Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday November 2, 2003
Claire Keeton

And the experience deepened the 23-year-old loveLife volunteer's understanding of the effect Aids has on families.

loveLife, South Africa's biggest HIV prevention programme, is making inroads among the youth from the mining communities of the West Rand, by running a Y-centre for students and an adolescent-friendly clinic at Khutsong West.

Expanding

Now loveLife clinics are set to expand in mining communities, following a R30-million donation by Anglo American.

The plan is to roll out the National Adolescent Friendly Clinic Initiative in six provinces, transforming over 200 public clinics in the next two years and 900 over the next five years.

Anglo American vice- president, Brian Brink, said they decided to partner with loveLife because of its access to communities and its focus on youth.

Migrant workers and impoverished youth are particularly vulnerable to HIV/Aids, said loveLife chief executive officer, Dr Dave Harrison.

When visiting a new mining area in Limpopo recently, he observed how schools emptied of girls on a Friday afternoon when the miners were paid and the prospects for sex work increased.

loveLife initiatives are working to counter these risks, by offering health and recreational services along with education about HIV/Aids.

These services are critical in South Africa, where one in seven teenagers is HIV positive and an estimated 600 to 1 000 people die from Aids every day.

The Y-centre is next to the youth clinic, both of which are well equipped and frequented by teenagers from the dusty township.

Clinic sister Phomolo Morake said most teenagers visited for family planning services and for treatment of sexually transmitted infections.

loveLife reports that after launching its 68 adolescent-friendly centres, youth attendance has soared at clinics - up 300% in some areas.

At the clinics, volunteers and trained loveLife role models, called groundBREAKERS (gB), talk and listen to youths about their problems and HIV/Aids.

"The difference at this clinic is that people come here not just to get pills, but also information," said g B Thandi Hlatywayo, 20. "Our main concern is to change attitude and behaviour."

While they did not want to be named, patients arriving at the clinic said they knew HIV was dangerous, but did not know about protection.

However, by the time they left, they did.

Harrison said of the 16 Y-centres across the country: "We believe they have had a tremendous impact. Over 50 000 young people in surrounding schools go through our programmes every year."

He said loveLife had done baseline surveys of self-reported sexual behaviour and STI and HIV prevalence rates, which would enable them to track their impact.

"The decline in HIV prevalence from over 17% to 14% in teenagers attending antenatal clinics over the past three years, coupled now with a flattening in incidence in 20- to 24-year-olds, is encouraging," he said.

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