Peer Educator Forum in Cape Town

Delegates and Peer Educators in Cape Town

May 24th saw the sixth leg of the Informer and SACOHA Peer Educator Forums held at the spectacular Council Chamber at the Civic Centre, sponsored by the City of Cape Town. Despite another suspected cold front approaching, Cape Town Peer Educators came in numbers from companies and NGOs including Action Against AIDS, Atlantis Foundries, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Winelands District Municipality, City of Cape Town, Correctional Services, Eskom, GKN Sinter Metal, Helping Hands, I & J Trawling, Leadership South, National Ports Authority, New Clicks, Old Mutual, Sans Fibres, Shell South Africa, Sports Science Institute of South Africa, Standard Bank, UCT, Western Cape Education Department and Woolworths.

SABCOHA CEO, Brad Mears was the programme director for the Forum and guest speakers were Informer’s Angel in Action Ambassador, Harold Bokaba and Education Training Counselling (ETC) Managing Director, Linzi Smith.

Mrs. Sihle Msengane, Director Personnel Service of the City of Cape Town welcomed the Peer Educators to the Forum and commended them for the hard and challenging work they perform within their companies and communities. Addressing the Peer Educators, Msengane said, “You are soldiers in a war zone fighting HIV/AIDS, and your presence here today shows that your hard work and commitment comes from the heart.” She also encouraged Peer Educators to work together, support each other in order to effectively fight the pandemic. According to Msengane, the City of Cape Town has about 6.5% employees living with HIV and has taken it upon itself to fully support its employee’s health and wellness by dedicating days to focus on this by having pro-active employee wellness weeks each year.

Harold Bokaba interacted with delegates during his presentation when he highlighted the importance of living by example and being compassionate, non-judgmental and creative in order to implement and run an effective health wellness programmes. “Peer Education is not about converting sinners to saints, but it is a process to reduce risk behaviour in order to reduce new infections,” said Bokaba.

As has been the case at previous Informer and SABCOHA Peer Educator Forums, a core issue raised in the open debate included the involvement of management’s support and participation for wellness programmes and what Peer Educators could do to further encourage managers. “It’s a pity that most organisations do not view HIV/AIDS and wellness as part of the business operation and it is not adequately accommodated in company structures,” said Bokaba. He went on to challenge Peer Educators to find ways to change this by highlighting that employee wellness is not a casual activity but a human rights issue which, if not addressed properly, can affect profitability - which is the focus of any business.

Adding to the challenge of managers involvement as well as training available to Peer Educators across the country, Smith stressed the importance of being advocators, “You have to be advocates for training and fight for the courses that you want... and keep records of your sessions and what this training has achieved so that your manager can see in black and white the work you have done and benefits of further training.”

The issue of Peer Educators being judged based on their personal background and how they can overcome this was also a major concern. In the spirit of mutual support the delegates agreed that it is about compassion and the hard work they put into making a difference in someone’s life each and every day. Peer Educators also advised that there will always be those people who will challenge everything they say, not for the sake of acquiring knowledge but just to challenge their intelligence and tolerance.

Passion was an undisputed ingredient put forward on the day as to what makes a successful Peer Educator. Charmaine Cerff from Sans Fibre said, “We all need to find systems that work. There is a saying that we use that goes: Head, Hand and Heart work together”. She went on to explain that Peer Educators must implement this saying by using their heads to strategise their work in terms of planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluating their work and calculating what they say to others, their hands are used to carry out this work, to touch or hold a hand or offer a comforting hug and helping hands to those who need it, and that the work done must be from the heart, with compassion and love for people.

A question was also raised about standard requirements for Peer Educator training and if government has any policies regarding this. In response Linzi Smith said there is no policy in place however there are guidelines available which include accredited standards, best practices, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. Smith said the minimum recommended Peer Educator training should be seven days and training must be ongoing or upgraded regularly. According to Smith, the health department is in the process of drafting standard regulations on Peer Education.

Delegates wrapped up the day of information sharing with a vibrant group photo and then networked and chatted over superb lunch and desserts sponsored by Shell South Africa.

Informer and SABCOHA wish to thank the speakers for their time and knowledge and especially to City of Cape Town and Shell SA for the venue and lunches respectively. Without support such as this, these Forums would not be possible.

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