Better farm health ( Monday 23 August 2010 )

The Capespan Foundation appointed CareWorks to assist in establishing a workplace-based HIV and AIDS peer educator network in the Northern Cape.

CareWorks has extensive experience in HIV/Aids health-related initiatives. The network programme included training a representative group of Northern Cape farms in May 2010. These peer educators were trained to provide correctly informed HIV/Aids education and guidance to fellow workers and community members on Capespan's co-owned farms.

In addition to the initial training, CareWorks will give monthly forum support to the trained peer educators. Explained Capespan Foundation manager Ansonette van der Merwe, "The main purpose of establishing a workplace peer educator network is to address the HIV/Aids-related stigma, with direct access to correct educational information and guidance for farm workers. "CareWorks also assisted the Capespan Foundation with an extensive follow-up awareness- to-action training, counselling and voluntary testing (ACT) programme in the Eastern Cape during May. Building on the peer educator representative network already established by the IFC Thandi Land Transformation Programme, ACT again will be made available to at least 300 farm workers living and working on fruit production farms in the Addo region as a preventative HIV/Aids campaign."

The 4 1/2 hour long ACT process consists of awareness-to-action training wherein all participants are educated about HIV/Aids - what it is, how it's spread and how they can protect themselves, their legal rights and treatment options available. Attendance is compulsory.

All participants are then required to attend one-on-one counselling sessions to ask sensitive questions and prepare for testing should they choose to do so. Post-testing counselling also takes place.

Once the first two steps have been completed, participants have the opportunity to learn their HIV status on a voluntary basis. Testing is confidential and a barcode system ensures anonymity.

The Foundation-run HIV/Aids programmes are based on government HIV and Aids statistics and are aligned with government health initiatives.

Pic: A workplace peer educator group during a training session

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