POTENTIAL SIDE

Over and above the benefits to the crafters affected by HIV AIDS through the production process, the 46664 bangle will on a global scale benefit people living with the disease through Nelson Mandela’s 46664 HIV AIDS awareness and prevention campaign.

A generous portion of the proceeds from the sale of the bangle will be donated to 46664, which is a non-profit entity wholly owned by the Nelson Mandela Foundation. Funds from bangle sales will be used to implement HIV AIDS prevention campaigns aimed at breaking the cycle of new infections and ultimately lowering prevalence rates in South Africa and the rest of the world. The centrepiece of 46664 prevention activities at the moment is a play about HIV AIDS called “Khululeka/It’s in our hands”.

Khululeka is a wonderfully engaging and educational play that tells the story of actual people living with HIV/AIDS. The power of the play lies in the way it is able to address all the complexities associated with this disease – for instance poverty, gender inequality, lack of education and economic opportunities, ignorance and myths, stigmas and taboos. It talks about effectively managing the risk around HIV/AIDS and empowers the youth to make informed choices. The play achieves this with great feeling, courage and humour. The audience is completely engaged and challenged to think and feel in a way that many other forms of education cannot do because it doesn’t have the same immediacy that theatre provides. After the play, there is always a question and answer session facilitated by the actors who are themselves trained counsellors. Sometimes, especially at community productions, there would be a recognised expert in the field acting as facilitator as well. In addition to such outreach activities, some of the monies raised by 46664 are used to fund community based organisations doing worthy work related to prevention, care and treatment of HIV/AIDS. To date approximately R20 million has been disbursed to three credible funding agencies which give grants to community-based organisations in South Africa and other African countries.

Organisations

The Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund assists orphaned and vulnerable children to build sustainable livelihoods. The Foundation for Development in Mozambique similarly makes grants available to communities devastated by AIDS through income generating projects activities, home care, support for children orphaned by AIDS and so on. In Ghana, the African Women’s Development Fund is a developmental agency that assists women’s HIV/AIDS initiated projects across the continent through their HIV/AIDS Fund. These projects cover all areas of prevention, treatment, care and counselling.

46664 is an innovative AIDS campaign that operates through creative partnerships at individual, corporate, non-governmental and governmental levels and acts as a focal point for collective efforts to eradicate HIV/AIDS. It takes the view that responses should be addressed holistically, taking into account that there are numerous factors that encourage the spread of the disease: poverty, unemployment and lack of economic opportunities, gender inequalities, stigma and discrimination, hopelessness and despair and so on. Thus the core mandate of 46664 is to bring hope to people, especially the youth, who are most affected and at risk of contracting AIDS.

The 46664 campaign is made through its association with corporates who recognise two bottom lines: social upliftment and financial returns – in other words companies who fully appreciate that ‘you can do better, by doing good’. Thus the social vision of 46664 Bangle is completely aligned with 46664, and the partnership is a mutually beneficial one, rooted in a higher vision inspired by Mr Mandela himself.

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