Mobile Counselling and Testing Unit

To the unassuming eye, spotting tents stationed at the side of the road in the Ehlanzeni and Mopani District communities where Humana’s TCE and HOPE Humana programmes are active creates a peculiar sight.

To the community members that the programme reaches, this is a familiar sight. These tents are Mobile Testing Units.

Counselling and Testing is an important component of the process of HIV and AIDS intervention as it constitutes the entry point to prevention and treatment services. People are often reluctant to get tested for HIV due to a fear of the unknown or stigma. In many rural settings, access to health facilities is a problem, since rural communities have to travel long distances to reach clinics and hospitals and to gain access to services such as testing, counseling and treatment. 

Nomia Malope is a nurse and has worked with Humana People to People in South Africa for five years now. Before becoming a nurse, she was a TCE Field Officer, and then later trained and worked as a Counselor.