Free counselling and testing were on offer this week as Grahamstown NGOs marked World Aids Day. Across the globe, 1 December is used to highlight awareness of the disease, show support for those living with it and remember those who have died.

Free counselling and testing were on offer this week as Grahamstown NGOs marked World Aids Day. Across the globe, 1 December is used to highlight awareness of the disease, show support for those living with it and remember those who have died.

Nurses from the District Health Services recruited community members for voluntary counselling and testing as they went door to door in Alicedale.

“We are at Alicedale this year. Because it's a rural area, people don’t have access to well resourced clinics,” one nurse told Grocott's Mail.

HIV Co-ordinator in the Makana Sub-district office Lorna September said they offered HIV screening in Church Square . Rhodes University marked the day by hosting a talk by Alex Semba on Tuesday 2 December.

Semba is Programme Manager in the Higher Education and Training HIV/Aids Programme and previously served as Peer Education Coordinator at University of the Western Cape's HIV/ Aids programme.

World Aids Day is one of eight official global public health campaigns marked by the World Health Organization (WHO), along with World Health Day, World Blood Donor Day, World Immunization Week, World Tuberculosis Day, World No Tobacco Day, World Malaria Day and World Hepatitis Day.

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