Johannesburg - HIV among imprisoned juveniles, teenagers and the Muslim community headlined a discussion of community leaders and AIDS experts in Johannesburg recently.

At the event, 26-year-old Jabulisile Tugwana told of the prevention message she was bringing to juvenile offenders in South African jails through theatre, music and poetry; faith leader Somaya Latief spoke of trials in bringing the conversation of safe sex and gender inequality to the forefront of the Muslim community; and primary school teacher Nobuntu Matinise highlighted issues in promoting voluntary HIV testing among teenagers.

Just three in a cohort of 12 selected South Africans, the women are part of the MAC AIDS Fund Leadership Initiative, a train-and-return programme designed to give the next generation of leaders the tools they need to combat HIV/AIDS in a region where 90 percent of people report that stigma is a problem contributing to the spread of the disease, according to a 2007 MAC AIDS Fund study.

"We have been in South Africa for quite a while and knew coming in with this programme not only of the staggering infection rate, but of the stigma, shame and gender inequality that continues to drive the epidemic here," said Nancy Mahon, the executive director of the MAC AIDS Fund. "What we also knew, however, in creating the Leadership Initiative, is that the solutions to South Africa's AIDS crisis are going to be found locally. It is South Africans who will ultimately change the course of AIDS in South Africa."

Conceived of in partnership with the United States's Columbia University and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the Leadership Initiative included two-month's training at Columbia's New York City campus in principles of grassroots organisation, fundraising and attention-getting, and successful methods in HIV prevention and programme administration. In addition, through UCLA's Johannesburg-based team, the fellows were matched with on-the-ground mentors to shape their individual community programmes and boosted by seed money from the MAC AIDS Fund.

Next generation

"The MAC AIDS Fund Leadership Initiative is truly a next-generation HIV prevention programme model," said the co-director of the programme Dr Anke Ehrhardt of Columbia, who has spent 25 years in AIDS research. "The idea that we are putting the very best of training in the hands of the very best of leaders is not necessarily new, but making that investment in local leaders is."

It is local investment that has elevated what programme co-director Dr Tom Coates of UCLA calls "an already stellar group of South African leaders". Following the training, three of the 12 fellows have been chosen to present project papers at the prestigious bi-annual International AIDS Conference, to be held in August in Mexico City. They are Tugwana, Mantombi Nala-Preusker and William Mapham.

"Our goal with our Leadership Initiative fellows is to give them every tool possible to help them generate their own locally conceived and locally grown solutions to the HIV epidemic," said Coates. "The hope is that the programme's already evident successes will be modelled in other key regions around the world."

The MAC AIDS Fund Leadership Initiative team has already signed on for a second year in South Africa and chosen another group of 12 emerging community leaders to begin their training in the southern hemisphere's spring.

"What the Leadership Initiative has done for us personally is to make us all better leaders and practitioners," said Matinise. "What it has done for the country of South Africa is to begin to create a network of people - all diverse but all working for one thing: to change the path of our country."

This year's group of 12 fellows spans the country, with representation in Limpopo, Kwazulu-Natal, Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and more, and includes individuals experienced and not in HIV/AIDS education and treatment programmes, doctors to students, men and women, young and old.

"This year's group of Leadership Initiative fellows has inspired not only me personally but our entire MAC Cosmetics staff, who each day raise money in our stores worldwide to support the activities of the fund, including this landmark programme," said John Demsey, the chairman of the MAC AIDS Fund and the group president of Estee Lauder.

Doing good

"Doing good for our global community is in the DNA of our company, and we will continue our support of life-changing programmes and inspiring individuals in the fight against AIDS."

The MAC AIDS Fund (MAF), the heart and soul of MAC Cosmetics, was established in 1994 to support men, women and children affected by HIV/AIDS globally. MAF is a pioneer in HIV/AIDS funding, providing financial support to organisations working with underserved regions and populations.

As the largest corporate non-pharmaceutical funder in the arena, the MAF strives to raise awareness of four key issues in the fight against HIV/AIDS: prevention, the link between poverty and HIV/AIDS, access to care, and adherence to medications and treatments.

To date, MAC Cosmetics has raised $125-million exclusively through the sale of MAC's VIVA GLAM lipstick and lipglass, all of which has been donated to the MAC AIDS Fund. For more information, visit the MAC AIDS Fund website.

Founded in 1987, Columbia University's HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies is a multidisciplinary research centre at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University. For more than 20 years, with funding from NIMH, other PHS Institutes and a number of different private foundations, the centre has served as a national and international hub for research and engagement with a broad range of HIV-infected and -affected populations, including women and their partners, children and adolescents, the chronically mentally ill, and men who have sex with men. For more information, visit the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies website.

The University of California, Los Angeles Program in Global Health partners with academic institutions in developing countries to advance prevention, policy and clinical research for HIV/AIDS and other diseases in all regions of the world. With developing country partners, the programme integrates treatment and prevention of HIV, implements innovative prevention programmes, stimulates implementation of beneficial policies and laws, addresses gender inequity, and trains the next generation of American and developing country scientists and advocates to continue this essential work. For more information, visit the Program in Global Health website. - Business Wire