HILLCREST AIDS CENTRE

The Hillcrest AIDS Centre provides education, counseling, income generation projects and hospice- and home-based health care for those affected by HIV/AIDS.  

Their mission is to “show unconditional love to all infected and affected by HIV/AIDS in a practical way”. The Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust is located in the Valley of a Thousand Hills in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.  The area has one of the highest rates of HIV infection in the world – in some parts of the valley, up to two-thirds of people are infected.

YOUTHCONNECTED raises funds for Hillcrest and supports the Little Traveller project.  Little Travellers are small beaded dolls made by bead-workers at Hillcrest and have travelled the world spreading the message about HIV in southern Africa.

In January 2007, 29 Australians travelled to Hillcrest where we worked in their organic gardens, counselled HIV-positive mothers, and saw patients in the respite centre and on home visits into the valley.

In January 2008, seven members of YOUTHCONNECTED travelled to Hillcrest to teach the carers in the respite centre Integrated Touch Balance (ITB), a simple hands-on protocol which on our last trip we had previously found very effective in supporting patients, in conjunction with traditional medical care.   

Sphe Gamede, who leads the team working in the Respite Centre, says “I remember the following day after the workshop we went to the Respite Unit and we did the balance with a patient that had a peripheral neuropathy.  While we were doing the balance with him he fell asleep and could not feel any pain.  Even during the training we were all relaxed.  It is easy to maintain what we have learned.”  

To find out more about Hillcrest AIDS Centre: www.hillaids.org.za/