But men need to be involved, and Mpho is keen to address this. She's very
proud that they are among the few centres in South Africa to have an active
HIV positive men's support group.
Issues around condoms still prove a stumbling block, "because women
like to use them, but men still reject them as showing weakness,"
cites Mpho. "But we can distribute condoms free from our centre and
they are everywhere in all the hotspots."
Meanwhile, James Whiting worries about the work his charity still has
to do and his biggest fear remains that "children will be shipped
about like bags of sugar."
For more details of Mpho's work and the Hope and Homes Charity, contact:
01722 790111 or: www.hopeandhomes.org
page 5 of 5
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