Tsima is a three-year community mobilisation intervention and research trial that Sonke is implementing in eight villages of the Bushbuckridge area in the Mpumalanga province.
Tsima traditionally means working together to plow a field. We use it here to signify working together for the community good. Tsima ra rihanyu means working together for health.
As the implementing agent, Sonke has partnered with the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of California – San Francisco, the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and Right to Care to complete the research component of the project.
The main goal of the project is to mobilise communities to learn and understand that HIV treatment is also a form of HIV prevention. Scientific research has shown that in partners who are sero-discordant, that is, where one is HIV-positive and the other does not have HIV, it is very unlikely that the infected partner can transmit infection to the uninfected one. This is because if the infected partner is on antiretroviral treatment and adheres to it, the medicines can suppress the HI-Virus to very low or undetectable levels, thus reducing or eliminating the risk of transmission.
Download the full Tsima Handbook here.
Tsima Booklets
Public Service Announcements (PSAs) to promote the Tsima project
Tsima Project PSA 1 – Dumi & Mobilisers
This is the first in a series of five PSAs promoting the Tsima project, which is being implemented in the Bushbuckridge area in the province of Mpumalanga. The main goal of the project is to mobilise communities to learn and understand that HIV treatme …
Tsima Project PSA 2 – Nurse Lazarus
This is the second in a series of PSAs promoting the Tsima project, which is being implemented in the Bushbuckridge area in the province of Mpumalanga. The main goal of the project is to mobilise communities to learn and understand that HIV treatment i …
Tsima Project PSA 3 – Induna Mayinga
This is the third in a series of PSAs promoting the Tsima project, which is being implemented in the Bushbuckridge area in the province of Mpumalanga. The main goal of the project is to mobilise communities to learn and understand that HIV treatment is …
Tsima Project PSA 4 – Temby & Arthur
This is the fourth in a series of PSAs promoting the Tsima project, which is being implemented in the Bushbuckridge area in the province of Mpumalanga. The main goal of the project is to mobilise communities to learn and understand that HIV treatment i …
Tsima Project PSA 5 – Compilation of previous PSAs
This is the last in a series of PSAs promoting the Tsima project, which is being implemented in the Bushbuckridge area in the province of Mpumalanga. The main goal of the project is to mobilise communities to learn and understand that HIV treatment is …
Tsima short videos
These videos are actual stories of change whose purpose is to show the benefits of testing for HIV, taking treatment and adhering to it in order to ensure a healthy and long life.
Tsima Project – Rhulani’s journey with HIV
Rhulani has been living with HIV for the past 11 years. In this short video, she says she wouldn’t have been alive today had it not been for accepting her HIV-positive status and taking and adhering to treatment the way she has been advised at her loca …
Tsima Project – Mpho’s journey with HIV
Mpho tested positive for HIV in 2002 and he started taking antiretroviral treatment in 2005 when his infection intensified. Taking antiretrovirals has improved his health significantly. Today, Mpho encourages people in his community to test for HIV. He …
Tsima Posters
