Mothers for All, which has been running a  handicraft training project with male and female inmates at Worcester Prison in South Africa's Cape Province for over a year now, has recently received permission from the prison authorities to roll out a pilot HIV peer education and leadership programme for 12 selected male inmates. Support for this programme comes from the MAC AIDS Fund Leadership Initiative – a fascinating collaboration between MAC Cosmetics, Colombia University's HIV Centre, UCLA's Global Health Institute and the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa. MAC Cosmetics launched its  MAC AIDS Fund in 1994 to support men, women and children affected by HIV/AIDS globally, and has so far raised around $130 million by channelling 100% of the profits from the worldwide sales of its popular Viva Glam lipstick to this fund.

The Leadership Initiative is designed to identify, train and mentor emerging leaders in South Africa who could make major sustainable contributions to HIV prevention.  Each year approximately 12 people from South Africa are selected to undergo a rigorous training programme in HIV prevention, gender and leadership skills.  They are also given help to design and then implement innovative HIV prevention plans.

One of Mothers for All’s founders, Linda Scott, was extremely fortunate to be selected for the 2011 programme and will therefore be rolling out this pilot prison project in early 2012. HIV prevalence within male prisons in South Africa is significantly higher than in the general population. As most inmates are eventually released back into their communities it is essential to address the drivers of the epidemic within prisons to avoid them becoming HIV reservoirs. Research has shown that intervention programmes led by the inmates themselves are the most likely to succeed and so Linda will be working with a remarkable group of male inmates, self-named as the Group of Hope, who have already demonstrated their commitment and ability to make a difference. This group of men decided in 2002 that they needed to help address the HIV epidemic. They started by running their own prevention campaigns within the prison and helping inmates suffering from AIDS. Empowered by their ability to bring about positive change in spite of their situations, they went on to support 30 children from their local community who had been orphaned by AIDS by making clothes and growing vegetables for them as well as raising money for their other needs through the sale of their handicrafts. Mothers for All became involved through teaching the Group of Hope how to make recycled paper bead jewellery to help them raise money for their orphan fund. Pictured above with their first order of a 100 recycled paper bead necklaces are three members of the Group of Hope with some of the female inmates they are now training, Bobby Stemmet, the head of Worcester Prison, Donnah Bambablaza, Cape Town's Mothers for All trainer, and Linda Scott.

More information about our existing prison project can be found here.