'Think for yourself - Think for tomorrow': Exploring the impact of peer-led HIV intervention and psychosocial support groups for vulnerable youth in South Africa
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2010
TITLE AUTHOR(S): S.Swartz, I.Van der Heijden, T.Runciman, M.Makoae, A.Rozani, N.Dube, M.Makiwane, A.Bhana
KEYWORDS: EDUCATION, HIV/AIDS, ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN (OVC), PEER EDUCATION PROGRAMMES, POVERTY, PSYCHOSOCIAL ENVIRONMENT
Intranet: HSRC Library: shelf number 6417
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/4198
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/4198
If you would like to obtain a copy of this Research Output, please contact Hanlie Baudin at researchoutputs@hsrc.ac.za.
Abstract
This report, building on Swartz, Van der Heijden, Makoae et al. (2009), offers a contribution towards understanding three important phenomena in South Africa: the widespread effect of HIV/AIDS, the ongoing needs of orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC1) living in poverty and made extraordinarily vulnerable by the AIDS pandemic, and the promise of peer education to contribute towards meeting their psychosocial and HIV/AIDS educational needs. In partnership with the Harvard School of Public Health, the study examines, on a formative level, the impact that a structured, time-limited, curriculum-based peer-led intervention (entitled Vhutshilo 2) has on a group of vulnerable youth in periurban and rural areas. Since this is the first time the programme has been implemented and evaluated, apart from the impact measured, this evaluation set out to learn what parts of the curriculum and strategy work well; how to improve delivery and supervision; how best peer educators might be supported and their connection to group members promoted; and how or whether to engage parents and other community members. In other words, the goal was to demonstrate, and move towards institutionalizing an intervention that would be an affordable, practical, sustainable mechanism for meaningful prevention education and psychosocial support which we could reasonably expect to produce changes in attitudes, norms, intentions and behaviour as we improved both our intervention and our ability to measure it (Deutsch, 2010, personal communication). Before turning to the results of the study, including recommendations for curriculum improvement; comments on peer education as a strategy; the impact on youth participants, peer educators, and the organisations that implement the programme; and responses from community members including parents, this chapter seeks to place the study in context. It will consider youth vulnerabilities in general and in the context of poverty and HIV/AIDS; describe peer education as practiced in this study and elsewhere; and briefly situate peer education intervention in the context of policy frameworks locally and internationally.-
Related Research Outputs:
- 'With a little help from my friends': exploring the impact of peer-led HIV intervention and psychosocial support groups for orphaned and vulnerable children in South Africa
- The role of the health sector in strengthening systems to support children's healthy development in communities affected by HIV/AIDS: a review
- Building resilience: a rights-based approach to children and HIV/AIDS in Africa
- "Going to scale": the cost-effectiveness of alternative interventions to support vulnerable children and families in the context of poverty and HIV/AIDS
- Boundaries of care: the role of the school in supporting vulnerable children in the context of HIV and AIDS
- Report on experiences in the Amandlamadoda (menpower) sexual and reproductive project in Umkhanyakude, KwaZulu-Natal
- "Going to scale"
- Going to scale: a randomised community trial to determine the cost-effectiveness of alternative interventions to support highly vulnerable children and families in the context of HIV, AIDS and poverty
- The boundaries of care: education policy interventions for vulnerable children
- Psychosocial support (PSS) needs of community-based caregivers (CBCs) working with orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in South Africa
- Methods for evaluation of psychosocial support (PSS) needs of community based caregivers (CBCs) working with orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) and PLWHA in South Africa
- Examining the impact of HIV & AIDS on South African educators
- Psychosocial support (PSS) needs of community home based carers (CHBC) working with orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) and people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWA) in South Africa, case of Red Cross Society
- The quality of material care provided by grandparents of their orphaned grandchildren in the context of HIV/AIDS and poverty: a study of Kopanong municipality, Free State
- Measuring change in vulnerable adolescents: findings from a peer education evaluation in South Africa
- HIV+ and HIV- youth living in group homes in South Africa need more psychosocial support
- Youth health and well-being: why it matters?
- The impact of HIV/AIDS on land issues in Kwazulu-Natal province South Africa: case studies from Muden, Dondotha, Kwadumisa and Kwanyuswa
- Psychosocial factors in child health
- State of the nation: South Africa 2003-2004