Bridging the divide - anthropologist/sangoma challenges delegates.

The petite University of Cape Town lecturer has been working with 2ndand 4th-year medical students in the hope of helping them bridge the cultural divide to create more effective outcomes, especially around HIV/AIDS. She cited the HOPE Cape Town Isangoma Pilot Project, based at Tygerberg Hospital, in which community health workers worked alongside Amagqirha over 6 weeks, giving the latter a solid biomedical understanding of HIV/AIDS, and HIV counselling training, before returning to work in 3 local township communities. The aim was to encourage crossreferrals, incorporate voluntary counselling, promote testing and reinforce HAART adherence via the traditional healers’ practices.