It means that the clinic, which serves a very poor community of over 30 000 people, is now able to provide ARV services in addition to child immunisation, child growth monitoring, integrated management of childhood diseases, chronic diseases, family planning, antenatal care, cancer screening and tuberculosis services.

Minah Zama, who lives in Sweet Waters and uses the Weilers Farm Clinic, congratulated it on the achievement, saying she was happy that such a service was finally offered at a facility near her home.

With this latest centre, 50 percent of Joburg’s clinics now provide ARV treatment. Mfikoe urged HIV/Aids patients to exercise regularly and eat healthily, in addition to taking their medication religiously.

She also encouraged Weilers Farm residents to actively participate in the fight against HIV by talking about the importance of abstinence, faithfulness and using condoms. “In our communities, let us speak out against the stigmatisation of people living with Aids and encourage their integration into society as valued members of our society.”

Welfare
People were pointed towards welfare organisations, non-governmental organisations, faith-based societies and community organisations in Weilers Farm that provided education, prevention drives, treatment and care for those infected with and affected by HIV.

World Aids Day is on Thursday, 1 December. The day provides an opportunity for people to unite in the fight against HIV, show support for people living with the virus and commemorate those who have died from it.

Joburg has a full programme planned for the day, starting with a mobile test centre at Park Station in the inner city. It will be open from 6am to 7am for those wanting to know their status.

From Park Station, there will be a march to Newtown Park, here where the formal programme for the day will start. There will be live entertainment and speeches by political figures and people in the medical industry.

Kgosi Letlape will be the guest speaker. Letlape is the president of the African Medical Association, a former chairperson of the South African Medical Association and a past president of the World Medical Association (WMA), the global representative body for physicians.

He made history as the first black person to qualify as an ophthalmologist in South Africa during the apartheid years, and was the first black person to be elected WMA president.

Nelson Mandela Bridge
Executive Mayor Parks Tau and the member of the City’s mayoral committee for health and social development, Nonceba Molwele, will be at the event, which will end at 1pm. Later in the day, Nelson Mandela Bridge and the Metro Centre will be lit up. The lights will be on for 30 days.

A number of regional events are taking place in the build-up to World Aids Day. They include Kha Ri Ambe Youth Dialogue, Door to Door and Every Child’s Birthday.

Kha Ri Ambe Youth Dialogue has been running since 15 November and will continue until 3 December. It comprises discussions in all seven City regions. The aim is to get young people to talk about HIV/Aids, how it affects them, what it means to them and finding solutions on how to mitigate its impact on communities.

Social grants and human development in their communities are also debated. For more information about venues and times of these dialogues, call the Joburg spokesperson, Nkosinathi Nkabinde, on 011 407 6477.

Door to Door is run by IJozi Ihlomile, an organisation made up of out of school youth who are trained to go from door to door educating people about sexually transmitted diseases, preventing mother-to-child transmission and the importance of safe sex. An intensified programme started on 15 November and is expected to continue until 3 December.

On Saturday, 10 December, Every Child’s Birthday will take place at Innes Free Park in Sandton. It is an annual birthday party thrown by the City and its partners for orphaned and vulnerable children in Joburg.