Welcome to the "test" version of the new website and database of the Centre for HIV/AIDS Networking, or HIVAN, as it has come to be known.
There can be very few citizens of KwaZulu-Natal who remain unaware of the extent to which the HIV/AIDS epidemic is engulfing our province, and amongst the academic community, of the challenges it entails, which are unprecedented in the roughly 5000-year known history of the destruction and adaptations resulting from the evolution of humans and their parasites. Africa bears 70% of the global burden of this disease, and most of this is concentrated in the southern regions.
We in KZN sit at the very centre of this terrible tragedy. As a leading institution in this region, we have a special responsibility to society to find the best proven methods to conquer the HIV/AIDS epidemic, to make these measures (as we discover them) more widely known, to determine the range of strategies appropriate to their implementation and finally to facilitate such implementation. Our contributions may be small, but we can magnify their impact by doing first-rate work in bringing together people and their ideas on controlling the epidemic. We hope that this site and the various activities planned by HIVAN will support these efforts.
HIVAN and its staff
HIVAN was established at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban eight months ago to stimulate multidisciplinary research and training partnerships in the field of HIV/AIDS, to provide mechanisms for cross-sectoral networking around HIV/AIDS research, training and intervention, and to assist in ensuring that the University itself is equipped to deal with the effects of the epidemic on its own campuses.
HIVAN currently has external funding for a three-year period to support a small core staff, consisting of two Directors (one from the biomedical sciences and the other from the social and behavioural sciences), a Researcher, a Project Manager and an Administrative Officer. It also has a budget for technical development of its IT components, as well as for further fundraising activities to place HIVAN in a position to realise the ambitious - but entirely necessary - agenda it has set itself. Several other contract staff members have been engaged against a short-term grant to assist with HIVAN's start-up phase, while a number of the University's permanent academic staff members assist on either an honorary or voluntary basis. We are deeply indebted to them and to the many other individuals from the University community for the assistance they have provided in the past months.
Website and database launch
After a period of intensive preparation and development of physical and technical infrastructure, a number of HIVAN's core components are to be launched over the next few months. First among these is this website and its associated on-line database of more than 800 organisations and individuals engaged in HIV/AIDS work in KwaZulu-Natal. As you will see, the website contains up-to-date news on HIV/AIDS and a host of other facilities such as discussion boards, useful links, information on funding opportunities, basic educational materials and many other features. Over time and through interaction with our users, we plan to augment these features and the database significantly. HIVAN would appreciate comments, suggestions and other contributions from the University community before the site is launched publicly next month.
Details of University staff
As many of you will know, over the past few months we have been engaged in a data-gathering effort on all campuses to ensure that our database includes the details of as many of our University staff, students and Schools active in the HIV/AIDS field as possible. To assist us with this, please search the HIVAN Networker database to make sure that we have you listed and that the information on you and your School, Centre or Unit is comprehensive and accurate. We would be grateful if you would take the time to add or update the relevant details where necessary. The system has been designed to allow users to do this themselves, and instructions are provided within the site. Please feel free to give HIVAN a call should you need assistance.
Community newsletter
In addition to these electronic media, HIVAN is producing a community newsletter called Sondela (meaning "coming closer"), the first issue of which will be released at the end of this month. Published in both English and isiZulu, it aims to draw into the networking fold those who do not have access to the website and database. Copies will be distributed to all Schools and service divisions within the University.
The Campus HIV/AIDS Support Unit
Another major initiative, the Campus HIV/AIDS Support Unit, will shortly come to fruition as a result of close consultation with a range of stakeholders within the University, including student organisations, Student Counselling Services, the Campus Health Clinic, Residence Services and the newly established AIDS Intervention Office (operating within the office of Professor Salim Abdool Karim). To be opened at the start of the second semester, the Unit will provide not only advice and counselling, but will also serve as the locus for a plethora of campus-based HIV/AIDS-related activities, from peer counsellor training to HIV/AIDS-related service-learning initiatives and student-run community outreach activities. Premises for the Campus Support Unit on the Howard College campus have recently been completed, and are conveniently located opposite the entrance to Townley Williams Residence, close to both the E G Malherbe Library and the Rick Turner Student Union Building. On the Pietermaritzburg campus, the Unit currently operates from an office in Student Counselling but will shortly be relocating to the former SRC Bookroom in the Students Union Building. HIVAN hopes to establish satellite offices for the Campus Support Unit on the University's two remaining campuses, Edgewood and the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, in the second half of the year. We are currently raising funds to support these activities on all campuses.
HIV/AIDS research and teaching symposium
Also planned for the second semester is a University-wide HIV/AIDS Symposium around research and training in the field of HIV/AIDS. The Symposium will serve as a forum for showcasing current research, encouraging partnerships between researchers and developing a University-wide multidisciplinary HIV/AIDS research agenda. A similar process will be pursued in respect of teaching and training, both to stimulate integration of HIV/AIDS into curricula and to encourage collaborative teaching and in-service training programmes around HIV/AIDS. HIVAN has already established a community reference group, the members of which will provide input on community and grassroots needs and priorities for research, training and capacity-building.
Fellowship and Job Shadow programmes
Other initiatives to be launched later this year include an HIV/AIDS Visiting Fellows Programme and an African Job Shadow Exchange Programme. The Fellowship Programme will bring to the University prominent international scholars in the HIV/AIDS field, while the Job Shadow Programme will allow for residential and work exchanges between public sector and civil society HIV/AIDS practitioners in KwaZulu-Natal and counterparts elsewhere in South Africa and Africa.
Comments on and contributions to any aspect of HIVAN's work are most welcome, and can be sent to HIVAN's general e-mail address: [email protected] . Further information can also be obtained by contacting HIVAN's Administrative Officer, Andisha Maharaj, on Ext 3195.
We sincerely hope that all members of the University community will make use of HIVAN's services, participate in its activities and become partners in the fight against HIV/AIDS. There is so much to be done.
Jerry Coovadia and Eleanor Preston-Whyte
Co-Directors : HIVAN
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