The Topsy Foundation helps people in rural townships infected with HIV providing testing, treatment and counseling.
In South Africa approximately 5.6 million people are living with HIV- higher than in any other country. The largest percentage of people with HIV are women. Access to HIV treatment has increased ten-fold over the last five years. Lifesaving anti-retroviral therapy (ART) is now available in South Africa. It has the potential to turn what is a death sentence for children who lack access to treatment into a chronic, manageable disease. Children who have access to pediatric ART can survive into adolescence and adulthood. However, only 28% of HIV-positive children in South Africa currently have access to pediatric ART. Not only does ART treatment help people recover their health, it also makes them less infectious and if pregnant women receive ART in time it can help them give birth to children free of HIV. Since the emergence of Aids in South Africa in the late 1980s, a lost generation of mothers have passed away leaving two million HIV orphans.
South Africa’s charities work tirelessly in an attempt to reduce the 1500 new infections each day and reduce infant mortality.
The majority of rural women interviewed by Amnesty International said that their male partners were reluctant to test for HIV or refused to be tested — even when there were strong indications they might be HIV-infected. Many of the women faced abuse from their partners when they tried to access health services for HIV-related treatment and care.
communities.
The people in this feature live in rural communities in and around the crossroads of Mpumalanga, Guteng and Free State provences. This are often referred to as the forgotten part of the country due to its scant infrastructure and lack of large scale industry. It is home to several large rural communities around the towns of Balfour and Grootvlei. This feature documents life in these rural areas and shows generations of children, young women, mothers and grandmothers affected, or infected, by HIV.- <