Please use the images in the context described. Unless indicated the HIV status, sexual orientation or any other characteristic of people in the images are unknown and should not be described inappropriately. If in doubt, contact UNAIDS.
(Shot in Orange Farm near Johannesburg, South Africa, July 2016)
TRT: 2:41
Thandi’s life could have come to a complete stop instead the 22 year old did not give up.
Living in one of Johannesburg’s biggest informal settlements, Thandi was raped at a young age, and again while doing chores for an older man.
In her late teens she became pregnant
Thandi Shabangu
“I told myself why must I go to school while my friends are dropping out, there is no use for me to do those things’ and most of those times I was engaging with older people”
Thandi is like many young South Africans faced with poverty, violence and an increased risk of HIV.
In South Africa girls aged between 15-19 years accounted for ninety percent of new adolescent infections
Young women are facing a triple threat: high risk of HIV infection, low rates of HIV testing and difficulty accessing and staying on treatment.
Thandi is free of HIV but considers herself extremely lucky.
Unmotivated by her job, she joined love life two years ago
This is one of South Africa’s biggest HIV-prevention programmes for young people emphasizing empowerment and peer support visiting schools
Duncan, Love Life Peer Counsellor
“They feel free on certain topics to talk to me, like because in our culture we are not supposed to talk about things, we’re not supposed to talk about sex and things especially with our parents.”
UNAIDS says we must stop failing young women and do more to protect them
Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director
“We need to take the life cycle approach, the life cycle approach that children be born free of HIV and we should keep them free of HIV so they should stay free and also AIDS free. This cycle is so critical if we want to reduce the infections among adolescents and later on end the epidemic.
Thandi stuck to her studies and loves mentoring
Thandi
“For me staying in school was a big opportunity for me because I realized that as a young woman you do not have to give up in life, you have to believe in yourself, you have to have that faith that I am someone, I am a human being. I would tell the girls out there that in order for you to go forward..Talk to people, it helps a lot.”
She has lofty goals for herself especially helping others to stay free from HIV.
