Know your status campaign on track
“Knowing our HIV status helps us safeguard our health, make better lifestyle choices and be there, as parents, to raise our children"
![](https://images.caxton.co.za/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/2014/08/aids.jpg)
MBOMBELA – New Start health programme is taking good health directly to the people, this will be evident during the HIV counselling and testing (HCT) for couples which kick-starts this Friday.
According to New Start, the campaign offers people in intimate relationships the opportunity to “give your partner the greatest gift”.
“South Africans can boast that HIV testing has become part of our national way of life. Many of us take an HIV test every year and this has been central to our ability, as a country, to reduce the drastic effects of the HIV epidemic,” said, Ncamsile Nhlabathi Senior Programme Manager for New Start.
Branded “love taxis” will be available to shuttle couples from residential areas to the testing sites at Kabokweni Plaza (corner Kabokweni and Plaston roads) every day from Friday 15 August to Friday 22 August excluding Sundays between 9:00 and 17:30 on weekdays and 9:00 and 17:00 on Saturdays and Barberton Umgababa Body of Christ Tent (Extension 11) from Saturday 23 August to Saturday 30 August excluding Sundays between 9:00 and 17:30 on weekdays and 9:00 and 17:00 on Saturdays respectively.
“Knowing our HIV status helps us safeguard our health, make better lifestyle choices and be there, as parents, to raise our children. If you and your partner agree to go together and take an HIV test you are truly doing something of huge value for each other and for your family,” explains Nhlabathi.