Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Why Charlize loves coming home to SA
HIV/Aids work close to her heart
FOR actress Charlize Theron, growing up at a time in South Africa when most people didn’t know much about HIV/Aids was a scary experience.
“I distinctly recall driving in the car with my mom to the hospital with one of her employees who was sick and a week after that we did it again,” said Theron, in an interview with Independent Media this week. “I instantly realised the gravity of the epidemic even without knowing what it was at the time.
“People were dying and no one knew why. I was young and it was terrifying. The saddest reality was that it was totally preventable. People were unnecessarily dying and the next generation was suffering.”
This is why coming back to SA to help combat HIV/Aids and guide young people is so close to her heart. In October, the Academy Award-winning actress celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP), which invests in programmes to help young people in Africa protect themselves from the disease.
Although Theron left South Africa decades ago, it was the shattering reality of the epidemic that led her to launch CTAOP. It’s now reached over 300 000 young people living with HIV/Aids through the programmes it supports.
The 42-year-old said while she was incredibly proud of what her project had achieved, there was plenty more work to do.
“There is so much more to be done and CTAOP and I aren’t going anywhere. Our commitment to investing in South African youth to help them keep themselves safe from HIV/ Aids is stronger than ever. I can’t wait to see what we can accomplish in our next decade.”
South Africa has the largest HIV-positive population in the world with an estimated 7.1 million living with the virus.
“South Africa has the biggest treatment programme, but even this can’t support the 7.1 million people living in the country with HIV, and even more troubling is the fact that so many people still don’t know they have the virus.
“We won’t be able to treat our way out of this epidemic. It’s critical that we invest in prevention efforts and a big piece of this work has to be taking a hard look at the social on raising young leaders to become the next generation of change-makers.
“The fund was inspired from our latest visit to South Africa. We were at one of our amazing grantees, the Small Projects Foundation in the Eastern Cape, listening to incredible young people speak about how they are going to create change in their communities,” she said.
“We were so inspired by their passion and selflessness, particularly considering the challenges many of them face. We walked away knowing we have to do more to invest in those individuals – because they will change this world.”
As a South African, she said it was hard not to be connected to the fight against the pandemic.
“Founding CTAOP was a way to help shed light on the magnitude of the problem. I had to do something and realised organisations on the ground are the experts who are really making a difference, so we give our support to them.”
Although Theron makes regular visits to South Africa when possible, she misses her home country dearly.
“There is a lot I miss. The food, the landscape, the energy and spirit of the country, the incredible diversity.
“Most of all, though, I miss the people. You grow up in a place and it’s part of you – the people are your people. And I miss that. When I’m back in South Africa, I’m home.”