Letter from the CEO Siza Mzimela A Time for Tolerance, Charity and Kindness

The festive season is being observed exactly where it ought to be, at homes, in our hearts, among friends and families. As in the past, there is the modern movement to exhibit it in our towns’ major squares, shopping malls and other places.

Holiday banners and decorations depicting South Africa’s many different faiths have sprouted up in stores and malls as early as October. These varied expressions of the festive spirit encourage all our citizens to engage in the spirit of giving.

The bells and whistles that make up the festive season, leading to Christmas and New Year celebrations have no doubt made many retailers' tills ring with joy. The trick to enjoying a fruitful festive season is to have financially planned for it throughout the year. Instead of overspending, let us offer each other a gift that money cannot buy – our time. During this period, let’s shake off our grouchiness, put longer fuses between our temper and the things that irk us, and don warm smiles that can connect us.

As December is a month of reconciliation, let us remember that this concept is not instantaneous. It is a process. It may be long, but we have to start somewhere. I would like to share some suggestions that have made a difference in my life each festive season: Think a little more kindly; love a little more deeply; and cling a little bit longer to that which is good, genuine, and divine in the human family.

Who among us didn't grow up with the adage that one good deed deserves another? Or that giving is better than receiving? Or that mercy begets mercy?

This festive season, let us embrace the diversity that is our unique strength as a nation. To celebrate the pluralism that characterises this season, let us pay tribute to the good works and giving spirit of patriotic faith-based charities or volunteer groups who strive to meet the immediate needs of the poor, AIDS sufferers, and the homeless through instant services such as food, clothing, and medical care.

Let us support those groups who work in substance-abuse rehabilitation, job training, and housing programmes to eliminate the cycles of poverty and dependence in our country.

There are hundreds of groups and individuals around the country who are motivated by volunteerism to lift up their communities and make South Africa a winning nation by tutoring and mentoring children from broken families, giving shelter to victims of domestic violence, and bringing hope to the hopeless.

The fact is, in this wealthiest of African nations, too many people struggle to find a hot meal, a warm bed, or a place to heal from sickness. During this holiday season, as we celebrate the spirit of giving, we should be grateful for how fortunate we are to be South Africans and we should thank the selfless souls around the country who are giving their time to help the poor.

This December join the spirit of giving and make this festive season a time for tolerance, charity, kindness, and generosity.

Happy holidays.

World Aids Day Keep The Promise

Since 1988 the 1st of December has been set aside as a day for the world to focus on what has been termed the most destructive pandemic in recorded history – Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or, as we all know it, AIDS. The need for acute awareness and destigmatisation of this disease remains as acute as ever.

TAcquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome was identified 25 years ago in 1981, although evidence exists to suggest earlier cases. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the disease has since then taken the lives of more than 25 million people – almost too many to imagine. These were people just like you and me, only infinitely more unfortunate. Just like us, they had hopes and aspirations, they loved and were loved. Nobody chooses to become infected and the virus does not discriminate. It is one of life's great equalisers.

By now one hopes that we are all aware of the basic facts concerning AIDS. By now we should all know that this is a highly contagious disease that is passed on through body fluids. The three major routes of transmission are unprotected sexual intercourse, contaminated needles and transmission from an infected mother to her baby at birth or through breast milk. The prevalence of infection as a result of the transfusion of contaminated blood has greatly diminished due to strict blood screening processes that have been introduced in most countries. Diagnosis of the presence of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) can be made with a simple blood test although the virus might not show up in the blood test for several months after infection.

Being HIV-positive is no longer the immediate death sentence that it was in earlier years, thanks to the development of antiretroviral drugs. According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV / AIDS (UNAIDS) an estimated 42 million people across the world are living with HIV. Sadly this includes more than 2 million children.

However, it is critical not to underestimate the continued severity of the disease and the social devastation wreaked by a rising death toll. In South Africa, for instance, child-headed households have become commonplace. In this way the disease not only robs those infected of their very lives, but also steals away what should be a basic right of all children everywhere: the opportunity to focus on growing up and to enjoy their childhood years in innocence.

Despite vast progress in treatment and awareness campaigns, HIV does still remain a life-threatening disease that mostly affects people in the prime of their lives. Around half of all people who become infected with HIV do so before they are 25 and die of AIDS-related causes before they reach the age of 35. While no country in the world is unaffected by the disease, UNAIDS points out that Sub-Saharan Africa remains the epicentre of the pandemic and warns that incidence rates are actually rising in a number of developed countries.

Antiretroviral drugs do not represent a cure but they can stop people from becoming ill for many years. Treatment is complicated and not without pitfalls. Different classes of antiretroviral drugs act at different stages of the HIV life cycle. The medication has to be taken every day for the rest of one's life and can have serious side effects. However, interruption of treatment can cause drug resistance and it is therefore vital that patients do not miss doses, regardless of possible side effects. It is standard procedure for a combination of several (typically three or four) antiretroviral drugs to be prescribed simultaneously. This regimen is known as Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART). Research to improve current treatments includes decreasing side effects of current drugs, simplifying drug regimens to improve adherence, and determining the best sequence of regimens to manage drug resistance.

The World AIDS Campaign, with the support of UNAIDS, facilitates and coordinates World AIDS Day. This year, and until 2010, the theme is 'Stop AIDS, Keep the Promise'. The theme focuses on accountability of the commitments made by the world's governments as accepted by the UN General Assembly on 2nd June this year. The most important of these commitments is universal access to treatment by 2010. Meeting this goal will require sustained focus and the setting of realistic and early targets to reach universal access to care, treatment and support. All the members of the United Nations have committed to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2010 and to reverse the prevalence of the pandemic by 2015. Needless to say, fulfilling these goals will require great efficiency in the deployment of resources as well as active participation by both civil society and the global private sector.

These are the promises that we, through our leaders, have made. These are the promises that we, as a matter of life or death, cannot afford not to keep. After 25 years the need for continued dialogue and results-oriented action is greater than ever. We cannot afford to look the other way or to keep silent.

May each of us renew our promise to care and, through keeping that promise, may we stop the spread of HIV/AIDS once and for all.