Inner west students take up the HIV fight

Inner west students take up the HIV fight

With South Africa at the forefront of the world’s attention over the next fortnight, the spotlights are focused on presenting the country’s best angle. But endemic problems remain, not the least of which is the country’s ongoing problems with HIV/AIDS infection, with some 5.7 million people currently registering positive to the disease.

However, a group of students from the inner west is aiming to do their bit to change that. Camperdown’s Justin Koonin is the founder of the Sydney branch of Little Travellers Australia, a global initiative which aims to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS in South Africa, as well as providing tangible support for people affected and infected.

For Justin, the key lies in helping people who lack the resources and abilities to help themselves. “A lot of Australians are materially relatively wealthy, and they have something to offer people in Africa,” he said. “But conversely, what you see when you visit people in Africa is this tremendous resilience and openness – people who have been through unimaginable disabilities and who don’t close down to it.”

Koonin tells the story of Francisca Mbele, a 73-year-old grandmother and one of about 300 ‘crafters’ who put together small dolls for sale in the West. “She had ten children; nine of them died of AIDS, and she had to look after the remaining six grandchildren,” Koonin said. “Before she started in the project, she said she had no money for food or clothes; she wouldn’t go outside, because she thought people would laugh at her because she didn’t have any shoes. Through her involvement in this process, she’s been able to feed and clothe her family, and that’s what it’s really about – empowering people to take back control of their own lives.”

Volunteer Hayley Pigram, from Erskineville, agreed it was good to be able to make a difference. “The women and the people who make the dolls get a wage from it,” she said. “These are people who, in all fairness, were living way below the poverty line before this came along – they had no appreciable way of earning an income, because they either have HIV or were severely affected by HIV. For a lot of them it’s a bigger wage than they’ve ever earned in their lives. I think roughly 50 per cent of what we sell them for goes directly back to the people who make them, and the other 50 per cent goes to health workers in that area.”

For more information or to get involved, visit www.littletravellersaus.org.au

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