Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - August 17, 2003
Laura Lopez

She had it all: she was a wife and a mother, she had a good education and she was running her own fashion business.

But then her whole world came crashing down and changed the course of her life - and those of scores of other woman.

In 1997, Maane, now 32, and her husband tested positive for HIV/Aids. He died in March of that year. "He just got ill for a few hours in the morning and by the afternoon he was gone," she says.

Maane became aware of the reality facing South Africa's HIV-positive mothers - and decided to do something about it.

In 2001, along with the University of Cape Town's Dr Mitch Besser, she founded Mothers to Mothers to Be , an organisation providing education, counselling and support to pregnant HIV-positive women.

The organisation now operates seven sites in the Western Cape and one in Kimberley, and the Northern Cape provincial government has plans to roll out the programme province-wide.

Maane, a nominee for the 2003 Shoprite Checkers/SABC2 Woman of the Year award, is also involved with the National Association of People Living with Aids.

"I believe the infection is in me - I'm hosting the virus," Maane says of her fight against HIV. "When you got a guest, you don't let the guest do what they please."

Says Besser of Maane: "She has an extraordinary spirit. She has an ability to share her personal experiences in ways meaningful to the mothers."

The mothers revere Maane, he says, while she, in turn, refuses to see them as patients.

"They're women and proud to be moms," Maane says. "It's easy to talk about HIV and politics but I don't want to be reduced to politics. I don't want us to be reduced to statistics."

But Maane has no illusions about the reality of the disease: "Lately I haven't been feeling well. I hate the changes the disease has brought on. Psychologically, they're working on me."

The antiretrovirals she is taking are starting to make her stomach swell, while other parts of her body are becoming slimmer. An old friend recently asked if she was pregnant, Maane says.

"My life is an uphill, truly it is. It's not a comfortable one and I wouldn't wish it on anyone."

Despite last week's government decision to begin a national antiretroviral programme, Maane's life - and that of others like her - will continue to be a struggle.

"The roll-out is going to become a reality, but there's got to be a whole lot of supporting staff. [Antiretrovirals] is a very difficult kind of treatment to stick to because it's a lifetime treatment," she says.

"We don't want to see our people building up a resistance to the drugs because that's going to cause more havoc than we anticipated," she adds.

But Maane says she feels her work is making an impact.

"There's got to be a collaboration of people living with HIV/Aids", she says.

"We've got to have one voice. I want to see change."

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