Taking the action forward : Reflections from the ground by Tanja Arntz, Co-ordinator, Campus HIV/AIDS Support Unit
As the Co-ordinator of the Campus HIV/AIDS Support Unit at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, I work directly with student organisations from the Durban campus on creating student awareness around HIV/AIDS. Our main aim is to encourage students to translate what they know into a change in behaviour, and so to reduce their vulnerability to HIV and AIDS. We offer students resources that will assist them in deepening their knowledge, both of themselves and of the epidemic - and in realising that whatever their race, financial status or cultural background, they are all personally affected by HIV and AIDS.
As a university committed to finding dynamic responses to the epidemic, we work to nurture graduates who are able to engage in genuine dialogue around their sexuality and the social issues that cut across HIV/AIDS its socio-economic impact, its epidemiology, the biological nuts and bolts of transmission and the immune system, stigma, caring for HIV-positive people, self-protection and the like.
During Orientation Week this year, our focus has been on welcoming new students to the University and introducing them to our services and strategies. We were almost overwhelmed by the intensity of the passion and the range of activity generated by the Students Representative Council (SRC) and student organisations Orientation 2003 programme. At a point when my colleagues have all commented on how burnt-out they feel, how little hope there seems to be in terms of progress in the many-fronted struggle against HIV/AIDS, I can honestly say that I feeling totally inspired after our Orientation programme.
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Our newly elected SRC is totally dedicated to HIV/AIDS awareness, with a number of members having recently pursued voluntary counselling and testing to get to know their HIV status. The central theme of the 2003 Orientation Programme has been NU United Against HIV/AIDS and the student body has been committed to engaging in HIV-awareness in unique, novel and entertaining ways. Some highlights included the performance of a play produced and acted by the Drama department on our Pietermaritzburg campus called Its not what you say, a dance programme performed by a group called Beyond Words; there were also poetry readings, residence committees performing plays, and the Hip-Hop Associations own composition which was centred on abstinence and condom usage.
I have often felt that when I stand up to give a presentation to students about HIV/AIDS, their eyes glaze over and one can almost hear the collective sigh of Been there, done that got the T-shirt and given it away & - yet the SRC programme was jam-packed with fresh new ideas to challenge this apathy.
It's not what you say was developed through a process of workshopping with students about their day-to-day worries and experiences around HIV/AIDS. The actors depicted different scenarios of personal experiences of HIV: to mention a few, the pressure of religious beliefs as against the pressure of partners whose physical urges prove very persuasive; a gay student who had been raped having to tell his partner that he had been infected with HIV; a couple in a two-year long relationship facing the discovery that she was HIV-positive.
Other highlights in this programme included the performance of a short skit by the Tower Residence House Committee which centred on a local chief trying to find a suitable husband for his beautiful daughter. The first suitor is a really trendy Hip-Hop guy, who promises the world to her. The second is a real nerd who presents his proposal to her along with condoms, saying that he believes in protection for both of them - and the daughter chooses him.
The Charlies Angels, a group of students from Charles James residence, produced a play on Voluntary Counselling and Testing and enacted a counselling session to give students an idea of what the process involves. Performers from His Peoples Church gave a rap-performance, challenging students to celebrate in abstinence. A group calling themselves Condom sang songs about how HIV/AIDS affects their lives, and the Hip-Hoppers strutted and jammed their way through an appeal tostudents to protect themselves against infection. One student jumped onto the stage and read out his poem about abstinence&
The diversity of creative approaches to prevention and the energy with which the students fuelled their messages completely engaged the audience. As an AIDS activist racking ones brain for innovative methods of HIV/AIDS messaging, my cup was running over! So yes, although my daily workload often makes me feel overwhelmed and disheartened, Orientation Week re-ignited my mind and spirit, and I look forward to a year of unified and committed action. We hope you will join us!
Tanja Arntz, Campus HIV/AIDS Support Unit Co-ordinator
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