Making HIV/AIDS Our Problem

- from Chapter 1...

During 2001, Save the Children commissioned a number of studies related to HIV/AIDS, children and young people in South Africa. This included the development of a literature review of young people's responses to HIV/AIDS in South Africa entitled: 'Pathways to action: HIV/AIDS prevention, children and young people in South Africa'. Running parallel to this study was the exploration, through formative field research, of approaches to engaging youth response to HIV/AIDS. This involved the development of two action research interventions- one in Amatole Basin, a rural community in the Eastern Cape, and the other at Sibonile School for the Blind, located at Klipriver in Gauteng. The overall aim was to examine in detail, through two case studies, the challenges facing the community and young people in particular, in developing a sustained and effective response to HIV/AIDS prevention. Objectives included:

• Exploration of the challenges of HIV/AIDS prevention in two different communities, based on the findings of Pathways to action.
• Exploration of the mediators of HIV/AIDS response in each of these communities.
• Engaging young people in the challenges of reorienting their personal, interpersonal, communal and social lives in a way that is conducive to HIV/AIDS prevention.
• Engaging the community context through exploring and addressing the community and social dynamics (including service delivery) that impact on young people's responses to HIV/AIDS.

In 'Pathways to action' it is suggested that it is important to recognise the heterogeneity of young people in South Africa when developing HIV/AIDS responses. Bearing this in mind, the case studies reported on here were deliberately conducted in two very different contexts. There is clearly a need to explore many other contexts of young South Africans in order to know the challenges facing young people. But the two contexts described in this report provide much to reflect on. This is of relevance beyond the boundaries of these communities, and many of the emerging issues and practices have application in other communities and contexts.

Work with the group of young people from a poor and under-developed rural environment in the Eastern Cape allowed for reflection on the challenges of responding to HIV/AIDS in a community where the general social environment offers few resources and little support for young people trying to take hold of their lives. In many respects, the predicament of these young people exemplifies, in stark relief, the context of many young South Africans who encounter the challenge of responding to HIV/AIDS in environments that afford little support for their efforts.

Working with visually impaired young people allowed for reflection upon what it means to develop a response to HIV/AIDS in a context where access to information, social integration and independence are compromised, and where there are higher levels of custodial care than is the case for able-bodied young people. In this context the challenges of independence which exposes young people to risks as they venture beyond that which is familiar and well known, were examined.