Project Archive

The Southern African Student Volunteers (SASVO) was established in 1993 to give students and communities in the Southern African region the opportunity to work together as volunteers in sustainable community development projects. SASVO was now a joint project of the CSA and the Centre for Human Rights. Although based at the University of Pretoria, students from all universities in southern Africa and from all disciplines participated in SASVO projects.

Starting in 2002, the CSA developed a range of programmes, implemented through three satellite offices of the CSA, in Witbank and Nelspruit in Mpumalanga and at Hammanskraal, just north of Pretoria. These programmes enhanced prevention and support activities around HIV and AIDS through promoting awareness and debate, built individual and organisational capacity and enhanced organisational networking, with a special focus on gender. Where possible, students of UP were integrated into this work through their practical placements at the satellite campuses.

Sisonke was a joint initiative between the CSA and The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference AIDS Office and their Development and Welfare Agency.

The HIV prevention Intervention Among Abused Women in South Africa project was started in 2001. The intervention sought to reduce HIV risk behaviour and reduce trauma-related stress among abused women, specifically in South Africa.

The 2-Grow project worked to improve the quality of life of rural people living with HIV and AIDS in Mpumalanga, the North West and Limpopo. Acceptance and disclosure are complex concepts in the midst of stigma, poverty, limited resources and lack of knowledge.

This project worked to increase women's and girls' access to health services including HIV and AIDS treatment, prevention and care.

The CSA was a member of SAHIVAC (South African HIV Vaccine Action Campaign), a Consortium established to develop a community mobilisation, education, information and human rights promotion campaign to inform and educate the South African population about HIV/AIDS vaccines and clinical trials. The original partners in the Consortium with the CSA were the Medical Research Council (MRC), the AIDS Legal Network (ALN), the Community Mobilisation Unit (CMU), the Information Clearinghouse (IC) and the National AIDS Convention of South Africa (NACOSA). NACOSA left the consortium at the end of 2001. Their community mobilisation and political lobbying responsibilities were shared between the ALN and the CSA.