Tshwane — Four South African teachers' unions have joined with U.S. and South African partners to save teachers' lives through an innovative program combining peer education, HIV testing and counseling, plus antiretroviral (ARV) treatment for those who need it.
A two-year pilot project, called "Prevention, Care and Treatment Access for South African Educators," (PCTA) was launched Tuesday at Zifumeleni Secondary School in Orlando East, Soweto. The programme will train 7,500 peer educators and provide ARV treatment to 2,300 teachers and their spouses in Eastern Cape, Kwa-Zulu Natal and Mpumalanga provinces.
"Young teachers are dying and more may not be found at all," said Willy Madisha, president of South Africa's largest teachers' trade union, SADTU.
Peer educators will be trained by a 57 "master trainers," and will then return to their schools to hold workshops for their colleagues. Programme Director Khanyi Zwane said she hopes that by allowing teachers to learn from their colleagues, the trainings will help prevent HIV transmission, increase access to counseling, testing and treatment, and empower educators to develop workplace policies on HIV/Aids.
To evaluate PCTA's success, teachers will send monthly reports via cell phone text messages.
Program advocates said they hope PCTA will stem the rising tide of deaths in South Africa's teaching ranks.
About 4000 teachers died in South Africa last year, according to a study by the Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa (HSRC), and 12.7 percent of educators nationally are infected with HIV. Teacher infection rates are the highest in the three provinces addressed by the pilot program, Kwa-Zulu Natal (21.8 percent), Mpumalanga (19.1 percent) and Eastern Cape (13.8 percent).
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Representatives from the four teachers unions' -- SADTU, NATU, SAOU and NAPTOSA - said teachers are key to the functioning of South African communities, and that without them, the outlook for South Africa's development is grim.
"[The programme] is the answer to a prayer," said Pumia Kubus, coordinator of Tshepang Trust Project, which will administer the treatment portion of the initiative. At least 10,000 teachers need immediate ARV treatment, said HSRC researcher Mpumi Zunga-Dirwayi. .
Although South Africa's department of education has agreed to release teachers from their regular assignments for the trainings, SADTU president Willy Madisha said more must be done to prevent HIV transmission among teachers and to treat them once they are infected. He said many teachers who know their HIV status do not know where treatment is available.
"Just because the president and the health minister wear a red ribbon does not mean they are dealing with HIV/Aids," Madisha said. "We must move beyond the red ribbon. We as teachers must move beyond it."
The project is funded through the President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) a five-year, $15 billion U.S. initiative to combat HIV/Aids. Through the Centers for Disease Control, Pepfar will spend at least $1.9 million for the pilot program, and an additional $1.5 million to provide ARV treatment to teachers and their spouses.
In addition to the four trade unions and the Tshepang Trust Project, additional PCTA partners include the Solidarity Center, the American Federation of Teachers and the Academy for Educational Development.
