1) LAY-COUNSELLOR TRAINING

We trained thirty-one lay-counsellors during the 2005 financial year (an 11% increase from the previous year), bringing the total number of lay-counsellors trained from the inception of COPES-SA in 2004 to 59. In 2006, we initiated a programme, ‘Project Siyanqoba’, whose objectives are:

• To provide comprehensive psycho-social support for orphaned and vulnerable children, by:
• Empowering 10 orphaned and vulnerable children (OVCs) by giving them life and peer-counselling skills. These trained
  peer-counsellors will in turn reach out to other OVCs who find themselves in difficult situations.
• Training 10 volunteer counsellors from the community from which these children come from, to take care of and   supervise these children.
• Giving monthly food parcels to 20 OVCs.
• Providing professional and high-level counselling to those who need it, as determined by the peer and lay-counsellors.

2) PEER-COUNSELLOR TRAINING

Twelve learners from Tetelo High School, a local school, enrolled for the peer-counsellor training program. Of these, 10 completed the course. In 2006, we trained 10 peer-counsellors under ‘Project Siyanqoba.’

3) HIV TRAINING

COPES-SA, in partnership with the Foundation for Professional Development (FPD), trained 217 health professionals and lay-people, in 2005 in various aspects of HIV management such as advanced voluntary counselling and testing (AVCT), Adherence Counselling, and the Professional Management of HIV and AIDS. The bulk of the trainees were drawn from Soweto, thus increasing the pool of individuals who can give support to those affected and infected by HIV and AIDS. In 2006, we trained 207 health professionals and lay-people.