The CPUT HIV/AIDS Unit recently held its annual Peer Education Awards ceremony, the first face-to-face ceremony after the COVID-19 pandemic. The ceremony was held at the Cape Town Hotel School and was hosted by the Unit’s interns, Siphelele Maseko and Nthabiseng Maake.
“The purpose of the event was to celebrate the hard work and dedication of the 2022 Peer Educators throughout the year. They have given themselves entirely by ensuring that each campus and campus residence had new condoms, students were aware of what was going on in the Unit and that discussions were held on crucial topics that students faced. They showcased their leadership skills by actively promoting the CPUT Vooma Vaccination Drive earlier in the year. These incredible young minds were celebrated through a state-of-the-art Classic and Vintage theme event titled “Celebrating a Vintage Heart, with a Vintage Mind”,” said Melanie Swanson, Head of the HIV/Aids Units.
The Peer Educators were awarded with a certificate of completion and there were various categories of awards such as Covid warrior of the year, Social media influencer of the year, Role model of the year, Junior peer of the year, Senior peer educator of the year, Campus leader of the year, Peer mentor of the year, Condom distributor of the year, Most discussion of the year, Change agent of the year, and Campus of the year with monetary prizes awarded to the 1st , 2nd and 3rd place prizes according to their work recorded through a monthly log sheet.
Executive Director in the Office of the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Drieke Hay-Swemmer, shared a message of support with the Peer Educators to encourage them to keep doing great work and to be great mentors to others. Andile Xolo, who represented the Central SRC, said: “I wish that the HIV/AIDS Unit will continue recruiting peer educators to join the programme and I hope that all students come and participate in the programme. All in all, the HIV/AIDS Unit is doing a great job and I enjoyed myself”.
Here’s what some of the winners had to say:
“The experience I got in this programme, it will forever stay with me. It has inspired and motivated me to want to do more and seeing my fellow peer eds getting awards/certificates for what they have done during the year. That sparked my interest to be more active in everything I want to achieve”
“I enjoyed those team building games we had in our refreshers training and the discussion we had that day. Also, this programme has helped me to gain my confidence back.”
“The ceremony was amazing and congratulations to all who won and those that are motivated to do better next year. For as long as we support each other the world is a better place”
“My thanks go to the HIV/AIDS unit and their sponsors. Office bearers and peer educators on the ground.”
“We are CPUT and once a peer educator, always a peer educator.”
“Everyone came out looking gorgeous and stunning and they truly enjoyed themselves, indeed, it was a spectacular event as the awards winner had nothing but great things to say and the guest left thrilled. We wish to thank the management of CPUT, Higher Health and Fundani Centre for their generous support of our programmes,” said Swanson.
If you wish to be a 2023 Peer Educator, send your brief CV and motivation letter to the Peer Education Officer, Miss Nonhlanhla Ndabeni, at
Written by CPUT News
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