BARBERTON – Umjindi Local Aids Council is moving to another level in terms of addressing the issues regarding HIV/Aids.
This comes after the municipality established a working relationship with local traditional healers.
Speaking during the traditional-healers’ workshop that was held at the community hall, the coordinator of the local Aids council, Ms Olga Nkosi, stated that it’s about time all structures unite and speak in one voice when it comes to fighting the virus, which has robbed many families of breadwinners and turned many children into orphans.
“We are not going to win this battle alone, I believe that this workshop was an eye-opener to all of us because we were sharing ideas with traditional healers to check how we are going to work together. In some cases people who were living with HIV/Aids lost their lives because they were in denial. Some of them consulted Abothokoza as they believed that they were sick because of witchcraft, only to find out that they were positive and they delayed taking ARVs,” said Nkosi.
She urged traditional healers to encourage patients to get tested so they could both know whether the person needed traditional healers’ assistance or was HIV positive.
Welcoming them, the executive mayor of Umjindi Local Municipality, Cllr Lazarus Mashaba said, “I’d like to applaud the step that has been taken by our traditional healers and our local Aids council for creating this relationship. It’s true that when we unite, we can overcome many challenges that are destroying our nation.
We must not judge each other’s beliefs, we need to stand up and encourage community members to get tested so that we can see that we are moving forward.”
A member of the Traditional Healers Organisation (THO), Thokoza Jubindaba Sibanyoni said,
“The workshop was an eye-opener to most of us in terms of reminding us about our rights and the role that we need to play in fighting HIV/Aids. It is very important for Abothokoza to learn or have more information about the disease, because it affects everybody regardless of race, gender, age or colour.”
Mpumalanga Mirror learnt that during the workshop, traditional healers came to a mobile clinic in numbers to get tested for HIV/Aids.
The Aids council of Nkomazi Local Municipality was the first one in the province to establish a working relationship with traditional healers.
