UNAIDS: The First 10 Years

UNAIDS The First 10 Years78would say it has been the most successful work the UN has done in that country. Putsimply, the aim of the programme was to place trained fieldworkers, living openly with HIV,in various organizations in the public and private sectors. These men and women wouldhelp to set up, or review or enrich existing workplace policies and programmes on HIV. Itwas promoting the principle of GIPA and supporting government plans in South Africato combat stigma, increase the involvement of positive people and support all sectors ofsociety to form a Partnership against AIDS 11 .UNDP undertook to help partner organizations where fieldworkers were placed withthe workers’ salaries for one year, at US$ 500 per person per month. It also undertookto manage the implementation, advocacy, monitoring and evaluation strategies, andto establish support structures for GIPA fieldworkers to avoid burnout. WHO providedaccommodation and equipment for the project.After months of planning among the UNAIDS Inter-Country Team, UNDP/UNV, theDepartment of Health and the National Association of People living with HIV/AIDS,adverts to recruit fi eldworkers were placed in two national newspapers in July 1998. Keyrequirements were that candidates must be HIV-positive and willing to be open abouttheir status.The 10 people chosen were taken through a broad training course to prepare them for theirplacements (by 2002, 24 fieldworkers had been trained and placed in different organizations).Two people were placed on one-year contracts with Eskom, the national electricityutility. They were joining existing workplace programmes and stayed on after the fi rst year,in high-profile positions 12 . By 2000, for example, Musa Njoko – who after her diagnosis ‘hadbeen told to go home and wait to die’ 13 – had become a regional coordinator for Eskomand a key implementer of their workplace programme. Martin Vosloo’s work at Eskomfocused on training peer educators and managers on HIV and AIDS-related issues. Eskomnow ensures that the GIPA principle is an integral part of the design and implementationof its HIV/AIDS business plan and strategy. People living with HIV serve as mentors andidentify new areas of work on which to focus.The ‘star’ of the GIPA Workplace Project was Lucky Mazibuko, whose placement was onthe newspaper The Sowetan. He had always been interested in writing and had editedhis school magazine. He now writes a regular column on living with HIV in the daily andSunday editions of the newspaper, and receives large numbers of letters from readers whoare positive or are affected by HIV. In 2002, he and Njoko presented a 13-part TV series,Positive, produced and broadcast by the national TV channel SABC2. It focused on stigma,discrimination, care and support.11President Mbeki’s Declaration of the Partnership against AIDS, 9 October 1998.12UNAIDS (2002). The Faces, Voices and Skills Behind the GIPA Workplace Model in South Africa. UNAIDSCase Study. June. Geneva, UNAIDS.13Ibid.