Marina has a wonderful way of interacting with school learners and is able to relate to them as a result of having children of her own.

Her 90-minute school programme aimed at teenagers helps learners to understand that HIV and AIDS is not a parental or peer group issue, but rather something that the individual needs to take complete responsibility for.

Marina skillfully shows how each individual is responsible for their sexual behaviour and for making the decisions to stay HIV/AIDS negative or how to take full responsibility for managing the consequences of being HIV positive. Marina’s experience has shown that young people react very constructively when they are respected as individuals who can make the correct decisions with the right information.

There is little doubt that teenagers need to be fully informed on all the issues related to HIV/AIDS in order to be empower them to make the necessary behavioural changes to minimize the risk of infection.

Where possible Sifiso Yalo accompanies Marina for the presentation. Sifiso is funny, informative, interesting and brings a unique dimension to the presentations. Learners enjoy having a real-life cartoonist to ask how and why the cartoons are done they way they are.

Each learner in attendance is given a copy of Marina’s book, HIV & AIDS, so that they have an easily accessible resource handy to help inform them on HIV and AIDS and how to manage the complexity of this highly emotive issue and enable them to make informed life-saving decisions.