"Friends"

Chronik The Ndlovu - AIDS Awareness Programm Der Afrika - Tag Sponsoren

Tanztheater "Zweigleisig" - Choreographie: Elfi Troi

Gastbesuch des Tanztheater – Ensembles des TPZ Brixen in Südafrika. Das aktuelle Stück „Zweigleisig“ (Regie und Choreographie: Elfi Troi) wird an mehreren Hoch- und Oberschulen Südafrikas aufgeführt. Auf dem Programm stehen auch Workshops zum Thema „Sexuelle Gewalt“ und in diesem Rahmen besichtigt das Ensemble das Ndlovu – Medical – Centre in Mpumalanga und lernt dort die Arbeit der AIDS – Volunteer – Gruppe kennen.

Patrick Kofler dokumentiert den Gastbesuch in Südafrika durch Videoaufnahmen.

·   Aufführungen und Vorträge an Südtiroler Schulen und Jugendzentren, sowie an der Universität Innsbruck

·   Teilnahme am Afrika – Tag der OEW und KVW am 24. März 2001 (Ort: voraussichtlich Haus Voitsberg in Vahrn)

·   offene Workshops innerhalb der Theaterwerkstätten des Theaterpädagogischen Zentrums Brixen

·   Begegnungen mit medizinischen und sozialen Einrichtungen

·   Begegnung mit Vertretern des nationalen AIDS – Verbands LILA/ ITALIEN

The Ndlovu AIDS Awareness Programm

In 1994 Liesje and Hugo Tempelman took the initiative to start a community health project in Elandsdoorn, Moutse in the province of Mpumalanga, South Africa.

Ndlovu Medical Centre in Elandsdoorn has been functioning since 1994. They decided to settle in the area in order to establish the medical centre and provide medical care within Elandsdoorn and its surrounding townships.

Currently, there are three doctors, a dentist and 17 support staff members working at the NMC. The spacious clinic includes a pharmacy, five consultation rooms, a basic laboratory, a polyclinic operating room, a dental unit, an x-ray section, an ultra sound division and a fourteen-bed maternity unit.

The clinic is an approved clinic and registered with the Department of Health, Mpumalanga as a Medical Centre with an attached Maternity Unit.

 Furthermore they wanted to contribute to the overall development of the area.

 Development initiated through Ndlovu Medical Centre always originated out of needs following medical problems or from requests of the community.

Projects already realised are:

Ndlovu Nutritional Unit: an educational feeding program for malnourished children and their caretakers

Ndlovu Postal Agency: a postal agency with copy and fax facilities and two thousand post-boxes made available to the community in order to provide services which were not existing within 30 kilometres.

Elandsdoorn Bakery: a bakery as a community project in order to supply a nutritious loaf of bread for the community and provide employment in the township. They also baked the Aids Ribbon buns for World Aids Day 2000.

Elandsdoorn Municipal Sport grounds: sport grounds for the youths in order to keep them of the street and pass time in a responsible way.

Monuta Home; a day-care project for elderly people proving a sewing project and a food garden together with quality time passing for the pensioners of this area.

Molagadi Preschool: a preschool built for the community especially for working mothers to guarantee them a save haven for their toddlers during working hours.

Ndlovu Tuberculosis Program: a community Tb program free of cost for the population of this area that works according to the DOT (direct observed treatment) principle.

Ndlovu Family Planning and Ante Natal Care program: a care program about choice making, child spacing, sexual risks and all the care around pregnancies.

Ngwenya Primary Dental Care Program: a community based dental care program targeted at school going children. The program works through school visits with a fully equipped mobile dental unit where we perform a dental awareness program, screen all the children and treat the dental casualties according to its needs.  

 Since August 1999 this program has been active in the Moutse area.  It consists of a peer education/counselling program in which peer educators are visiting schools and performing a drama concerning HIV/AIDS. 

The peer educators are former unemployed school youth who showed an interest to participate in this program. They have gone through thorough education and counselling programs in order to provide them with the required knowledge for this important task.

Weekly two to three schools, primary and secondary, are visited with an average of a 1000 pupils each. The drama “Friends”’ is performed for the whole school assembled in front of our mobile stage. Often the performance takes place at a dusty sandy place in front of the schools.

After the drama performance the peer educators deliver informational workshops in the classrooms, where they go into depth with the students about the problems surrounding sexuality, from HIV/AIDS/STD’s, sexual abuse, child abuse, promiscuity, incest, teacher/pupil relationships, etc.

 If clients require a more private environment they are referred to our HIV/AIDS Advice Centre next to the clinic where the well-educated counsellors are present daily.

 Their presence at community festivals starts to play an important role as well. More and more the group is invited at such events. Often they perform the drama but also their presence offers the possibility to speak with experts about the risks of promiscuity, sexually transmitted disease, sexual abuse etc.

At World AIDS DAY, the first of December 2000 the NAAP organised a community festival at their home basis in Elandsdoorn together with three other participating organizations.

 Its tremendous success is based on a broad community participation, a strong and good anti HIV/AIDS message delivered on stage by a HIV positive patient, the cooperation of good artists who performed live and a meal prepared for approximately 2000 people at the end of the event.

This Ndlovu Aids Awareness Program is hopefully the beginning of a much larger concept, which is the creation of a HIV/AIDS day care centre.  The idea behind this project is to take HIV/AIDS and the ideas surrounding HIV/AIDS out of the taboo atmosphere and provide necessary care and support to the patients affected by this epidemic which is fast overwhelming South Africa.