Health outreach campaign targets men and youth in Alexandra
Nurses in gazebos at Kwabhekilanga Sports Ground offered critical health services to Alexandra residents, aiming to shrink South Africa’s alarming HIV treatment gap.
Region E health and youth sector launched a mobile health outreach campaign at Kwabhekilanga Sports Ground on June 20.
It brought vital services like HIV testing and counselling, TB screening, family planning, and health education to the community. The campaign aimed to reach those least likely to set foot in a clinic, including young people, but despite the visibility and intent, attendance from the primary target was underwhelming.
Read more: Efforts to mobilise men against GBV and spread of HIV continue
“We expected a little bit more youth, but even though we did not see more of them, they did show up. Also, we just wanted the community around the area, especially children, because we know they are no longer going to school,” multisectoral co-ordinator in Region E Lerato Malemela shared.
Malemela reflected on the country’s ‘Close The Gap’ campaign, which seeks to shrink the HIV treatment gap by bringing 1.1 million people into treatment. She said the outreach is part of Region E health’s efforts to reduce that gap.
At the launch of the HIV treatment Gap campaign in Soweto on February 25, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi revealed that men remain behind in taking HIV/Aids treatment, noting that the gap is mostly comprised of men. Since then, the Father a Nation (FAN) organisation in Alexandra has been engaging with men and encouraging them to close the gap.
FAN member, the Stepping Tennis Foundation member, and co-organiser of the outreach campaign Sibusiso Shongwe said the campaign was intended to focus on that demographic of men. “So, what we have seen at the FAN men’s forum is that men are afraid to go to the health facilities. They are scared of queuing at the clinics. Here, there are no queues, they just walk in, receive services, and leave. That is why we decided that we should bring the clinic to them.”
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