SOUTH AFRICA: New project to ease impact of AIDS on teachers

JOHANNESBURG, 4 Oct 2005 (PLUSNEWS) - South Africa, with help from the US, has launched a multimillion-dollar programme to help contain the spread of HIV/AIDS among the country's school teachers.

The US $3.4 million project follows a recent study by South Africa's Human Sciences Research Council, which found that close to 13 percent of teachers were HIV-positive.

Agence France-Presse quoted Willy Madisha, president of the South African Democratic Teachers' Union, as saying, "We have to move beyond the red ribbon ... A silent war is raging and many of our teachers die silently. We are facing a disaster."

The project will target teachers in the east-coast province of KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga province in the northeast and the Eastern Cape region in the southeast, considered three of the areas hardest-hit by the pandemic.

[ENDS]