Youth-Driven HIV Prevention Programmes in South Africa: Social Capital, Empowerment and Conscientisation

Abstract

The community-level attributes of two y outh HIV prevention initiatives in a single community are examined using the concepts of social capital, empowerment and critical consciousness. The school-based peer education programme and yo uth-initiated public clinic 'add-on' f acility fo r the treatment of adolescent sexually transmitted diseases had differing experiences in terms ofimplementation. community acceptance, sustainability and achieving their goals. By examining the role ofconscientization, networks for accessing resources and power, and community acceptability of adolescent HI V prevention, this pap er describes the differing experiences of these two programmes. The paper indicates the need for true adolescent agency in challenging the social constructions of adolescent HI V risk at the social and community levels.

Synergies, strengths and challenges: findings on community capability from a systematic health systems research literature review

“…A few articles discussed how not providing such information was a major barrier to successfully meeting goals [29–31]. For example, an examination of HIV prevention programs that included youth participation in a South African township found that critical thinking regarding the contextual factors underlying sexual behavior was not actively encouraged among the project’s peer educators and therefore, these individuals were not able to adequately support youth with context-specific behavior change communication [31]. …”

“…Mushi [51] describes the supportive relationship between Safe Motherhood Promoters and health providers wherein the promoters felt valued, supported and welcome in health facilities. As mentioned earlier, MacPhail & Campbell [31] described the successful linkage created between a youth friendly health facility in South Africa and the national HIV program loveLife, which enabled youth to access funding for their program. They contrast this successful linkage with the inability of school-based youth peer educators to access networks or alliances that could have supported them, because of their systematic exclusion from stakeholder committees [31].…”

“…Linkages were also established between communities, health system actors and non-governmental actors to facilitate community input into higher-level program planning and decision-making [29, 42, 58]. While some papers reported significant positive collaborations arising from these latter two types of linkages [42, 58], others found difficulties [25, 29–31, 59]. …”

“…Some articles had an explicit focus on poor communities [18, 22, 31, 47], with one focused on addressing economic differences through subsidizing services or products [23]. Articles also focused on groups facing disadvantages due to belonging to minority and ethnic groups [45, 68] including those related to caste [55].…”

Empowering Adolescents to Engage in Healthy Behaviours Through Peer Leadership Training in the Townships of Cape Town

“…Empowerment through education for critical consciousness might be the key for the success of this peer education strategy (Campbell & MacPhail, 2002;Campbell & Cornish, 2010;Hatcher et al, 2011;MacPhail, 2006;Mohajer & Earnest, 2009;Visser, 2005Visser, , 2007Watts et al, 2011;Wiggins, 2012;Wilson, Minkler, Dasho, Wallerstein, & Martin, 2008). Visser (2007) claimed that peer education is an appropriate HIV/AIDS prevention method among adolescents because youth may find it easier to discuss personal issues with peers than with adults, and they use a shared language.…”