Positive Heroes (South Africa)
To show there is hope and a great life is possible for those living with HIV by having an ultra-marathon team who are all living with HIV.
About You
Contact Information
Title
Mr
First name
Gavin
Last name
Reid
Your job title
Positive Hero
Name of your organization
Positive Heroes (South Africa)
Organization type
NGO
Annual budget/currency
This field has not been completed
Location
Project Street Address
PO Box 1192
Project City
Cape Town
Project Province/State
Western Cape
Project Postal/Zip Code
8051
Project Country
South Africa
Your idea
Choose your sport: (check all that apply)
Running
If you chose "other" for Sport, please define in 1-2 words below
What approach does your initiative incorporate?
Knowledge/educational materials
Year the initiative began (yyyy)
2008
Paste your video code here:
If your project has a website, paste the web address here:
Plot your innovation within the discovery framework:
Barrier
Social stigmas and prohibitions
Insight
Make the first step easier
This field has not been completed.
Name Your Project
Positive Heroes (South Africa)
Describe Your Idea
To show there is hope and a great life is possible for those living with HIV by having an ultra-marathon team who are all living with HIV.
Innovation
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
To show there is hope and a great life is possible for those living with HIV by having an ultra-marathon team who are all living with HIV.
How many people does your innovation serve or plan to serve? Exactly who will benefit?
The campaign encompasses the entire population whilst focusing very specifically on all South Africans living with HIV to give them hope and remove fear and shame.
Do you have any existing partnerships? If so, please list and describe.
We have a media campaign with Move! Magazine to highlight the story of a Positive Hero every six weeks. Move! is the 3rd largest circulation magazine in SA with 166 972 (audited) paid circulation for July to September 2008. The magazine aims to uplift and empower women in South Africa.
In which sector do these partners work? (Check all that apply)
Citizen sector (non profits, NGOs) , Private sector .
How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing?
By bringing to public awareness, through various media, some of the thousands of South Africans who are living full lives whilst managing their HIV. Will share individual stories - challenges faced and personal testimonies who these were overcome.
Impact
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact
Positive Heroes is about saving lives and having more people living longer, healthier, more productive lives and attaining their goals.
What does impact/success look like? Please list any tangible measures of the impact of your innovation
Understanding that HIV is a chronic manageable disease and that treatment is available
Achieving a renewed sense of purpose and have positive life goals
Managing HIV infection positively and effectively
Pursuing healthy lifestyles and taking responsibility for one own’s health
Growing numbers of people voluntarily requesting HIV tests and being tested
Growing numbers of people in possession of accurate facts and engaging with HIV
Setting clear life goals and 'running the race of life'
Is there a chance that your project could change policy (within an institution or government)?
We believe that we will have an impact on individuals, organisations and government by seeing people living with HIV as part of the solution and not the problem. We aim to create strategic alliances and joint ventures with other organisations wherever possible in order to pool collective resources, share knowledge and to enhance impact.
Aside from financial sustainability, how do you plan to grow the initiative or expand your intended impact?
We are partnering as many organisations as possible and hope to announce to large scale partnerships in the next few weeks. The campaigns are both designed to be with an infrastructure to provide follow up and support for all those who feel impacted by the various campaigns.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
We are currently being financed by our Board and a number of fund-raising events. Our corporate partners will support individual campaigns. We have no paid staff.
Financing source
Annual budget
We would like to raise R1million per year to run properly but currently do what we can.
Annual revenue generated
approx R100,000
Number of staff (full-time, part-time, volunteers)
4 Directors, 8 Board members.
Gavin dedicates half his week to the charity and Reon and Brooke give a day a week.
Everyone is a volunteer.
What are the main barriers to financing your initiative, and how do you plan to address these barriers?
Fatigue around HIV. By offering a fresh new, uplifting and Proudly South African approach to HIV we hope to attract partners and funding.
What are the major challenges with regards to partnerships?
The time involved in developing relationships and partnerships. Ultimately we desperately need some funding in order to be able to manage our core functions properly.
The Story
What stage is your project?
Idea phase , Ongoing project .
What was the motivation or defining moment that led to create this innovation? Tell us the story.
Dr Reon van Dyk is a specialist doctor in the area of HIV and Gavin Reid is an HIV counsellor in a hospice. They realised that although HIV is now medically manageable the fear and stigma that surrounds HIV remains a huge barrier to people engaging with HIV.
Evelina Tshabalala, an accomplished marathon runner, was due to climb Mount Kilimanjaro but was worried about her HIV. Reon told her she was special as she had disclosed to all in her community and that if she climbed the mountain he would get her to meet Madiba, which was silly as we had no connection or way of doing so. A few weeks later she returned saying she had done so. After some calls Evelina went and met Madiba and we realised that things are possible and we need to celebrate the heroes already in our midst.
If the level of fear is so high people won't come for tests or look to manage their condition. By increasing the hope around HIV we hope to provide a purpose to come forward get tested and take responsibility for themselves.
Please tell us about the social innovator behind this initiative
Dr Reon van Dyk is a specialist physician running a private holistic HIV practice at the Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital in Cape Town. Gavin Reid is an HIV counsellor, who also lectures HIV Counselling Skills at the South African School of Applied Psychology.
(Optional) To be eligible for an additional prize, please select age range
27 or older
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Comments
Hi Gavin,
Wow - this is super cool. I've been interested to learn more about how media is evolving to be both more accurate but also more educational about the role of sport and how it can shift behavior. It's great to see that you're invovled in that industry.
Are you familiar with WeOwnTV? They are a dynamic organization that conducts capacity building for communities who want to participate in media. Check them out - they do a lot of work in Africa and one of their very own, Black Nature (of the Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars) works with them. They are awesome. http://www.weowntv.org/
Can you also tell us about the role of women and your organization? Do you plan to highlight female athletic heroes in order to defy stereotypes about HIV? How do you hope to use them as role models for people in South Africa?
Thanks for entering!
Stephani
Nike
Dear Stephani,
Thanks so much for your message.
Sport is critical is helping to provide education and a bridge to learning across the world and particularly here in South Africa. There are many awesome projects that do so.
Women form the majority of our board members and stake holders. We work closely with Move! magazine (South Africa's number 1 women's magazine) to convey the stories of women living with HIV, the challenges that they face and how they have responded to them. We don't 'preach' any particular message but rather share testimonies.
Our women's Ultra-marathon team will completely challenge the stero-type of women slowing fading away in silence and disgrace (women as you know already have huge issues including gender discrimination, violence, poverty, lack of education, historical oppression to deal with).
We want to show women living with HIV as the strong capable and enduring people that they are and how that in order to be all that they can they need to manage this condition known as HIV. Our role models will show how they have re-focused on their long term life goals (reaching the end of the marathon) and in order to do that they need to take ARVs, eat well, drink clean water and exercise.
Dealing with HIV is not easy - it is hard work that involves training, education and actively choosing to live (or run the race).
We aim to launch the team within the next few weeks and have been recruiting athletes by running stories in Move! magazine. We are not creating the Positive Heroes - they are already there - we just aim to publicise them and give women hope to balance the huge fear.
Thank you for the heads up on WeOwnTV - I have sent the information to Brooke, who is our creative head. I appreciate your interest and support.
Best regards
Gavin
Hi Gavin,
I am very glad to see your project here. It is very inspiring.
Do you think working with role models of women in SA will increase your outreach? If you see an opportunity in that direction, who could be those role models?
cheers
Aykan
Hi Aykan,
Thank you for your comments and support.
Absolutely female role models have a huge outreach due to their central role in South African society, the various South African cultures, NGOs and Government.
Women have a decisive role in influencing other members of their families, communities and in particular children.
We seek our role models from as wide a rage of communities, backgrounds and regions as possible. This is particularly important in South Africa as the country is highly diverse (i.e. the 11 official languages) and divided by deeply rooted social inequalities. This diversity has made it very difficult to carry out HIV awareness campaigns that actually influence people’s behaviour.
Best wishes
Gavin
Congratulations, Gavin + team!
Your program is clearly going to have a great impact on many lives. It seems like there could be an opportunity to create some great convening moments with the assistance/promotion from MOVE! - such as running events w/education component or group runs that also function as a support group for the members. Are you all planning anything like that?
Continued success to you and your team...
Kevin Carroll
Changemakers Featured Commentator
Sport for a Better World Competition
Dear Kevin,
Thank you for your comments and wishes.
Yes we are intending to have events - Move! already have Stokvel events and we are siing how we can arrange events to co-inside with the interests of two other corporate partners who's campaigns we in the process of finalising.
Thanks again for your encouragement.
Gavin
Hello Gavin!
Finally a cool entry on Running! Congratulations!
I would like to invite you to join the Women Win group at the competition.
Women Win is the first ever international women’s fund that supports sport and physical activities as instruments for social change and women’s empowerment.
Women Win will use the competition to find a fellow between the ages of 15 and 65 years old that positively change the lives of women and girls in their community through sports.
Please go to http://sportforchange.changemakers.com/en-us/group/womenwin and click on join this group. After that go to topics being discussed and create a topic for debate or participate by telling Women Win more about your project!
Good Luck with your entry!
Dear Renata
Thanks for your message and the heads up on joining the Women Win group - I love the concept.
It is really uplifting to come into contact and read about so many wonderful projects using women and sport as a medium for social change and empowerment.
Many thanks
Gavin
How fabulous to see Evie's smiling face on this page. I'm always struck by how many marathons most African women have to run every day - and the challenges they face can turn those into Ultras. The work Positive Heroes is doing by spreading the message of hope and possibility is beautifully underlined by seeing this slim, smiling, happy woman pulling on her nikes and heading out for a run! In Africa - anything and everything is possible.
Dear Sue,
I agree there are strong parallels and metaphors between what African women face as challenges and the marathons and Ultras that Evie and Positive Heroes run.
The learning and education is to a large degree unscripted allowing individual connections and learning to be taken, therefore avoiding trying to impose particular worldviews or cultural norms.
Thanks for your comment.
Gavin
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