In the year 2006 we have received clear signals from you, our readers, about the things that irk, worry and upset you as you go about your day-to-day duties.
As we mentioned before in this space, we picked up a message from teachers that they are miserable about their earnings. Moreover, there appear to be huge gaps in the information available to you about your salaries, increases and performance bonuses. Hence the large number of SMSs we receive.
The other signal we have been picking up at the Teacher is that educators are completely overwhelmed by the toll that HIV and Aids is taking on their communities. Other than health professionals, teachers are among those who are the closest to the pandemic. In some respects, you are probably the last resort for hungry, orphaned children. You become these children’s mothers and fathers — a responsibility that is thrust upon you rather than chosen by you. As you juggle teaching with social work, you also have to deal with the anguish of illness and death in your own families, so strikingly shared in our column, A day in my life, in this edition.
But what has been touching us throughout the year is not only the tales of sorrow and hope, but also how a simple showing of solidarity with the plight of teachers as HIV/Aids caretakers injected much needed energy into many of you. Our column, in collaboration with the Catholic Education Network’s Care of the Teacher Year, has yielded an unexpected flood of responses.
This is why we decided that the HIV/Aids fatigue that has reportedly conquered this society (so that people ignore anything in the newspapers, on radio and television about the topic) is either a lie or has simply not reached the teaching profession.
Among teachers, despite all the information floating around, there is still a need for more, reliable information. This is why we offer you quite a variety of contributions in this edition, ranging from Joan Dommisse’s innovative lesson to overcome teenagers’ resistance to the topic to Charlene Smith’s advice on good books on the topic.
This is our response to teachers’ cry for support.
Our approach is this: if we ignore you, allow you to give up or to run out of steam, who else will be left in the queue to care for the children infected and affected by HIV?
So, on World Aids Day, December 1, let us salute you, our teachers, who are daring to get involved and to go beyond the call of duty in the fight against HIV and Aids.
Our message is simple: please don’t give up.