South Africa - HIV/AIDS - Body maps

Nondomiso Hlwele (30) who is HIV positive displays her body map outside her mother's house in Khayelitsha township. She made her body map in 2003 in a MSF support group during a special workshop facilitated by artist Jane Solomon. The body maps made during this workshop have been recognised as a uniquely creative piece of art and memory work. They have been exhibited internationally and have been published in a book entitled Long Life. Memory work began as a response to the impact of HIV on children in Uganda. Body mapping was developed as one of the tools of memory work in South Africa, and whereas the original Ugandan memory books were done as a preparation for death to create a legacy which could be left behind, body maps were developed in the new context of a South African township where life-saving ARV medication was starting to be widely available. (Photo by Gideon Mendel/Corbis via Getty Images)