Lack of resources crippling abuse helpline

The two national toll-free helplines that handle the priority issues of HIV/AIDS and the abuse of women in South Africa have experienced very different treatment.

HIV/AIDS researchers reduced to tears

A nightmarish horror story of life in the poorest HIV-infected families shows that poverty in South Africa is spilling over into wholesale destitution.

Understanding youth culture is key

Over 60 percent of HIV/AIDS infections in South Africa occur before the age of 25, a recent report from the South African University of Cape Town has revealed. The report focuses on "high risk" sexual activity among the youth and makes particular reference to South Africa.

HIV/AIDS funding fails to make the leap

Hailed as a "quantum leap" in the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has become a focal point for funding efforts to bring the epidemic to heel.

Slow start to HIV/AIDS treatment roll-out in 2002

The World Health Organisation (WHO) threw down a challenge to the international community when, at the Barcelona International HIV/AIDS conference in August, it set a target of three million HIV-positive Africans to be on antiretroviral (ARV) HIV/AIDS therapy by 2005.

Sex-workers mobilise to fight HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS says

While sex-workers have been one of the groups most affected by HIV/AIDS, they have been mobilised and empowered to become leading advocates and educators on HIV prevention and care, according to Aurorita Mendoza, Prevention and Vulnerability Adviser at the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

SA Port Operations funds orphans of AIDS

South African Port Operations (SAPO) advanced its "HIV/AIDS Lifestyle Management" policy recently with the donation of a large sum of money and clothing to the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Social Welfare. SAPO announced its Lifestyle Management Programme, aimed at reaching out to the community, earlier in 2002.

Twin crises devastating families, UN envoy

United Nations Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Humanitarian Needs in Southern Africa, James T. Morris, has highlighted the plight of women and children and food shortages as the twin crises of HIV/AIDS.

French NGO gets land to build HIV/AIDS centre

Hanuman, a French NGO campaigning against HIV/AIDS has acquired land on which an HIV/AIDS therapy centre worth US $230,000 will be built. The land was granted by a presidential decree on Tuesday.

Having sex under false pretences seen as rape

The draft of a new bill on sexual offences states that having sex while pretending to be someone else could land lustful men and women in hot water - they could face rape charges. So could people who know that they are infected with a life-threatening sexually transmitted disease such as HIV/AIDS but who fail to disclose this to their sexual partner.