Study on Community Orientation to HIV/AIDS Prevention, Care & Support
The Bambisanani Project is a large project involving development and implementation of home-based care systems in an area of the Eastern Cape which is strongly affected by high levels of migrancy-related HIV/AIDS prevalence. The project area, located around Umzimkulu, Bizana and Lusikisiki falls within Region E of the Eastern Cape, which has the highest HIV prevalence in the province. The region is also one of the most economically depressed areas of South Africa, and poor communication and transport infrastructures make delivery of services in health, education and welfare difficult. The study is one of the few studies in South Africa which considers differences in responses across a broad age range and significant differences between the responses of early adolescents, youth and adults are described.
Communication Strategies
A research project was conceived as a baseline study of community orientation to HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support, and was conducted as part of the Bambisanani Project. A survey study was preceded by nine focus groups conducted with community members in deep rural areas, in and out of school youth, traditional healers, health workers, PWAs, and church members involved in home visiting of the sick. This was followed by a survey study conducted in primary (ave. age 13) and high schools (ave. age 18) and a household survey (ave. age 40) in each of three areas (n = 345). The study reports on community responses in terms of a wide range of indicators, and outlines the problems of developing an integrated response to HIV/AIDS in deep rural areas.
Recommendations for project implementation, and for monitoring and evaluation are presented in the report.
Recommendations for project implementation, and for monitoring and evaluation are presented in the report.
Development Issues
HIV/AIDS.
Key Points
The study is one of the few studies in South Africa which considers differences in responses across a broad age range and significant differences between the responses of early adolescents, youth and adults are described. The findings cover the following areas of risk and prevention: understanding of HIV/AIDS; perception of and response to risk; sexual activity; number of partners; age at sexual debut; age differences between partners at sexual debut; age differences between youth sex partners; factors affecting sexual decision making; condom use; condom acquisition; and abstinence. Care and support issues covered include: responses to people with HIV/AIDS; counseling, HIV testing and disclosure; care of the sick (including perception of health services and home care); and mobilization of community resources (including role of PWAs, churches, traditional healers).
Partners
The study was conducted by CADRE in collaboration with the Planned Parenthood Association of South Africa (Eastern Cape), and funded by USAID through the EQUITY Project and Management Sciences for Health.
Sources
"Bambisanani: Community orientation to HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support" by Dr Kevin Kelly and the AF-AIDS Forum. The forum is moderated by the Health & Development Networks Moderation Team (HDN, http://www.hdnet.org) on behalf of the AF-AIDS Policy and Steering Committee (HST, HDN & SaFAIDS) with support from Fondation du Present (FdP) and technical support from Health Systems Trust (HST).
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