CARE in South Africa

In South Africa, unemployment, crime and corruption as well as HIV and AIDS drain public support for South Africa’s hard-won democracy. CARE has been working in the country for many years, fighting HIV and AIDS, improving health care for the poor and helping families improve their income, for example by giving them access to cheap loans.  We also hold the government to account - ensuring it fulfils its responsibility to help end poverty and provide services - from hospitals to schools - for the people.

Fighting HIV and AIDS

More than five million people are infected with HIV and AIDS in South Africa, making the virus one of the greatest threats to the fight against poverty.
Migratory workers who travel between South Africa and Lesotho looking for work are among the most vulnerable to HIV and AIDS, so our work to tackle the spread of the virus overlaps between the two countries.

Training women and girls to prevent HIV

One example of how CARE is tackling HIV and AIDS is a training project with the women of Lesotho. CARE has provided essential training to 300 households (over 2000 people) in two remote regions, Mokhotlong and Mohale’s Hoek. The training equips women and girls with the necessary skills and support to prevent HIV and to care for their families. Community groups are also trained on voluntary savings and loans schemes and how to increase their income.

In addition, 36 school pupils have been trained in peer-to-peer education, enabling them to teach other pupils about HIV and STI prevention.

The initiative focuses mainly on women and girls. It is estimated 55 per cent of all reported HIV and AIDS cases in Lesotho are among women. Women are more than twice as likely as men to contract HIV through heterosexual intercourse with an HIV positive partner. Economic and social inequalities between men and women in Lesotho also mean women are unable to protect themselves from exposure to the virus. Women and girls also tend to carry the burden of caring for sick relatives and orphans.

Improving the economic and social status of women, orphans and vulnerable children is therefore an effective way of tackling HIV and AIDS and its devastating effects. This is being achieved in four ways:

•    Training 20 community groups to deliver HIV prevention, care and support in their communities.
•    Ensuring that new laws to guarantee equal rights between married men and women are put into practice in these communities.
•    Training women and girls in the prevention of HIV and involving men in providing care and support for their families.
•    Increasing the economic opportunities and equal rights of women, orphans and vulnerable children within their communities.

In Lesotho, 23 per cent of people aged 15-49 years are HIV positive: the third highest rate in the world. Huge numbers of children are orphaned due to AIDS, or are living without adequate care, nutrition and support because of parents’ sickness. Children are frequently abandoned because parents have left in search of paid work.

One beneficiary is supporting her sister-in-law’s abandoned children. She said, “I have little, but the little I have I will share.”