The Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has put together a delegation of young African American delegates, to engage with young locals, creating a cross-continental dialogue on HIV/Aids.
The foundation said the groups had much in common. It said African-Americans made up only 12% of the US population, yet 44% of all HIV/Aids infections in the US were among this group.
African-American women were also 15 times more likely, than women of other ethnicities, to contract HIV/Aids.
“African-American gay men, and those having sex with other men, experienced infection rates as high as one in two, and youth in this group, between the ages of 13 and 24, are one of the highest demographics with new HIV/Aids cases in the US,” the foundation's Samantha Granberry said.
These statistics, said Granberry, were almost a “mirror image” of the current picture in South Africa, where young girls and women, between the ages of 12 and 25, were four times as likely to be infected with HIV/Aids as compared to their male counterparts.
The engagements with the celebrities are dubbed “Town Hall Discussions” and are a “ground-breaking, cross-continental, activation, aiming at generating international conversation and awareness around HIV/Aids, sexual health practices, sexual experiences along with cross continental similarities and solutions on HIV/Aids and societal issues”.
The delegation, which landed in South Africa last night, includes ambassador and RnB singer, Goapele Mohlabane, who featured in two singles with Cassper Nyovest.
The other members are Courtney Burrell and Khalilah Dubose, cast members of American TV series Sexless.
The series is produced by Black & Sexy TV, an American entertainment and lifestyle network. The foundation is the sponsor of two of the network's leading series.
“The delegation will be in Durban to conduct the discussions with youth in uMlazi W-section this afternoon and will be part of a protest at the King Zwelethini Stadium in uMlazi tomorrow from noon.”
Granberry said: “South Africa is also the first country outside the US that AHF started outreach programmes in, over 16 years ago, which led to the establishment of the Ithembalabantu clinic, in uMlazi, in 2002, so bringing the delegation to South Africa was first prize.”