By The People

Tourists are a special category of crime victim. An important reason is that they don’t know their surroundings, and don’t usually know what to look out for, and are therefore more susceptible than your average crime-conscious South African to falling prey to a criminal. Julia Frielinghaus reports on an innovative way of helping tourists.

South Africa’s conviction rates are notoriously poor. Private prosecutions have the potential to fill the gap, says Martin Schoenteich.

Say what you like about anarchism� there is something deeply comforting about pursuing a philosophical ideal which, for all intents and purposes, amounts to intellectual disengagement with mainstream political thought. Me, frivolous? Absolutely, says Sam Wilson.

Big business might have financial muscle, but what can individuals do to help? Anne Parsons and Helen Alexander give sound advice on how best to get involved in this difficult field – whether in the form of time, money, or skills – in Finding the Right Way to Help. A useful list of resources and links is included here.

If you don’t have the time or money to get involved, there is still an everyday way to help – through peer counselling. Anne Parsons gives a first-hand account of what it is, why it is so important, and how to do it, in Talk About It!

Possibly more important than business or individuals, are our communities; communities are all about the living. Judy Seidman argues in Support for the Living that with the help of Community Support Groups, those with HIV/AIDS can get on with the business of living.

When considering the issue of children affected by HIV and AIDS, the focus is often on children who have been orphaned. The Children’s Institute at the University of Cape Town explains that children who are not orphans are equally in need of help, and outlines how best to help all children, in their pamphlet Helping Children in the Time of HIV and AIDS . This pamphlet, created by Jo Monson, was funded by the Rockefella Brothers Fund NY, and is reproduced here with permission.

Community Radio is an important way to reach communities and to spread health messages as well as confront prejudices; Helen Alexander explores how communities can use community radio to fight the disease in On the Air.

While government and GPs often seem to be on a collision course over government policy, in Doctors Step In Jean Redpath looks at the Tshepang Trust, an innovative way through which private GPs in partnership with government will try to help ensure government’s anti-retroviral roll-out is accompanied by the correct patient support needed to make it a success.