Biomedical & Traditional Healing Collaboration on HIV and AIDS
 | KWAZULU-NATAL
TRADITIONAL
HEALTH
PRACTITIONERS | | .jpg) |
 | 1.JPG) The Biomedical & Traditional Healing Collaboration on HIV and AIDS is a funded project within the UKZN Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine. The development and empowerment of traditional healers to play a meaningful role in health care service delivery in South Africa is of national strategic importance. |  |
This forms one of the strategic objectives of the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The faculty has established strong relationship with traditional healers leading to the signing of a memorandum of understanding with traditional healers of KwaZulu Natal. The relationships are based on sound philosophical principles and have become a true model for partnerships in this country and continent; they will contribute to the development of traditional health care knowledge without compromising intellectual property rights of the healers. |
This has led to an award of funds by the CDC (US Presidents Emergency Fund) on biomedical and traditional healer collaboration on HIV prevention. Aids care and treatment. This five-year cutting edge project is focused on establishing a district/local government level collaboration with clinics and traditional healers. Partners of this project include the, KwaZulu Natal Department of Health, KwaZulu-Natal Traditional Health Practitioners, eThekwini Municipality Health Unit, and the UKZN’s Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine. The project centres around a training and implementation programme that has so far reached 1077 traditional health practitioners. |