The future of HIV/Aids in South Africa and my next step

As his voluntary placement with TAC comes to an end, John Butler reflects on his time in South Africa.

John Butler Treatment Action Campaign ''Whatever I do, I want a job that is interesting and has a positive impact on other people’s lives.''

The future of HIV/Aids in South Africa and my next step

After six months of interning for the Treatment Action Campaign(TAC) in South Africa, I have returned home to the UK, with a clearer view on the HIV/Aids pandemic and what I want to do in life.

Presently 900 people die and 1,400 people are infected everyday from
HIV/Aids. There's no point being optimistic without reason. Unfortunately,
because of poverty, a lack of education, an ineffective government and many more reasons, millions more people are going to die of the HIV/Aids disease before the incidence and death rates from HIV/Aids are reduced.

As far as I can see, in the short-term there needs to be a massive increase in funding to tackle the disease. The government, church, civil society groups, business and trade unions must actively work together to improve HIV/Aids prevention and treatment. In the long term the health system needs to be radically reformed, women need to be empowered and gain equality with men, and poverty must be tackled.

It’s not all bad news: I have witnessed government finally engaging with civil society groups and this will be reflected in a new national plan that will hopefully lead to the HIV/Aids pandemic finally being controlled and reduced. On a personal level, I have met people who have, via antiretroviral treatment, recovered from near death to be fit and healthy, and I have met rape survivors who are now strong people fighting for the rights of others. There are definitely signs of hope.

In 2010 South Africa hosts the football world cup. Hopefully, when the world’s media comes to South Africa, it will have reduced the number of people contracting HIV/Aids and increased the number of people receiving antiretroviral treatment to near 100%.

Personally, I have thoroughly enjoyed volunteering with TAC and have relished the responsibility I have been given. As well as assisting with the writing, editing and layout of TAC’s magazine, my major achievement at TAC was project-managing the prosecution process against a company that markets its products as a medicine that helps cure viral infections. This is illegal under South Africa’s constitution because the products have not been registered by South Africa’s Medicine Control Council and have not been clinically trialled. I co-drafted the affidavit against the company, chaired meetings with South African police and lawyers, and liaised with them throughout the prosecution process. The successful prosecution of this Aids profiteering company will potentially save hundreds of lives.

I went to South Africa wanting to work in the media and interested in development issues. After the responsibility I was given and the experience of working for an international NGO, I am now actively looking for a job in the development sector, possibly in a media capacity or maybe assisting with the coordination of a development programme. Whatever I do, I want a job that is interesting and has a positive impact on other people’s lives.