Ana Anile Nosiphiwo Mdoda

Ana Mdoda
My Name is Ana Anile Nosiphiwo Mdoda. I am 32 yrs old. I was born in Cape Town in the multiracial community of Cape Town “Cape Flats” in a Town ship called Welgamoed near Bellville. We were then moved to Modderdam before moved again to Crossroads because of Group Areas Act. I had a chance of growing up in both Transkei and Western Cape. I’m from a very close, neat family of hard workers. I’m a proud mom, grandmom, sister, daughter and friend. It is always a pleasure for me to tell my story.
Andile

Andile Gidana
“It is such a breeze for me to disclose now because I know that HIV is manageable and that there is life after HIV… I just want everyone to know that it is such a relief to get tested sooner rather than later. Believe me, it makes life worth living”. Andile is a founding Trustee of The Openly Positive Trust, a non-profit organisation that helps to build a supportive, stigma-free environment for people living with HIV and AIDS to disclose and live positively.
Brett Anderson

Brett Anderson
Brett says that he really “appreciates every day that I am still alive” and since his diagnosis in 1999, his life has been full. Much of receiving in life is about giving back and Brett has founded the non profit Sizwe Sonke Quilting Project as well as becoming a founding director of LifeLab and a leadership consultant and coach.
Busi

Buysisiwe Maqungo
I am a 37 year old mother of two boys. I became involved with HIV and AIDS advocacy after losing my child to AIDS in 2000. In May 1999 my newly born baby was desperately ill with several diseases and I agreed that the baby be tested for HIV. The test was positive and I had to face the terrible reality that I infected my baby. My partner also tested HIV positive. My baby died 9 months later and the baby’s father committed suicide 8 months after my baby’s death.
Christo

Christo Greyling
The Rev. Christo Greyling is World Vision’s Global advisor on HIV/AIDS and faith based partnerships. Christo was instrumental in developing the ‘Channels of Hope’ methodology which aims to break stigma and equip faith leaders and local congregations to respond effectively to the HIV/AIDS needs in their area. Christo says “that people living with HIV are still normal people, but that we are also able to spread a message of hope”
David Patient

David Patient
One of the first people in the world to be diagnosed with HIV, David has been living positively with HIV since he was diagnosed in 1983. David has “learnt that dreams are essential because it is dreams that make the impossible possible”. In over twenty five years since his diagnosis David has “witnessed people stretching themselves way beyond their perceived limitations, and in that process discovering amazing aspects of themselves that they never knew existed”.
Derrick Fine

Derrick Fine
There I was. On top of the world, well almost. 1999, on the top of a ladder picking bananas when I got that call telling me on the phone that I had tested HIV positive. I wasn’t surprised about the result, but didn’t expect to be told on the phone. I had unwisely delayed testing, driven at last to the inevitable by hearing that my then-partner was HIV positive.
Evalina

Evelina Tshabalala
“Even though I’m HIV-positive, I’m stronger than normal people”, accomplished marathon runner and mountaineer Evelina Tshabalala points out. “I do things that most normal people can’t do”. Evelina is actively involved in educating the children about HIV and how she manages her illness. “I’m a role-model because I’m proof that life is not finished when you have HIV”.
Faghmeda

Faghmeda Miller
Faghmeda Miller is the first Muslim woman in South Africa to have disclosed her HIV status. By “building up enough confidence, acceptance and courage to live” she has been able to achieve her three dreams of starting a support group for Muslims living with HIV called Positive Muslims, writing a book about living with HIV and completing her holy pilgrimage to Mecca. Faghmeda shows how you “can achieve anything you set your mind to, regardless of your HIV status”.
Funeka Menze

Funeka Menze
Funeka Menze is a confident and driven mother of two. She has experienced poverty and illness within her family and personal life, but continues to be determined in overcoming challenges and working towards new opportunities. Her ambitious and open nature has led her to become involved with TransCape in many different roles.
Johanna Ncala

Johanna Ncala
Johanna works at the Treatment Action Campaign as the National Treatment Literacy Co-ordinator. She believes that “life is about the challenges that make you a better person. Don’t lose hope rather strive to conquer all your obstacles: never give up even how hard the situation might be”.
Khuthala Makeleni

Khuthala Makeleni
“I am what I am, stronger than ever”. I am a young lady living with HIV. I was diagnosed with HIV on the 30th of May, 2004. I do enjoy life as a young person. I didn’t expect this because I was not sick when I went for Voluntary Councelling and testing. The reason why I did the test was that I was having a problem of Sexual Transmitted Infection.
Lindelwa Portia

Lindelwa Portia
Lindelwa Portia is the passionate, no-nonsense director and initiator of Siyakhula Home Community Based Care (HCBC). She and ten other women began the organization in 2006, hoping to transform their community’s attitudes, understandings and well-being through home-based healthcare for HIV/AIDS patients and peer education for the families involved.
Ana Anile Nosiphiwo Mdoda

Luckboy Mkhondwane
I am Luckyboy Mkhondwane, I was born on the 28th of January 1976 in a small township called Duduza in the east of Johannesburg. I am the oldest of three children and live with my mother, brother, sister and nephew. From an early age I was fascinated with books and reading played great part of my childhood that I only had a few friends as most of my time was spent indoors with my nose stuck in a book, reading is like breathing to me.
Masibulele Gcabo

Masibulele Gcabo
Masibulele from rural Eastern Cape is inspiring people in his local community to talk about HIV. “Do not tell your brain that I am very sick and I can’t do anything. Because you are not disabled, you can work, you can run, you can be a footballer, you can go to school, you can be a policeman.” Masibulele proved anything is possible when you have a positive mindset and he completed the 96km Comrades ultra-marathon in 2008.”
Mziwethu Faku

Mziwethu Faku
Mziwethu from Eastern Cape has “learnt is that there is hope and love that HIV is not the end but the beginning of life.” Mziwethu example shows HIV “can be a new beginning…. There is love, life, laughter and hope after diagnosis. One can fall in love, make new friends and explore new things”.
Nokubonga Yawa

Nokubonga Yawa
My name is Nokubonga Yawa. I live in Khayelitsha with my mom, my two brothers and my daughter. I was born in Umtata, but moved to Cape Town when I was a baby. My mom is an unemployed single parent and couldn’t afford to send us to school, so somebody from our church looked after me and paid for my education.
Nomsa Mpehle

Nomsa Mpehle
Nomsa grew up in Soweto, she comes from a family of six girls and two boys and has a beautiful 5yr old daughter called Nomonde. HIV/AIDS became a very real part of her life when her younger brother, Patrick Mncedisi Mpehle was diagnosed with the disease in 2005. He shared his status with her and she supported him and counseled him right until the very end.
Noncedo Gulwa

Noncedo Gulwa
I am Noncedo Ruth Gulwa. I am thirty two year old, mother of a seven year old baby boy who is in grade one. His father passed away in a car accident. Then in 2001 I was diagnosed HIV positive. I got tested cause I had TB and was very very sick. I couldn’t tell my parents cause 1) I got pregnant and the child does not have a father and 2) Now I’m positive 3) I just dropped out of school. I told them that I have TB.
Quintin Jonck

Quintin Jonck
At the age of 20, I became a born-again Christian. I believed, naively, that in addition to forgiving my sins, giving my life over to God meant that nothing bad would ever happen to me again. I guess that was a lesson I needed to learn the hard way and life, as it turned out, dealt me a few more blows. I lost my faith for a few years and fell back into bad habits.
Terresa

Terresa Frankenberg
When I tell people about my HIV status, it’s never to elicit sympathy, but to educate. You see, I strongly believe that knowledge is power and the more we know about the disease the less scary it is and more importantly, less people have to die.
Thembelihle Dlamini-Ngcoya

Thembelihle Dlamini-Ngcoya
Thembelihle Dlamini-Ngcoya, shortened to “Lihle”, is a Provincial Organiser for the Treatment Action Campaign. She is proof that “being HIV positive is not a death sentence and there is so much that can still happen in your life. Look at my life, I was not working when I was tested for HIV, but now am working and married. I have a car and a house, so what can stop you from achieving your goals?”
Vuyiseka Dubula

Vuyiseka Dubula
When Vuyiseka learned about her status in April 2001 her life was one of “internal isolation, guilt and some denial” but this changed when she met a young women from the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and she became part of a family of young women and men living with HIV. Vuyiseka started antiretrovirals because she knows “that a healthy mother results in a healthy child” and she has an HIV negative child.
Zintle Mobbs

Zintle Mobbs
Despite testing positive with TB, pneumonia and weighing 35kg with a CD4 count of 15 in 2004, today Zintle is a Health Promoter at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. In her journey with living with HIV she has “learned that in life nothing is impossible and the challenges we face are the very same experiences which can turn our lives around and make us better people. I still believe HIV can be manageable but it only needs a right attitude”.