Auntie Merle's' recipe for HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS is a serious disease but when Auntie Merle, aka popular local comedian Marc Lottering, enters with her lemon meringues and her recipe for HIV/AIDS in the Workplace, the ice is broken and the subject given a lighter tone.

Auntie Merle's recipe for HIV/AIDS in the Workplace, a video hosted by Lottering, was launched recently at The Green Dolphin at the V&A Waterfront.

The video, a 28-minute educational and skills upliftment programme, is part of the One Community Project, an initiative which aims to empower management and staff to create a workplace that is HIV/AIDS-educated, stigma-free, compassionate and where workers know their HIV/AIDS status.

Research has shown that many business owners don't know how to deal with an HIV-positive employee and how to introduce HIV/AIDS awareness and education into the workplace. The video promotes discussion and interaction between workers and employers.

It also encourages workers to volunteer for the peer education project.

Ordinary workers who volunteer to become peer educators undergo a short training course to enable them to provide an educative and supportive role for employees and to encourage them to have HIV/AIDS tests.

The video, which is aimed at small to medium enterprises (SMEs), which have between 10 to 100 employees, has been sponsored by the city of Cape Town and has been backed by the director of health, Dr Ivan Toms.

The video helps companies to adopt realistic, cost-effective HIV/AIDS action plans by:
Addressing both workers' and employers' fears surrounding HIV/AIDS.
Encouraging both management and all workers to undergo voluntary Aids testing.
Promoting the city's peer education programme, whereby each company selects a worker to undergo training as a peer educator.

Helping create an atmosphere in SMEs throughout the Western Cape where those with HIV feel safe to declare their status. Encouraging everybody in the company to take responsibility for HIV/AIDS but also to jointly decide what the best action plan is for that particular workplace.

The video, produced by Face 2 Face Films, was presented at 20 small businesses in the Western Cape between May and July this year and was generally well received and the humour appreciated.

Fifteen thousand videos will be delivered free to SMEs throughout the Western Cape and a support hotline will be established to support the process and conduct a study on the effect of the videos.

For more information call Total Media on 021 448 2020, fax 021 448 2525 or e-mail [email protected]