45% of the 37 million people living with HIV in the world don’t know they are infected by the virus, an essential first step to accessing life-saving antiretroviral drugs (ARVs).

At the time when the main actors on HIV unanimously call to quickly accelerate the fight against the virus it is essential to empower the people on the front line (patients, communities and civil society groups) to increase access to testing and treatment, in the countries most affected.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) worked in collaboration with local artists,musicians, activists and young people living positively to help co-ordinate the painting of two giant murals on the side of OR Tambo Hall, the largest, most well-known building in Khayelitsha (previously hosting the local World Aids Day venue), and highly visible from the N1 highway out of Cape Town. It was a cooperative project led for and with the Khayelitsha people affected by HIV.

In the lead up to World Aids Day 2015, a group of HIV positive people from Khayelitsha in Cape Town, one of the largest townships in South Africa and where over one in five adults live with HIV came together to urge young people to stand strong against the virus. Despite enormous challenges, these people are living active, creative lives, proving that HIV is in no way an automatic death sentence. They want to broadcast this positive message far and wide, to encourage others to get tested and get treatment in order to live fulfilling, healthy lives.