ACET South Africa

Around 5 million people in South Africa are infected with HIV - more than a fifth of all adults. Every part of the country is seriously affected. Confusion about the causes of AIDS have made prevention efforts more difficult. Around 300,000 children become AIDS orphans every year.

ACET South Africa is a new inititative which we hope to launch in 2005, working in partnership with several organisations in Eastern Cape, working mainly with the Xhosa people (between East London and Durban on the map).

For several years Paul Woodman and Andrea Mason have been regularly visiting the region, both of whom have years of experience of working with ACET-linked care and prevention programmes on the South Coast of England. At the 2005 ACET International Alliance conference in Entebbe several South African programmes were represented, including the New Frontiers work based in Pietermaritzburg, headed by Benson Okyere, together with a new care initiative in Eastern Cape under the leadership of David Mniki.