Sinikithemba Choir tours

Giving us hope - McCord Hospital's Sinikithemba Choir tours the US McCord Hospital's Sinikithemba Choir, which is made up of 21 singers affected by HIV/AIDS, toured the east coast of the USA in November 2002 during a three-week sponsored concert series to raise funds for the AIDS programme of the Church World Services in Africa.

The Choir performed with four musicians, including the Grammy Award winner Tim Janis, in New York City, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Philadelphia and Washington DC. "This tour followed the successful 'Symphony of Hope' fundraising concert held in Durban earlier in 2002", said Dr Helga Holst, Medical Superintendent of McCord Hospital. She said the choir's performances would help to "put a human face to the HIV/AIDS crisis in our country, and show how those affected by the epidemic can be empowered by love and acceptance."

The Sinikithemba HIV/AIDS Christian Care Centre, established in 1996, is based at McCord Hospital in Overport, Durban, and offers a comprehensive programme of health for HIV/AIDS patients, including social work services, counselling, training, pastoral and medical care, income generation projects and anti-retroviral treatment as appropriate. The Centre's Director, Mrs Nonhlanhla Mhlongo, explains that people living with HIV/AIDS are an under-served community who need help in all aspects of their lives.

"We offer our clients pre- and post-test as well as bereavement counselling, support groups, information on welfare-related matters, options for treatment and physical monitoring," she says. "Our skills training project gives destitute patients the chance to become productive through beadwork, sewing and wirework - although finding suitable markets for their goods is an ongoing challenge."

However, there is growing demand for Sinikithemba's work, not only in terms of patient and community care - which includes the running of feeding schemes for impoverished households affected by HIV/AIDS - but also by churches and industries who benefit from its counselling training programme.

There is also increasing support offered to the Centre by ordinary citizens and different sectors in KZN, more recently around the Choir's concert tour, which was sponsored by the Church World Services and a Swiss funder. East Coast Radio promoted a clothing drive to ensure that the singers would have enough warm items for their journey. "The response was wonderful," said Dr Holst. "The public donated so much clothing that we were able to meet all the Choir members' needs and provide the remainder of the clothes collected to very poor patients and their families." The radio station reports having received over 400 e-mail messages from members of the public offering help.

Dr Holst went along with the group on the tour, not only to provide medical care if necessary, but also to establish links with AIDS-care centres at Harvard University in Boston and Yale University in New Haven. Her trip was funded by HIVAN as part of its Job Shadow Programme. "We hope to be able to twin our Sinikithemba Centre with those at Yale and Harvard in order to share expertise, resources and materials through regular exchange programmes, " she explained.

Understandably, there has been great joy about the concert tour and the release of the Symphony of Hope concert CD. The Choir returned to the US in February 2003 to sing at the opening of the International AIDS Conference in Boston and a second CD is being pressed. For a number of the Choir members as individuals, these experiences have given them the confidence to disclose their HIV status. The work of Sinikithemba offers hope at many levels, and people throughout KZN pray for and take pride in the Choir's mission.

For more information about HIVAN's Job Shadow Programme:
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: 27 (0) 31 268 5809
Fax: 27 (0) 31 209 8883
Postal: HIVAN, P O Box 37587 Overport, KwaZulu-Natal, 4067

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