Students link up in fight against Aids

Local and foreign students are joining forces in Nelson Mandela Bay to educate high school pupils about HIV/Aids.

Through Aiesec, the largest student-driven body in the world and which runs exchange and internship programmes for profit and non-profit organisations, five Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University students will be working with three Chinese student volunteers to promote Aids awareness at school assemblies.

The Answers, Solution and Knowledge (Ask) programme, which is entering its fourth year, will have students teaching pupils from the beginning of next month until October.

“Our project aims to develop young champions to have the skills, knowledge and attitude to fight this deadly epidemic,” project manager Ferischka Human said about the Ask programme.

Chinese volunteer Theresa Li, who is from Hunan, said: “I could have gone to Europe to teach Chinese, but I wanted to join this programme because it is more meaningful for society.”

Aiesec local committee president Varonique Philander, 21, said the international touch the project had was very valuable.

“If Theresa goes to the schools, pupils will take value from that and see that other countries are also interested in South Africa.”

The students want to spread their message in a fun way. “We want to educate the pupils so that they can educate others. We want it to grow, to have an impact on the whole community,” Human said.

How to prevent HIV/Aids is not the only message the students have. “We also want to teach people how to accept it and how to treat people with Aids,” said organising committee member Sonnetta Human.

The programme, which has been developed and run entirely by Aiesec members, involves music, dance and guest speakers. It relies solely on sponsorships to operate.

Sponsorship currently allows eight schools to be visited by the students. “We can see even more schools if we get more support,” Ferischka Human said.

(This story is courtesy of The Herald. Used with permission.)