Thabang Moseueu, 28, Botshabelo
Thabang Moseueu is a peer educator and HIV counselor. She understands the need for informative, accurate information around treatment and adherence. She also sees the need for this information to be passed on to the clinic staff. “I have people I know who have lived with HIV for more than 10 years. I used to tell them that HIV is not a death sentence. If you just take your medication, your viral load will be suppressed and nothing will happen to you.” Thabang has been an HIV counsellor and a peer educator for for six years. She goes out to the community and helps with screening for TB and STIs, which is where she finds the key populations who need to be counselled.
She works mostly with the LGBTQIA+ community who already struggle with stigma and discrimination from the staff at the clinics because of their gender identity. This creates an extra difficulty for people within this key population to access their medication. Going to the clinic can be a very unpleasant experience which leads to many people becoming discouraged and defaulting on their medication.
The CCMDD system can help bypass the stigma by allowing people to collect their medication at the pharmacy. Through different organisations, Thabang helps to locate people who are defaulting on their medication and bring them to the health facilities. Peer educators are also going to the clinics and sensitising the staff.
Thabang Moseueu is a peer educator and HIV counselor. She understands the need for informative, accurate information around treatment and adherence. She also sees the need for this information to be passed on to the clinic staff. i
Thabang Moseueu, 28, Botshabelo
Thabang has been an HIV counsellor and a peer educator for for six years. She goes out to the community and helps with screening for TB and STIs, which is where she finds the key populations who need to be counselled.
She works mostly with the LGBTQIA+ community who already struggle with stigma and discrimination from the staff at the clinics because of their gender identity. This creates an extra difficulty for people within this key population to access their medication. Going to the clinic can be a very unpleasant experience which leads to many people becoming discouraged and defaulting on their medication.
“I have people I know who have lived with HIV for more than 10 years. I used to tell them that HIV is not a death sentence. If you just take your medication, your viral load will be suppressed and nothing will happen to you.”
The CCMDD system can help bypass the stigma by allowing people to collect their medication at the pharmacy. Through different organisations, Thabang helps to locate people who are defaulting on their medication and bring them to the health facilities. Peer educators are also going to the clinics and sensitising the staff.
“To our LGBTQIA+ community…they should love one another they should not discriminate (against) one another because, if we gossip, if we discriminate and stigmatise one another… what about the heterosexuals? What are they going to do to us if we do the very same thing that they are doing to us? There are corrective rapes and hate crimes happening out there.”
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