goGo Msikinya

Across South Africa, more and more grandparents are breaking new ground with young people in the fight against HIV. They’re proving to be real gogo-getters…writes Angela Stewart-Buchanan.

At eighty four years of age, Makhulu Msikinya is loveLife’s oldest groundBREAKER…well, honorary groundBREAKER. Strictly speaking, you need to be between 18 and 25 years of age to be part of the 1,500-strong national youth corps implementing loveLife programmes across South Africa. But loveLife makes exceptions when it finds incredibly dynamic people committed to building a “born-free” AIDS-free generation. Makhulu is one such person, a real gogo-getter!

On a windy road between King Williamstown and Stutterheim is the little Eastern Cape village of Ethembeni, home to Makhulu. A retired school-teacher, she now supplements her old-age pension by keeping a few goats and chickens. However, they have been a bit neglected over the past two years. After all, it’s difficult to pay enough attention to livestock when you’re out campaigning every day in schools, clinics, church groups and taverns. Makhulu’s clarion call to all the young people of Ethembeni is that “You’re born free. Embrace life in way that keeps you HIV-free!”

Makhulu draws on her experience in raising five children, fifteen grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren to talk with young people about their lives, aspirations, relationships, and sexuality. She’s also head of the governing committee of the local youth-friendly public clinic. In this clinic,, like many others across South Africa, the Department of Health and loveLife work together to improve access and quality of care to adolescents – previously an age group neglected by health services. Nearly 500 government clinics are already part of the nationwide effort to get all government clinics to meet 40 standards of high quality care for teenagers including easy access, sound clinical care and strong management support systems. At the end of 12 months of quality improvement including training and technical assistance, clinics are reassessed to gauge progress. In the first year over 90% of the clinics enrolled in the programme more than doubled their quality ratings.

For health workers who feel demoralized by the magnitude of the AIDS epidemic, the adolescent-friendly programme shows them that they can make a real difference by preventing HIV infections among teenagers. And if we can avert enough new infections in young people, there will be real hope of an AIDS-free generation in our life time.

Together with twenty year old Philemon Moikayne, Makhulu features on loveLife’s latest pin-up poster and billboards throughout the country, carrying her clarion call to the “born-free” generation growing up in post-apartheid South Africa. For Philemon, sharing this media platform with Makhulu makes him “feel blest”. So often, Philemon says, people point to the gap between the “struggle generation” and “new millennium kids” without acknowledging that much of the struggle continues – against poverty, gender inequality and HIV/AIDS. And while Philemon likes designer labels, cellphones and hip-hop, and Makhulu feels most comfortable in her traditional garb, they share a common commitment as South Africans, regardless of age, to take back the country’s future. And EMBRACE LIFE!