The Raphael Centre: Hope of light in Grahamstown

By Pelekelo Liswaniso
In the midst of social troubles and disease ravaging South Africa, I see hope for those afflicted with HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis in the Eastern Cape. The hope has been brought about by AVERT, an international charity, providing HIV/AIDS counseling and treatment to local people in Grahamstown, through the Raphael Centre.
The centre is a local innovation to assist scale down the rate of HIV infection in Grahamstown, where infections are believed to be extremely high and that many people were dying from AIDS.
Community initiative:
The Raphael Centre is a community initiative, providing care and support to people with AIDS, supporting and developing community action, and through the openness of the HIV positive people involved with the centre, to fight the stigma and discrimination surrounding the pandemic.
The centre was started by local volunteers in 1999, and is based in a house in the centre of Grahamstown. For a while it provided a limited service of support for people with AIDS. Then AVERT- the Aids Education and Research Trust- became involved at the end of 2001 and began providing financial support as well as practical help and advice. Since then the centre has employed staff, widened its services that directly supports more people living with HIV and AIDS, including Tuberculosis and has taken education into the wider community.
Pre-Test Initiative:
“This is our response to the Pre-Test Initiative and we try by all means to attend to the clients referred to us from the clinics including those on TB treatment. We are aware that TB is a killer and weakens the immune system of those with HIV,” explained Annalie Van Nikerk, the centre Manager.
Several confirmed cases of TB have since been referred to the centre from clinics in Grahamstown and they are now receiving treatment including food supplements, she said. Annalie who is popularly known as “Jabu” explained in an interview that AVERT is a charity with limited funds, and that it has only been able to guarantee support to the Raphael Centre until the summer of 2005.
“We now need to raise £40,000 a year for the next two years, if we are going to be able to continue to provide the current services, and hopefully extend and develop them further. The need is so great, but this unique centre has already shown how much can be achieved, how many people can be helped, and how many lives can be saved,” she said.
"Our outreach program is having an effect because we are attracting many visitors who drop in just to talk about HIV/AIDS. Quite often these are people who are worried they may be infected. Some of the visitors then come back for the VCT service. One woman came back the next day with vulnerable members of her family," Jabu explained. She appealed for financial assistance to well wishers including international donor agencies so that the project continues.
VCT:
A major service the centre provides and most popular is VCT (Voluntary Counselling and Treatment). People flock to the centre in increasing numbers as a result of the new community education program. The centre began its services in the autumn of 2002. Since then people are able to turn up, and using rapid testing, less than one hour later, they can find out if they are infected with HIV.
Grahamstown Bishop, Thabo Makgoba, features prominently in the centre’s brochure as one of the leading figures that knows his HIV status after a test at the Raphael Centre. He tested negative on March 1, 2004 and is considered a role model to encourage others to test and know their status. The centre also provides:
· Individual counselling and support from a lay counsellor as well as the opportunity to take part in group discussions
· Help for getting access to treatment, as well as basic medicines
· HIV/AIDS life-skills education including personal hygiene and nutrition
· Pregnant women are provided with education and access to drugs and formula milk, to prevent their children from becoming infected.
Stigma and discrimination
Stigma and discrimination have been, and indeed remain, a major obstacle in the fight against AIDS in South Africa. But the Raphael Centre took the first step to confronting the problem by encouraging clients to talk about their status openly.
Many people involved with the Centre have now personally taken the very courageous step of telling others their HIV status.
A well-known HIV positive person in the area, Xoliswa Mjuleni, says she has known she was HIV positive since 1999. She said she was initially terrified about the news but after she started going to the centre, she acquired confidence, new friends and “a reason to live.”
"We support each other. It doesn't always help having someone who has not experienced it, telling you HIV is not the end of the world. It is so much better to have someone who knows exactly what it is like to live with HIV, someone who has the same problems, the same pain. To have their sympathetic support really helps," she said
Xoliswa has declared her HIV status to her family and the black community in which she lives. They have all been supportive and those who are HIV positive, or fear that they may be, often approach her for guidance. However, another resident in the area simply, named, as Pamela has not been as fortunate. Apart from her sister with whom she lives with, her family is said to have rejected her because she is HIV positive. She has not declared her status in the community in which she lives, but she says some people know.” I’ve even brought other HIV positive people to this centre. If you spread the word about it, people come here," she explained.