Capricorn District Honoring 67 Minutes for Mandela day Through HIV Awareness and Community Empowerment


Published 19 July 2015

On the 17th of July 2015, FPD Capricorn District team participated in an event honoring Mandela day in Polokwane Municipality. The event took place at Lukama Centre for the Handicapped. It was conducted in collaboration with Department of Health, Moletji FM, Builders warehouse, great north transport and SANTA dedicating their time, skills, and money for community empowerment in the area.

The FPD team included a Community coordinator, CBCT Nurse and Counselors which provided HIV Counseling and Testing onsite. The counselors provided Pre and Post tests counseling of HIV and TB screening while the nurse was coordinating the services. The target area was Moletjie community which is poverty stricken and also affected by HIV/AIDS pandemic. The event was well organized and attendance was good. They planned to empower the community of Moletjie which is a rural area struck by poverty.

The community was empowered with the following skills:

  • How to start Greenery projects in their community and how to maintain them to alleviate poverty and create jobs.

  • How to plant vegetables and Builders warehouse provided them with the gardening material.

  • To access and utilize health care services provided at the nearest facilities

The success following the event was that the CBCT mobile unit managed to counsel and tests 44 people for HIV and they also did symptom screening of TB for the same group. They also managed to link people who require further care with the nearest health care facilities and they supplied promotional materials (bandanas) to those who participated in HIV testing