The Warriors are a team of HIV positive outreach workers. They are powerful agents of social change in their communities, travelling through the mountains spreading their message that AIDS can be prevented, and treated. Through Phelisanong, the Warriors provide a life saving transport fund for patients to access treatment and keep up their anti-retroviral therapy.
Health Clinic
A health clinic operates out of the Phelisanong centre. Providing basic medications, referrals, family planning services, and nutritional support for malnourished children, the clinic serves mothers and young children, students, disabled residents, staff, and community members from a 10,000 person catchment area for whom the cost of travel to larger medical centres is prohibitive. The clinic offers a transport service for children on anti-retroviral medications and provides on-site HIV counseling and testing.
AIDS Education and Outreach
Following their motto, “nobody without testing, nobody without treatment”, the Phelisanong organization engage in energetic community outreach to combat HIV/AIDS. A group of six AIDS Outreach workers, known as The Warriors, travel from village-to-village conducting public education workshops and doing patient home visits. The Warriors distribute condoms, provide patient care kits, provide testing and counseling at the village level, and assist patients with adherence to medications.
HIV/AIDS Conference
Once a year the Warriors host an AIDS Conference in the region, inviting HIV/AIDS support groups, health care providers, governement and NGO representatives to come together and share information and resources with the general public. The 2010 conference featured a three day Youth Camp which engaged 200 local youth in sports and arts activities, all with a focus on AIDS education and prevention strategies.
