The Hlabisa Magisterial District in the Republic of South Africa at one time had the world's highest HIV infection rate. Today, there is agreement that at least 33% of pregnant women are infected. The Servites initiated the uNkulunkulu uNathi AIDS Project to provide home based care and anti-retroviral treatment in this stricken area.
The origins of the project date to 2000 when a group of about thirty people in the Hlabisa District (covering the Hlabisa and Mtubatuba areas) initiated home visits to care for the sick. The following year, Johan Viljoen, the South African Catholic Bishops Conference field officer, visited the area and helped to draw up a project proposal. A budget of ca. $43,450 was granted to cover: training for the home based caregivers, food provisions, basic medicines, gas for the project vehicle (purchased by the Vicariate Apostolic of Ingwavuma under the late Bishop Michael M. O'Shea, O.S.M.) to transport the sick to local clinics and the Hlabisa Hospital. 2004 saw the establishment of a new anti-retroviral rollout project in collaboration with Hlabisa Hospital and the Africa Centre (a privately funded AIDS research center).
This budget for this program covered blood tests, provision of anti-retroviral medicines, a full-time nurse, and a part-time doctor. By 2005, the program expanded so rapidly in the Mtubatuba area that patients were no longer referred to Hlabisa Hospital, but were diagnosed by two participating local doctors. In December of that same year, there were over 650 patients on anti-retroviral, making it the largest POS under the South African Catholic Bishops Conference AIDS Office.
The South African Catholic Bishops Conference (which in turn receives funding from Catholic Relief Services and the Catholic Medical Missionary Board), the Vicariate Apostolic of Ingwavuma, and the Anglo-American Mining Corporation provide funding for the project.
