HIV/AIDS colloquium on campus

An HIV/AIDS colloquium titled Living AIDS will be hosted by Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Martin Hall on November 15 and 16 in the Centre for African Studies (CAS) Gallery.

Students and staff are invited to review and debate the UCT response to HIV and AIDS.

Organised by HIV Co-ordination UCT (HAICU), the event will include the following components: HIV/AIDS management (November 15 from 09h00-11h00); HIV/AIDS research (Nov 15 from 11h15-16h00); HIV/AIDS teaching (November 16 from 09h00-14h40) and the HIV/AIDS Social Responsiveness Programmes (November 16 from 14h40-15h40).

Justice Edwin Cameron, one of the few high-profile public figures in South Africa to have disclosed his HIV-positive status, will address the topic of HIV and AIDS-related stigma on November 15 at 13h00.

The colloquium will be attended and monitored by Michael Kelley of the University of Zambia and Alice Lamptey from Ghana, who have consulted extensively around the response of higher education to HIV and AIDS in Africa and globally.

Staff and students are asked to submit a brief response, to a maximum of three lines, to Puleng Phooko (pphooko@protem.uct.ac.za) or Sean Brown (sbrown@protem.uct.ac.za) to the following question: As a student or staff member, what does Living with HIV at UCT mean for you and why do you think it is important to be talking about HIV/AIDS issues as part of transforming UCT? Attach a photograph of yourself to the response.

"HAICU is tasked with 'mapping' HIV/AIDS-related activities at UCT and preparing reports for Council on the university's role in combating HIV and AIDS," says Brown. "The colloquium will allow us to draw on the valuable input of staff and students by sharing experiences in dealing with the pandemic and seeking ways in which to provide a co-ordinated, coherent and effective response to it."