Candice Andisiwe Sehomas upbringing in Alexandra was marked by a tragedy that taught hard lessons about unequal access to quality healthcare in South Africa.
After matriculating, Sehoma became determined to make a difference in her community. Her idea? To replace bucket toilets with flushing ones, with the support of affected residents. While attending university she co-founded an organisation called Building Blocks, which built 22 flushing toilets in Alex and elsewhere.
Sehoma joined Doctors Without Borders in 2017, where she devotes her time to fighting for medicines and tools that are essential for treating infectious diseases such as HIV and TB, as well as noncommunicable diseases like diabetes.
Intodays newsletter, Tanya Pampalone introduces us to Candice Sehomas life of activism.Sign up for our newsletter today.
When HIV cases surged in South Africa in the late 1990s, Candice Andisiwe Sehoma was still in single figures, playing mgusha with her siblings and cousins. She had zero awareness of the HIV denialism of South African president Thabo Mbeki and his health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, and how this threatened the lives of millions of people living with HIV who lacked access to treatment. Nor did she know that many thousands of activists were rising up in response, notably the rank and file of the Treatment Action Campaign TAC, working alongside some devoted clinicians across the country, and patient advocates around the world.
Many NGOs joined the HIV fight as well, including Mdecins Sans Frontires/Doctors Without Borders MSF, the organisation Sehoma works for.