The mission of CTAOP is to help keep African youth safe from HIV/AIDS
About Our Work
CTAOP was created in 2007 by Charlize Theron, Academy Award winning actor and UN Messenger of Peace, in an effort to support African youth in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Although the geographic scope of CTAOP is Sub-Saharan Africa, the primary area of focus has been Charlize’s home country of South Africa.
Mobile Health Clinics
In collaboration with Oprah’s Angel Network, we provided lead funding to Mpilonhle (em-pee-LONCH-lay), a community based South African nonprofit that provides mobile health services to secondary schools in the rural uMkhanyakude District of the KwaZulu-Natal Province. The uMkhanyakude District is one of the most impoverished regions of South Africa – a neglected and underdeveloped area, with only 6.6% of the population employed and nearly 83% of households living below South Africa’s poverty level.
Mpilonhle provides HIV/AIDS preventive education, health screening, counseling, psychosocial support, voluntary HIV testing as well as referrals to home-based care and treatment for those infected. Other programs include peer counseling, computer literacy courses, food parcel distribution, and a sports and health curriculum.
Support provided by the United States President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) allowed for the addition of two more mobile health units. Mpilonhle has now provided services to over 60,000 students, including more than 30,000 who have had individual health counseling sessions.
CLICK HERE to see CHARLIZE visiting the mobile health units.
Moving to a more Holistic Approach
With the general lack of roads, electricity, schools, hospitals and health clinics, as well as a lack of potable water and sanitation services, we helped Mpilonhle embark on a more holistic approach to address the broader needs of the community in ways which enhanced their HIV prevention work.
In early 2011, construction began on a collaborative community initiative called Home Field Advantage (HFA) to bring clean water sources, sports fields, food gardens, community laundry basins, and non-contaminating toilet blocks to four secondary schools.
The generosity of CTAOP’s supporters, including the Annenberg Foundation, ONEXONE, Orange County Center for Living Peace, Red Granite Pictures and many others, enabled Mpilonhle to create hubs of activity at these schools that will allow their health services to reach beyond enrolled students to the community at large.
About CTAOP
