Through the efforts of a dedicated group of staff and students associated with the Centre for HIV/AIDS Networking (HIVAN) and the College of Humanities at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), members of the public now have easy access to information about HIV/AIDS organisations and service providers throughout South Africa. HIV-911, as it is called, is a helpline which has been established at the University to provide information to callers from anywhere in the country. The helpline is operated by specially trained staff, student interns and student volunteers and is backed up by a database of HIV/AIDS-related service providers reputed to be the most comprehensive and up-to-date in South Africa.

Project Director Debbie Heustice explains: ?There is a critical gap when it comes to information available to the general public about what HIV/AIDS-related services are available and where they are located. Although the National AIDS Helpline receives literally hundreds of calls daily seeking this kind of information, it is restricted to providing telephonic counselling, advice and crisis support and isn?t able to provide information on where best callers can access local support for their HIV-related needs. HIV-911 fills this gap. By ringing our helpline, callers from anywhere in the country can be directed to the nearest HIV/AIDS-related service providers relevant to their particular concern, either in their immediate locality or in any other area of their choice. Consequently, the National AIDS Helpline refers callers who are seeking service provider information to us and we refer callers looking for immediate counselling and psycho-social support to them.?

Behind HIV-911 lies a very detailed national database of organisations and individuals involved in HIV/AIDS-related service provision, from those that offer testing, treatment, counselling, home-based care, welfare advice and assistance for orphaned children to education, research and faith-based support and services. ?Although the data-base is freely accessible and can be searched on-line,? says Ms Heustice, ?the vast majority of South Africans simply don?t have internet facilities. HIV-911 makes this information easily and immediately accessible to everyone as most people, even in the most rural areas of South Africa, have some access to land lines or cell phones.?

Another function of the HIV-911 project, which market research has indicated is in high demand, is to enable contact and networking between HIV-AIDS-related organisations and service providers. ?Unfortunately, collaboration between organisations is not always what it should be,? says Ms Heustice. ?In fact, many often don?t even know of one another?s existence. By calling HIV-911 or accessing our database online, clients can obtain listings of organisations, as well as contact and other details, of all other HIV/AIDS-related service providers in their geographic locations.?

Unlike many other helplines, HIV-911 operates a ?Sharecall? line rather than a toll free number. This means that callers pay for a local call, no matter where they are in the country, with the balance of the call cost billed to the project. ?Although we would ideally like to offer entirely free access to the service,? says Ms Heustice, ?our research has shown that a large proportion of calls to toll free help-lines are hoaxes, resulting in significant wastage of project and donor resources. By using Sharecall, we?re able to significantly reduce the number of hoax calls we receive while still providing very cheap access for those who genuinely need assistance. Its also possible for our call centre staff to call clients back should they indicate that they cannot afford even the cost of the local call to access our services. In this way HIV-911 ensures that no-one is South Africa is excluded from receiving advice on where to access HIV-related support and services.?

The HIV-911 lines are operated by carefully selected and trained full-time staff and student volunteers, several of whom emanate from the School of Psychology as HIV-911 provides an excellent site for their service-learning courses and experiential learning for interns. Says Kerry Frizelle, a Lecturer in Psychology involved in training the students, ?Even though HIV-911 is not intended to provide counselling services, call operators must have sound factual knowledge about HIV/AIDS and should project empathy and deal sensitively with callers. Our operators always refer callers who are seeking or need counselling to other service providers, but it is still absolutely critical that they are able to deal with crises when necessary. The training ensures that they are equipped for this.?

According to Ms Heustice, achieving the right balance between cost management and marketing HIV-911 is the greatest challenge. ?During the pilot phase of HIV-911 our marketing was limited to KwaZulu-Natal and the Cape Town metropolitan area, though we did regularly assist callers from elsewhere in the country. As we now use student volunteers as part-time call centre operators, we have the capacity to field much larger volumes of calls than we presently receive. We?ve also quantified demand with the assistance of the National AIDS Helpline and know it is high. With the necessary call centre infrastructure now in place, HIV-911 is now being actively marketed on a national scale, however, we have been careful to grow our national marketing campaign gradually so as to ensure that we can afford the costs associated with increased call volumes. Fantastic support in terms of marketing has come from Isidingo who screen our HIV-911 helpline number at the end of each daily episode. We have also been privileged to be invited to participate in a pilot social responsibility campaign with a leading cellular network. This has significantly increased our incoming call rate and gained HIV-911 valuable exposure.?

HIV-911 is continually engaged in expanding and updating its database of organisations and service providers. Eight staff members are employed full-time to undertake this and student interns and volunteers are kept busy, when not on calls, entering new information submitted by organisations and ringing those already on the database to ensure that information supplied to callers is accurate and up-to-date. Ms Heustice adds, ?The HIV-911 database currently contains detailed information on more than 6 000 HIV-related services nation-wide. On 1 December 2007, HIV-911 will be launching nine provincial directories which together will form a national directory of HIV-related services. These hard copy directories will be distributed freely to organisations on the HIV-911 database and to HIV clinicians, hospitals and clinics throughout South Africa. We are encouraging all HIV-related service providers to update their details with us so that we can include them in the directory?. The national directory project provides yet another means by which information on HIV-related services can be easily and confidentially provided to those in need. The HIV-911 national directory project is funded by PEPFAR through a partnership between HIVAN and the Foundation for Professional Development.

Carol Bunn, Senior Development Officer at the UKZN Foundation?s Gauteng Office, is confident the project will prove attractive to donors. ?The WesBank Fund of the First Rand Foundation has already provided seed funding for HIV-911 precisely because it believes other donors will view it as a prime social investment opportunity. HIV-911 should appeal to local companies when it comes to completing the CSI sections of their BEE scorecards, as required in the new Sector Charters. It also offers foreign governments and international aid agencies the opportunity to make a significant and immediate national contribution towards addressing the needs of people affected by HIV and AIDS. This is evident in the support recently provided to HIV-911 by PEPFAR for the national directory project.? ?