Women in large numbers from across the Makana area gathered in Salem last week to celebrate the remaining days of Women’s Month in style. They were urged to celebrate their strength and to tackle today’s challenges by being aware of their HIV/Aids status, high blood pressure, diabetes and cervical cancer.
Women in large numbers from across the Makana area gathered in Salem last week to celebrate the remaining days of Women’s Month in style. They were urged to celebrate their strength and to tackle today’s challenges by being aware of their HIV/Aids status, high blood pressure, diabetes and cervical cancer.
Testing stations were set up at the Salem Sports Club with a joint effort from Raphael Centre and Africare, a NGO that provides technical assistance to the Heath Department with their health and HIV/Aids campaigns.
Ward 1 councillor, Boniwe Bonani, council speaker Rachel Madinda and Cacadu's portfolio councillor for Health, Khunjuzwa Kekana spoke about women as the people with the most strength.
Describing what a woman is, Kekana compared a woman to the power of a teabag. “Once you put the teabag in water, it has the strength to change the colour of that water,” she said.
Echoing what Madinda said about women having the power to build or destroy, Kekana said: “Gone are the days when you would dish up for your family and also prepare another plate for a next door neighbour.
We need to go back to those Batho Pele principles,” she said. Kekana further highlighted the increasing problem of HIV/Aids, sexually transmitted diseases and tuberculosis in our country.
“Land is now coming to an end for development and is taken over by cemeteries,” she said. A former teacher, Kekana spoke of a time when discovered that a Grade 1 learner had been sexually abused by a neighbour with the mother's consent.
The mother would tell the child to visit a certain house in their area before and after school and she would get R4 to buy a small portion of food for the family. “What has happened, why has poverty erased our dignity?
Let us go back to the place where God had us before,” she said. The speeches were lightened by highly entertaining performances by the Salem community.
Makana Mayor Vumile Lwana even took off his jacket to dance with a group of women traditional dancers. The testing station received a good response from the women at the event who said they found it easier to be tested at this outreach testing station other than the clinics in their community.
“It’s better here, as we will not be tested by people within our community who would go around talking about our personal matters,” said a Grahamstown resident who wished not to be named.
A resident of Seven Fountains, Zikhona Goduka said it was important to know her status. “I smoke and I drink occasionally, so I was informed that I would be susceptible to these illnesses,” she said.
Another Seven Fountains resident, Olwethu Sakata also agreed with Goduka and said, “You don’t know what you might be carrying around, which is why it is so important to know your status.”
