Act against Aids

Current projects

Helping people help themselves

Our goal is to enable our patients to help them­selves, and to give them back some prospects for their future. Children and ado­les­cents require special attention, and we work care­fully to assess their exact needs, among other things with house calls by our social worker.

Nutritional support

An exceptionally high number of our patients are suffering from hunger. Thanks to the emergency programme set up in 2016 we are able to provide support to up to hundreds of families per year. Furthermore, we are also helping people who have land available to them to feed themselves with efficient maize farming. By handing out a special type of porridge, we ensure that children can develop properly and that patients who are ill can recover quickly.

Psychosocial support

Our patients have to contend with a range of different problems, and suffer from the fact that HIV/Aids is a taboo disease. With individual support, group therapy and self-help groups, we help them to see prospects for their future once again. These services are aimed in particular at target groups such as adolescents, young mothers, and patients at risk of treatment failure.

Schooling for all

It is especially important for us to ensure that all of the children treated at Newlands Clinic can go to school. After all, education is essential for a better life. We cover the school fees for orphans and particularly poor families.

Emergency aid

Thanks to our hardship fund we can finance life-saving operations for our patients, which are carried out at other clinics. A dentist also visits our clinic every two weeks, and provides free treatment for the most urgent cases.

Vocational skills training

With nationwide unemployment in excess of 90%, young HIV-positive people have hardly any chance of finding a job. With our vocational skills training programme we give patients aged between 18 and 23 the opportunity to train to become hairdressers, tailors or bakers, and to set up their own business.

Cooperation and mentoring

Our training courses have given rise to cooperation with other organisations. Three clinics run by Population Services International have taken on the Newlands Clinic treatment model in its entirety, while others receive mentoring support. Our software ePOC is now also in use at other clinics, where it is helping to improve the quality of treatment.

Project to empower women

Most of our female patients suffering from HIV come from particularly challenging circumstances. They are responsible for their families, are unemployed, destitute, and some are survivors of domestic violence. These women are setting up their small-scale businesses, generating an income, and gaining independence.