By Tammy O'Reilly

CARYN Paulsen stepped up to the podium and courageously told the crowd gathered at the Regina Mundi Church in Soweto she was HIV positive.

It was an unusual admission in a place where confessing sins is the norm. Caryn, however, had done nothing wrong.

In fact, this was the message being driven home at the launch of the City's World Aids Day programme: being HIV positive is nothing to be ashamed of and being frank about one's status is paramount to getting rid of the stigma attached to HIV.

Although World Aids Day falls on Wednesday, 1 December, the City of Johannesburg has unveiled a five-day HIV/Aids awareness campaign, from 29 November to 3 December.

As part of the City's ongoing fight against HIV and Aids, 2 900 volunteers recruited last year will go on a five-day door-to-door campaign in all of the City's 11 regions.

They have been trained in providing relevant information, counselling, HIV testing and antiretroviral treatment services. They will also be educating members of the community on adherence and completion of treatment, particularly for HIV sufferers who have tuberculosis.

Addressing the crowd of volunteers and community members, Johannesburg Mayor, Amos Masondo, urged the public to interact with the volunteers effectively.

"For this campaign to succeed, we need to open our doors to these volunteers. We need the support of all sectors of the community. Let us fight the prejudice and discrimination that target people living with HIV and Aids."

Meisie Lerutla, director of the City's HIV/Aids unit, added: "The City of Johannesburg is in a serious fight against HIV. What this campaign hopes to achieve is to increase the levels of understanding among people. We want to inform people of the services the government is making available, free of charge, to its people."

The free services include voluntary counselling and testing at 70 of the City's fixed health care facilities. Of these, 53 provide rapid on-site HIV testing and the City aims to extend this service to all 70 health care facilities by June 2005.

Mobile clinics visit areas situated far away from fixed health care facilities on a weekly basis. The City also runs a commercial sex workers outreach programme.

In addition, support groups operating from Council clinics offer community care and support for people living with HIV and Aids by providing them with peer counselling and food parcels.

In the past two years the Johannesburg Aids Council has also promoted networks and partnerships with a variety of organisations and academic institutions.

Ten candles were lit at the church in remembrance of all those who have died and for those living with HIV/Aids. The candles also symbolised the strides the country has made in bringing about awareness of the disease since the inception of democracy 10 years ago.

Although much is being done to assist those living with the disease, Masondo reiterated that prevention was still the best cure. "We all want to stress that prevention is still the best weapon available. Let us take all the necessary steps to prevent the spread of this disease and, to those who are HIV negative, let's take all the necessary care to remain HIV negative."

Source: Joburg.org.za