The Division of Student Affairs hosted their 2022 ANNUAL PEER EDUCATION AWARDS CEREMONY

BY SIPHELELE MASEKO

The CPUT HIV/AIDS Unit held its annual Peer Education Award ceremony on the 30th of September 2022, the first face to face ceremony after the Covid-19 pandemic and it was a huge success.

The ceremony was held at the Granger Bay Hotel School, 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, discussions 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”.

The Peer Educators were awarded with a certificate of completion and qualified for different categories 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.

Professor Henriette Hay-Swemmer was present at the event sharing a message of support to the Peer Educators to encourage the work they do and to keep doing great work and be great mentors to others.

Andile Xolo, represented Central SRC and had this to say about the event:

“I wish that the HIV/AIDS Unit will continue recruiting peer educators to join the program and I hope that all students come and participate in the program. 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 program; 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 program has helped me to gain my confidence back”. -Zandee

“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 gratitude goes 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”. -Ab Manthonsi

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 programs.

If you wish to be a 2024 Peer Educator, send your brief CV and motivation letter to the Peer Education Officer Miss Nonhlanhla Ndabeni at ndabenin@cput.ac.za