The Impact of HIV/AIDS on the Health Sector

National survey of health personnel, ambulatory and hospitalised patients and health facilities 2002

Zip Zip My Brain Harts is the result of collaboration between Buckland (a photographer) and HSRC researchers concerned with disability issues. Angie Bucklands remarkable photographs, interspersed with challenging text, are a unique expression of the fullness of human experience, with all its joy, pain and confusion.

This watershed cultural and demographic survey monitors the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa. This study sampled a thorough cross-section of 9 963 South Africans and came up with some surprising results. The Full Report takes a deeper look at the methodology and processes involved.

In 2002, the Human Sciences Research Council was commissioned by the WK Kellogg Foundation to develop and implement a five-year intervention project focusing on orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in southern Africa. In collaboration with several partner organizations, the project currently focuses on how children, families and communities in Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe are coping with the impact of HIV/AIDS. The aim of the project is to develop models of best practise so as to enhance and improve support structures for OVC in the southern African region as a whole.

Education is an essential ingredient of the socio-economic development of any country, and educators are a vital part of any nation's educational system. If educators are sick, or absent from school, or leave the profession, the nation stands to lose. Yet the health status of our educators may go unknown. Prior to this report, there were no primary level South African national data assessing the ill-health and attrition of educators. Rumours about their ill-health and reasons for attrition abounded. It is for this reason that the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) decided to commission the HSRC-led consortium to conduct this nation-wide research assessing the health status and attrition of our educators, with a focus on HIV/AIDS and its determinants.