“Boston City Campus & Business College is thrilled to announce its partnership with loveLife – South Africa's largest national HIV prevention initiative for young people. The issues of social development and youth empowerment are of such paramount importance, and this partnership not only presents an ideal  opportunity to give back to the communities who loyally support us, but also helps upskill loveLife staff members and loveLife’s young leaders known as groundBREAKERS,” says Craig Stollard, financial director at Boston.

Running nationally for a full year, and with Boston as the national education provider, 200 loveLife groundBREAKERS will undergo training in Business Administration at Boston City Campuses, while about 150 loveLife staff members are registered for the Human Resource Management course. 

For loveLife’s chief executive officer, Grace Matlhape, this is indeed a proud moment: “In order for us to continuously grow in the ways we do to empower and educate young South Africans, we also need to ensure the continuous development of the loveLife team and volunteers. In the context of high levels of unemployment among young people in South Africa, the partnership with Boston is also a door opener; both for our staff in their personal capacity and also for the young groundBREAKERs for who these courses are hoped to facilitate access to opportunity.”

With its mission of building complete young leaders for an HIV free future, loveLife’s nationwide community-level outreach and support programmes promote healthy, HIV-free living among South African youth. Complemented by an integrated media campaign, currently loveLife is in partnership with more than 8 000 schools nationwide and works from almost 900 bases in loveLife Y-Centres, youth-friendly clinics, social franchises, and other loveLife outlets. loveLife’s toll-free helplines  for young people and parents – available through sending a Please Call Me to 083 323 1023 – respectively reach an average of 60 000 callers a month.

“We really hope that by sponsoring these courses the potential of the loveLife groundBREAKERS and staff who were selected will reach new heights. We also hope that others will take note – as a society we should remind ourselves of the role such organisations play and the impact they have on bettering our communities. We cannot take the work they do for granted, but should rather find ways to support them and encourage them,” adds Stollard.

Ultimately, for Boston, this partnership applauds loveLife’s whole HIV prevention strategy which goes beyond mere safe sex messaging. “Any HIV prevention strategy should, after all, address the social determinants of HIV: poverty, unemployment, lack of access to healthcare and education, low social solidarity, lack of self-worth, belonging and identity. These are the realities that so many of South Africa’s youth face on a daily basis, and our aim with this partnership is to indirectly address these issues through the best available means to do so –  Education for Life,” says Stollard.

Members of the public who would like to offer a helping hand in their very own communities should enquire about and enrol for Boston’s HIV/AIDS Counselling and Management course. This course is also targeted at professionals in the health and social sciences, nurses, social workers, psychologists, teachers, religious workers, and more. This course aims to equip participants with the necessary skills to deal with HIV/AIDS in different care, counselling and educational situations in the multicultural South African context.

It offers students the opportunity to: disseminate correct and relevant information on HIV/AIDS in the community; facilitate the breakdown of negative attitudes, stereotypes and misconceptions about HIV/AIDS; promote HIV/AIDS prevention strategies in the community; counsel clients on various HIV/AIDS aspects; provide pre- and post-HIV test counselling; deal with cultural and sexual diversity; apply basic legal and ethical issues in various contexts; understand the basic principles of home-based care; use resources and be able to participate in networking and develop and facilitate educational programmes.

For more information contact:

Thandiwe McCloy
Subeditor / Copy Writer
loveLife
Tel: 011 523 1000
Email: thandiwe@lovelife.org.za 
About Boston City Campus and Business College
 
Boston is committed to ‘Education. For Life’ and prides itself on offering relevant courses that meet industry needs, as well as quality academic material and tuition that delivers a high level of success for students, providing them with employable, work-ready skills. At Boston, students are offered assistance with all aspects of student life – from training, computer literacy, computerised career compass assessment, to moderation and verification of theoretical and practical training schedules.
 
Founded in 1991, Boston City Campus and Business College was started to assist Unisa students prepare for their examinations. Today, it has become one of South Africa's leading tertiary education institutions, offering over 80 career study options at over 40 colleges nationwide and servicing more than 20 000 learners annually throughout South Africa.
 
Recognising the need in the marketplace for employees with a degree, and the insufficient provision of places to study a degree, Boston City Campus and Business College also offers students the opportunity to register for certain Unisa degrees.

More information on Boston City Campus and Business College, refer to www.boston.co.za.

About loveLife
 
loveLife is a cutting-edge, highly visible South African organisation with a proven evidence-based record in reducing HIV risk among youth. loveLife promotes a vibrant, youth leadership culture through on-the-ground healthy sexuality and positive lifestyle programmes aimed at building complete young leaders for an HIV free future.
 
loveLife addresses the individual, societal and structural drivers of high-risk behaviour through combining multimedia campaigns, community-level outreach, clinical and psychosocial services.

Our positive lifestyle and healthy sexuality programmes are implemented by a national youth volunteer corps known as groundBREAKERS (peer motivators and community mobilisers between the ages of 18 and 25 years old) and mpintshis (loveLife volunteers).

Working together, groundBREAKERS and mpintshis implement loveLife’s empowering positive lifestyle and healthy sexuality programmes in 8000 schools and from nearly 900 bases in loveLife Y-Centres (youth centres), youth-friendly clinics and social franchises (community-based organisations). The groundBREAKERS guide and mentor mpintshis in the implementation of loveLife programmes.

For more information on loveLife, refer to www.lovelife.org.za.