South Africa

Mavis is who I will think about when I think of South Africa!

Today is my last day in South Africa - my flight leaves at 11:20 pm. These two weeks have gone by too quickly and again - I am sad to leave. I hope to return to both Tanzania and South Africa someday!
We were up very early this morning and headed to Khayelitsha. We planned […]

Getting ARVs for those living with HIV/AIDS

Today our first appointment/interview was with Linda-Gail Bekker - a South African doctor who works in a clinic under the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation. This clinic is Noordhoek, a suburb of Cape Town- about 10-15 miles from Haut Bay (where we stay). The clinic is actually in the black township of Masiphumelele - […]

Today we went out to Khayelitsha

Wow, the week is almost over! I’ll be coming home on Sunday- my flight leaves on Sat night, but I won’t be back in MN until Sunday. It’s all gone by too fast!
Today we went out to Khayelitsha. We were up by 5:45 - ugh! But, we wanted to met up with Mavis […]

Thembeka’s work is never done

Today we had an appointment to meet with Thembeka Majali. She is the TAC coordinator for the Western Cape office. TAC = Treatment Action Campaign. TAC was formed in 1998 and its mission is to make sure people have “greater access to HIV treatment by raising public awareness and understanding about issues surrounding the […]

Mavis, Khayelitsha, South Africa

Making a Difference in People’s Awareness

Today we were able to sleep in, as our first meeting/interview was not until later in the day. We walked over to the “strip mall” for breakfast - now, it’s a strip mall, but has the feel of being on 50th and France - very oola la! We had breakfast at this little […]

5.3 million are living with HIV/AIDS

While we’re here we plan to look into the HIV/AIDS epidemic - we’ll be talking to members of various organizations as well as with people who are living with HIV/AIDS. South Africa has a population of 45 million and 5.3 million are living with HIV/AIDS - that’s 13% of the world population living with the […]

Headed towards Cape Town, South Africa

Well, today we are leaving beautiful Tanzania – we’re headed towards Cape Town, South Africa. As excited as I am to see and learn about South Africa, I am very sad to leave Arusha and the people I’ve met. After dropping of a small gift of Seelah, Allan took us to Kilimanjaro airport. From there […]