HIVAN / WCRP Forums - The HIVAN / WCRP Forum has a new partner - the US Consulate. They have come on board to help sponsor more workshops, as well as enabling our members and colleagues to meet with some of their very interesting visitors. We had more than 14 Forums this year, including five Youth Peace Forums, and a special celebration for International Peace Day. Every forum has 60 to 90 people participating and the YPFs have over 1000 young people at theirs.
16 Days of Activism - WCRP and HIVAN joined with Diakonia and the KZN survivors of violence for a very successful 16 Days of Activism against Violence against Women. The E-campaign of “Ring the Bell! Stop the Violence!” also saw articles in the press, a march, a wonderful T Shirt campaign at the City Hall preceded by a beautiful service at Emmanuel Cathedral .

HIVAN has a networking team dedicated to facilitating contact, communication and collaboration within and across the higher education, public, private, faith-based, non-government, and community-based sectors. HIVAN’s website, database, newsletters, reviews, and fora are all intended to enable and encourage these interactions. These fora are attended by community workers, volunteers and representatives from NGOs, FBOs, CBOs and government. They create a context for people and organisations to network and build contacts outside of the usual networks, raise knowledge levels and expose people to relevant and timely issues surrounding HIV and AIDS and creates dialogue between groups that don’t normally come in contact with each other. HIVAN’s networking fora are:

• The MRC KZN AIDS Forum
• Faith-Based Leaders and HIV/AIDS Researchers Forum
• Youth Fora
• Capacity-building Workshops
• Home-Based Care Workshops
• Contentious Issues Panel Discussion
• The HIVAN North and South Coast Communities Fora
• SHAPE
• The Public Health HIV/AIDS Journal Club Forum
• Internal HIVAN Forum

The HIVAN networking team partnered with IMBEWU in the 2004 Sectoral HIV/AIDS Partnerships for Excellence (SHAPE) Series. SHAPE facilitates project-based partnerships through information-sharing, small group discussions, post-event networking, and information-gathering. Each series culminates in a LAPA (Launch-A-Project Alliance) event, which is followed by more intensive project-related training and job shadowing.

The 2004 series, entitled Sister ACT, focused on strengthening the resilience of women and children in addressing HIV/AIDS, particularly in the eThekwini municipality, and in so doing, the series gave effect to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) World AIDS campaign theme for 2004.

Forty participants attended from a variety of community-based organisations. The sessions explored the role of personal responsibility in prevention, opportunities for skills training and for accreditation as service providers, and the impact of HIV on home-based carers, traditional healers and the lesbian and gay community. Interventions of specific relevance to psycho-social support and income generation were showcased.

The final event, held on World AIDS Day, included six presentations by SHAPE participants on their project and partnership ideas. The outcomes were:

• Rural women from KwaXimba in Cato Ridge identified the Utholwethu Rural Development Project as a partner to distribute vegetables to households identified as home to orphan children. Training in nutrition was requested and will be offered by a retired nurse. Utholwethu will facilitate a relationship with the Department of Agriculture to assist with vegetable gardening.
• Bhekimpilo project members, based in Cato Manor, will partner with Gozololo in the establishment of a day-care centre. Training in child-care and edu-care through the National Association for Child Care workers is planned.
• Group leaders of the Bhikimpilo project also envisage establishment of holistic drop-in centres offering a range of HIV/AIDS services in Umlazi and KwaMashu. The projects will partner with a drop-in centre in Imfume. Members will receive training in basic HIV/AIDS counselling through the HOPE Centre. Training in grant acquisition will be sought from the Department of Social Welfare.
• The HIV-positive support group linked to the HOPE Centre has identified Eager Artists as a partner to deliver education through drama. The training includes voice-grooming and script-writing. A representative from the Durban Institute of Technology will provide the training.
• The high-risk area project presented by Imbewu Development Trust will be based in the Point Road area. They have identified the Centre for AIDS Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) and HIVAN as partners in the project and will receive training in the PLACE (Priorities for Local AIDS Control Efforts) method.
• Traditional healers in the eThekwini region would like to partner with a retired nurse and work at local sites to offer pre- and post-test counselling. They will receive training in counselling though the HOPE Centre and will undergo a 59-day home-based care programme which will be run by the eThekwini AIDS Programme throughout the year.