Upholding the child's dignity as an alternative to corporal punishment...by Joseph Mashingaidze (F.A.C.T Project Officer)
FACT takes Behaviour Change to Tongogara Refugee Camp in Chipinge...By Gertrude Shumba - FACT Deputy Director
The Behaviour Change graduation ceremony at Tongogara is one among many that have been conducted in Chipinge district by FACT Mutare being funded by UNFPA and Global Fund. This has been unique in the sense that it brought together the local and refugee community to reaffirm the notion that Behaviour Change cuts across all ethnic divide. Not only did the joint ceremony bring together the Tongogara community, but also organization partnerships were strengthened. Christian Care took the opportunity to host their annual World Aids Day commemoration after which the graduation ceremony commenced.
Partners who contributed to the success of the day included United Nations Humanitarian Council for Refugees (UNHCR), Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), National Organization for the Development of the Disadvantaged (NODED), Christian Care, Ministry of Education Sport Arts and Culture (MOESAC), Jesuits Refugee Services, Department of Social Welfare, Ward 5 Councillor and Family Aids Caring Trust (FACT). Trained Behaviour Change Facilitators (BCFs) and Camp Mobilizers who are also Peer Counsellors arranged and directed the ceremony while the Tongogara Dance and Drama groups and Vocational School Students provided the entertainment. A total of 230 participants graduated with 22% coming from the refugee camp. The majority were young men from the vocational school.
The table and chart below show the distribution of graduands.
Increasing the quality of HIV prevention for youth...By Miriam Groenhof & Bertha Mukome
STOP AIDS NOW! has initiated a two-year programme to increase the quality of HIV prevention programmes for youth. 16 NGO's in Zambia and Zimbabwe, develop practical guidelines and tools to increase the quality of Life Skills programmes. Organisations that implement SRH education or HIV prevention for young people can use these tools to strengthen their staff professionally and increase the quality of their own Life Skills programme. The tools and products will become available in 2011.
The tools and products address gaps and challenges within existing Life Skills programmes. STOP AIDS NOW! and its partners aim to integrate lessons learnt, based on concrete experiences.
Baseline findings:: The baseline studies showed the main challenges for both Zambia and Zimbabwe to be about the funding and resources needed to carry out proper training in practical Life Skills, Livelihood activities and M&E. There is also a socio-economical factor: job opportunities for youth are scarce and the necessary (seed) capital to encourage job opportunities - in both formal and informal employment – is often lacking. The main promising practices differed for Zambia and Zimbabwe. In Zambia, it appears that providing youth with seed money after their skills training may enable them to start their own businesses. In Zimbabwe, M&E data are already being used to adjust prevention programmes, and therefore the sharing of behaviour change tools can be further promoted within the existing partnership.
How can you measure the effects of your programme on outcome level?Together with Rutgers WPF, STOP AIDS NOW! and partners are developing a Toolkit for M&E, that organisations can use to measure the effects of sexuality education and HIV prevention programmes for youth on an outcome level. Many organisations measure effects on an output level, for instance the amount of training they provide, or the number of youth they reach. But the more interesting questions are: Have the participants of changed their behaviour after participating? Or has there been a change in attitude, risk perception, perceived controlled behaviour, in self-efficacy or in social norms?
How to address the need of HIV positive youth within Life Skill programmes?
HIV positive youth can be hard to reach. Youth are themselves very mobile, and issues of stigma and discrimination prevent HIV positive youth from sharing their HIV status. With some small changes to the existing programmes, the partner organisations hope to meet their needs and to involve HIV positive youth. Not only will this involvement motivate other youth for HIV prevention; it will also empower HIV positive youth against discrimination and feelings of isolation in their community. They will become role models and make their peers aware that it is possible to be HIV positive and a decent person, a professional – thereby hopefully decreasing existing prejudice against people living with HIV. Partners, in collaboration with the youth, develop Guidelines for organisations on how they can adjust programmes and address the needs of HIV positive youth. Click here to read more>>>
Early drug therapy curbs HIV transmission: study ...By Kerry Sheridan (AFP)[http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110513/ts_alt_afp/healthusaids]
WASHINGTON - People with HIV who take antiretroviral drugs before their health declines have a 96 percent lower risk of transmitting the virus to a partner, a breakthrough global study released Thursday said. The large study that covered mainly heterosexual couples in Africa, India and the Americas was hailed by AIDS experts as a game-changer that will transform how the incurable disease is managed. The tools and products address gaps and challenges within existing Life Skills programmes. STOP AIDS NOW! and its partners aim to integrate lessons learnt, based on concrete experiences.Until now, antiretroviral therapy was known to improve the health of HIV-infected patients, but this is the first study of its kind to show a solid impact on preventing transmission to an HIV-negative partner.
 AFP/File--An HIV patient is seen here being given antiretroviral drugs, in 2009. |
"This is excellent news," said Myron Cohen, lead investigator on the study and director of the Institute of Global Health and Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.The randomized clinical trial began in 2005 and included 1,763 couples -- 97 percent of whom were heterosexual -- and was carried out at 13 sites in countries including Brazil, Thailand, Zimbabwe, India and South Africa. The randomization phase was halted early once researchers realized that the drug regimen was having such a significant blocking effect on the risk of spreading the infection, which afflicts 33 million people worldwide. "The study was designed to evaluate the benefit to the sexual partner as well as the benefit to the HIV-infected person," said Cohen. "This is the first randomized clinical trial to definitively indicate that an HIV-infected individual can reduce sexual transmission of HIV to an uninfected partner by beginning antiretroviral therapy sooner." |
Under the randomized trial, some couples were placed into a delayed group in which the infected partner began taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) only when a type of T-cell known as CD4 dipped below 250 cells per millimeter cubed, or if he or she developed an AIDS-related illness. The other group began taking ART immediately. In that group, just one case of HIV transmission was observed. There were 27 HIV transmissions in the delayed group that could be traced directly to the infected partner, a difference the study described as "highly statistically significant."
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases chief Anthony Fauci hailed the findings. "Previous data about the potential value of antiretrovirals in making HIV-infected individuals less infectious to their sexual partners came largely from observational and epidemiological studies," said Fauci. "This new finding convincingly demonstrates that treating the infected individual -- and doing so sooner rather than later -- can have a major impact on reducing HIV transmission."
According to Wafaa el-Sadr, a member of the executive committee of the HIV
Prevention Trials Network (HPTN), the group that did this study, the
findings took time to produce but should have a major impact on treatment
guidelines.
"I think HPTN 052 will always be recognized as a landmark study that truly
may transform treatment as well as prevention of HIV globally," she told
AFP.Sadr, who is also a professor of medicine and epidemiology at Columbia
University in New York, said the couples in the study would continue to be
followed."Everybody who was not offered immediate treatment is now being offered
immediate treatment, now that we know what we know," she said.
The study was initially set to continue until 2015 but the independent
safety and monitoring board halted the randomization phase early "because of
the very clear and remarkable benefits that were shown," she said.
"They determined that these findings were so profoundly important that they
had to be shared immediately," she said.
Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
(UNAIDS), Michel Sidibe, described the study as "a serious game changer"
that "will drive the prevention revolution forward."
Transforming Orphans lives Through Giving - A little gift will go a long way!...By Joseph Mashingaidze
Tryphine is a 14 year old orphan who lives with her 80 year old grandmother in Chichichi Village in Ngaone's ward 2 of Chipinge. She lost her parents due to HIV. Her orphan status was worsened by subsequent loss of her leg owing to fire that gutted their pole and dagga hut in 2008. Severe leg burns led to amputation below the knee.
Tryphine shows the part of her leg which was amputated 
Tryphine shows how she used a single walking stick to move around.Since the 2008 incident, Tryphine's social and academic life went on a free fall. Resultant pain made school attendance a perennial challenge. Added was the damaging effect to her physique the locally improvised wooden crutch was causing. The steep and rugged terrain punctuating the three kilometer walk to school further complicated Tryphine's life. She would often fall off balance as she walked.As if this was not enough, Tryphine and her two siblings often go to school on empty stomachs. Their grandmother is too old and frail to adequately provide for their needs. Under this predicament, Tryphine has been and continues to struggle in carrying out household chores. Prevailing conditions have marginalized her chances of completing school, her only available option for possible social transformation.
Local Community Response: Members of the community with mobilization from FACT partly intervened by building a stronger pole and dagga hut. However, because of constrained resources, community members could only manage to erect an equally substandard structure.When Tryphine’s plight came to FACT’s attention, efforts were made to get a pair of crutches which were more comfortable than the one she was using. This was after learning that she would often fall off on her makeshift crutches as she went to school and also that she was in danger of developing paralysis due to overuse of auxiliary walking aids.
Appeal for Support: Although Tryphine is now using a new set of adjustable crutches, she still faces insurmountable challenges. The approximately three kilometer walk to her school is affecting her school work. Tryphine is a bright pupil and her headmaster (pictured below) reports that she is always among the top five in her class. The Department of Social Services (DSS) in Chipinge District has suggested that if resources were available, she needed to be sent to a specialist boarding school. The household still needs to be assisted with foodstuffs and further educational support for Tryphine and her siblings. The support she has received from FACT and its staff members is intermittent and hardly meets her daily needs and those of her deprived family.
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Realizing that Tryphine was living in squalid and unhealthy conditions, FACT purchased iron sheets, bags of cement and window frames for the construction of a two roomed building. Even though community members continue to show the will to give a helping hand, more assistance is still needed to ensure that this structure is completed and adequately furnished especially to meet Tryphine’s needs. Tryphine’s homestead has no toilet. The makeshift pit latrine that she uses is unsafe and unhealthy for her. There is thus need to intervene to improve the sanitary facilities that she is using to save her from potential health risks.
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