Gugu

Meet Gugu.



Gugu Sibanda is 22 years old, and lives with her three sisters, two brothers, a niece, a friend, and the friend's daughter in her parents’ home. Her father died in 2003 and her mother in early 2006. Gugu finished high school in 2005 and began work as a hairdresser to help the family during her mother’s illness. She is a lead singer in her church choir and taught Better Choices in the Masoyi Youth Program for a number of years.

Gugu just got accepted into the University of Limpopo to study Social Work. This is her heart:

I want to be a social worker to encourage change in my community. I want to help all those in need: Orphans, vulnerable children, and abused women and children. I have seen that many people are suffering in my country. I want to take care of the orphans and register them for grants. I want to make sure that their grants are used for their needs, and not for anyone else’s. When people come to me for help, I want to be able to help them and to advise them to get tested for HIV/AIDS, because HIV/AIDS kills too many people in our community. There are many orphans and street kids because of this killer disease.
As a social worker I can get into schools to advise the youth about HIV/AIDS. I know that they will listen to me when I talk to them- and if two or three can take my advice and get tested for HIV/AIDS, that would be worth it.
In Masoyi many people, especially the youth, need to understand that HIV/AIDS is real. There are still youth who do not believe that it is a reality. I want to bring awareness and truth around HIV/AIDS. Some youth believe that you can only get HIV/AIDS from having many partners; they do not know that even if you have one partner you are at risk of getting HIV/AIDS. The youth trust people who are not faithful to them. They just listen to people when they tell them they love them, especially the girls. This causes the spread of HIV/AIDS more and more. Other girls use their bodies to get money to buy alcohol at the bottle store, or they go there and get drunk and sleep with anyone.
I knew one girl who slept with four boys in one night. I asked her why she did that and she said because she was drunk. I as a person who cares about other people, told that girl that it is better to leave alcohol and do something that can keep her busy, like go to church choir practise on Saturday, or join any organization
Many people believe lies about HIV/AIDS, and they try to convince others. I want to educate people, so they know the truth about HIV/AIDS.