Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - September 9, 2007

The drive has been initiated by the Higher Education HIV/Aids programme, a joint undertaking of the Department of Education and Higher Education South Africa. It is funded by the European Union.

Leaders of campus communities - including council members, vice-chancellors, SRC executive members, academics and management - kick off the campaign by getting themselves tested and encouraging friends and colleagues to follow.

Testing ripples outward from this core group on each campus, in a widening circle.

At some campuses, the campaign is mainly an exercise in advocacy, with high-profile figures leading by example and undergoing testing.

The aim is to tackle the stigma that HIV testing still seems to carry.

At other campuses, the campaign starts as an exercise in advocacy but becomes a mass testing initiative benefiting a large number of students and staff.

Either way, as University of the Western Cape vice-chancellor Professor Brian O'Connell said at the national launch this week, the willingness of high-profile campus figures to "step up to the plate" and be tested is significant.

"People follow leaders. People do what leaders do," he sai d. "We are hoping that this initiative moves out from here to encompass every university in the country."

During an hour at the national launch, two vice-chancellors, two chairs of university councils, five student leaders, three senior managers of national organisations in higher education and a deputy director-general in the Department of Education were tested.

Although the campaign was centrally inspired, it was realised through the hard work of HIV/Aids committees and co-ordinators operating on the ground on various campuses.

They took the Each One Reach Five approach and adapted it to their individual circumstances.

The first institutions - Fort Hare, the Edgecombe campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and the Central University of Technology - held their campaigns in August and others will run through to the third week of this month , with Wits University and Durban University of Technology wrapping things up.

The institutions taking part are:

Cape Peninsula University of Technology;

Central University of Technology;

Durban University of Technology;

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University;

North West University;

University of Fort Hare;

University of KwaZulu-Natal;

University of Limpopo (Medunsa campus);

University of South Africa;

University of Stellenbosch;

University of the Western Cape;

University of the Witwatersrand; and

University of Zululand

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