SAVE THE DATE & INVITATION: MSF marks 20 years of HIV care in South Africa, 28 October 2020
WEBINAR: Exploring lessons from 20 years of HIV care, a revolution that began in Khayelitsha
This year marks 20 years of Doctors Without Borders (MSF)’s humanitarian work in South Africa. With deep roots in the HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) response, the organisation has been one of the pioneers of providing Antiretroviral Treatment (ART) in the public sector and started first HIV programmes early, in 1999.
To commemorate this milestone, we are hosting a WEBINAR to explore lessons from 20 years of HIV care in South Africa on 28 October 2020 at 11 am.
WHAT TO EXPECT?
There will be a conversation with some of the first Khayelitsha residents to be initiated on ARVs, with Dr Hermann Reuter and Sr. Nompumelelo Mantangana as well as a panel discussion with some of South Africa's well known HIV/AIDS activists, medical people and government officials:
- Justice Edwin Cameron - former Concourt Judge (2008 - 2019); author of Witness to Aids
- Dr Fareed Abdullah - South African Medical Research Council; former Deputy Director General and head of the AIDS Programme in the Western Cape government (1994 to 2006)
- Vuyiseka Dubula-Majola - Africa Centre for HIV/Aids Management, University of Stellenbosch; social justice activist
- Dr Nathan Ford – World Health Organization; worked with MSF for 14 years supporting HIV programmes
- Dr Eric Goemaere – HIV/TB Unit Coordinator with the Southern Africa Medical Unit; opened MSF’s first HIV treatment programme in South Africa in 2000
- Dr Sandile Buthelezi – Health Department Director General
- Dr Liesbet Ohler – medical coordinator for MSF in Eshowe
- Dr Sally Shackleton - Frontline AIDS; worked in civil society organisations for over 25 years, always with a focus on the rights and freedoms of marginalised populations, including sex workers.
RSVP: Sean Christie, Msfocb-capetown-comsoff@brussels.msf.org, +27 63 684 2206
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A service user receives a medical check-up from Dr Kirsten Arendse before being switched to an HIV treatment that the government has ample stocks of, meaning patients don’t have to return for resupply for a full four months. Photographer: Barry Christiansen.jpg)
Dr Eric Goemaere, Khayelitsha Field Hospital project leader. Eric Goemaere is a medical doctor and economist by training. His career with MSF started in 1982, working in Chad and afterwards in several field MSF missions, with some ‘interruptions’ to be OCB’s medical director (1988 to 1991) and General Director (1994 to 1999).In 1999 Eric migrated to South Africa to pioneer MSF’s first public health ARV programme in Khayelitsha. Since then Eric has occupied numerous positions in running MSF’s projects in South Africa, finally joining the Southern Africa Medical Unit in 2009 where he is currently the HIV/TB Unit Coordinator. Photographer: Rowan Pybus (@Makhulu_.jpg)
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MSF’s Dr. Kirsten Arendse examines a service user in Nolungile Community Health Centre ARV Clinic in Khayelitsha in the Western Cape. The ARV club at Nolungile treats service users holistically for all their problems in a single visit, so that they don’t have to visit other facilties, thereby exposing them to greater risk of COVID-19 infection. Photographer: Barry Christiansen.jpg)
Khayelitsha Mural Project in South Africa. In the lead up to World Aids Day 2015, a group of HIV positive people from Khayelitsha in Cape Town, one of the largest townships in South Africa and where over one in five adults live with HIV came together to urge young people to stand strong against the virus.
Despite enormous challenges, these people are living active, creative lives, proving that HIV is in no way an automatic death sentence. They want to broadcast this positive message far and wide, to encourage others to get tested and get treatment in order to live fulfilling, healthy lives.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) worked in collaboration with local artists, musicians, activists and young people living positively to help co-ordinate the painting of two giant murals on the side of OR Tambo Hall, the largest, most well-known building in Khayelitsha (previously hosting the local World Aids Day venue), and highly visible from the N1 highway out of Cape Town. It was a cooperative project led for and with the Khayelitsha people affected by HIV. Photographer: Rowan Pybus
