Know your status: 5FM encourages South Africans to be tested on World Aids Day

Venues for testing are the Edgars court at Cavendish Square in Cape Town, the Jabulani Mall parking lot in Soweto, the Gateway Theatre of Shopping outside entrance four on the Lower ground level at the Gateway Mall in Durban and The Zone at Rosebank Mall in Joburg at the Allstar court. Jabulani Mall has an MST Specialised Vehicles Mobile Unit for testing.

Lending their support

5FM DJs will be lending their support to the campaign both in person and on-air to raise the profile of World Aids Day nationally and to urge South Africans to act responsibly by knowing their status. Aisha Mohamed, 5FM Station Manager says "5FM is using its platform and appeal as a national broadcaster and youthful brand to promote responsibility and raise awareness around an extremely important cause in a non-threatening way."

With a total of 16 nurses across the testing stations, 5FM is hoping to test 800-1000 people this year. This is a significant increase from the station's efforts in 2009, where four nurses tested 200 people. Zaheer Hammersely, marketing manager for Careways says "In 2009 Careways and 5FM partnered to embark on a corporate responsibility initiative by offering free AIDS testing and counselling to listeners in support of World AIDS day. This proved to be a huge success and it was decided that Careways and 5FM would offer the same opportunity on a larger scale in 2010, we aim to improve last years' testing by doubling the amount of tests done, and providing testing stations throughout the country."

Operating on a first come first serve basis, each person testing will be required to sign an informed consent form which means that an average of ten to fifteen minutes will be allocated to each individual. There are also a limited number of tests that can be completed at each station on the 1st December.

5FM DJ's will be present at the testing stations to cross live to the studio throughout the day and will award spot prizes to make the wait even more worthwhile!

For more information, go to www.5fm.co.za.