the rural womens' project
TAI was started in 1995 by the dynamic and passionate Gethwana Mahlase, with the aim of assisting rural women respond to the effects the HIV epidemic was having on them. These women were the most infected and affected by the HIV epidemic and were faced with numerous challenges.
- They were not able to decide on which HIV prevention methods they would like to use because all decisions relating to sexual practices were made by the male partners in the relationships. Men decided when to have sex, where to have sex, how to have sex and if condoms would be used. Many women were not even allowed to decide if they could use contraception.
- As a result of cultural norms and practices, women were tasked with most household tasks, including childcare. Women were also responsible for caring for the ill and dying within the family. A large burden of unpaid and unrecognised work was placed on women, and this burden increased as the number of people suffering from AIDS related illnesses increased. Women had to deal with this burden when they themselves were sick.
The project was well received and supported by the women who participated, however it soon became evident that the project was not achieving its goal. 90% of the women were not able to implement their personal HIV prevention choices.
- Although women learnt how to protect themselves from infection or re-infection through the project, their male partners were refusing to use protection methods such as condoms. This situation was very difficult for women who knew that their male partners had multiple sexual partners.
- Most male partners reacted very negatively when the women suggested condom use to them. This included accusing the women of being unfaithful, of forgetting their place in the relationship, and in a few cases, the women were beaten and chased from their homes.
- Where women had gone for HIV tests, as the project encouraged them to do, and had disclosed their status to their male partners, many were accused of having "brought this thing" to the family. Women were blamed.
The experiences of these women led to TAI deciding to work with men. In the cultural environment of KwaZulu Natal it just made sense to work with men to encourage HIV prevention methods and testing. It was also necessary to help men personalise their risk of infection. TAI felt that by working with men, we would ultimately achieve our vision of assisting women in the face of the HIV epidemic, and this is how the Shosholoza AIDS Project was born.
the shosholoza aids project
The Shosholoza AIDS Project (1998) works with young men between the ages of 15 and 22 years in SAFA affiliated soccer teams. It was felt that soccer would be an excellent way to engage young men because it is such a popular sport in South Africa. Soccer players are also popular and respected by their peers.
The project works with an entire team, provides relevant training, ongoing mentoring and support and support for the teams outreach work. A number of different topics are covered in the project year including gender issues, cultural beliefs, myths, puberty, HIV prevention, strategies to reduce the impact of AIDS in the community, etc.
This project has been very successful in working with young men and helping them to change perceptions around abstinence, starting to have sex at a later age, condom use, reducing the number of multiple sexual partners at the same time, gender rights within sexual relationships, the right of women to say no to sex (it is widely felt that women do not have the right to decline sex, especially in sexual relationships) and other similar issues. The young men have included topics such as drug and alcohol use in their outreach work.
Some key learnings from the Shosholoza AIDS Project included:
- Despite its success, information collected showed that many of the young men were sexually active when they started the project, and so potentially HIV positive. There are a number of myths around puberty that encourage young men to start having sex when they enter puberty, such as that when wet dreams start you need to start having sex or the sperm build-up will make you go mad. It was felt that TAI needed to expand the project to include a younger age group.
- It is very important to involve the adults around the young men. This especially includes members of the SAFA structures and the parents/guardians of the young men. The SAFA officials help the young men access resources. The parents/guardians need to understand what the young men are going through to provide them with support. A story to illustrate this: a father once shouted at a project manager because she had "broken his son". The father said that his son used to be a "real man" before the project because he had many girlfriends going in and out of his room. Now, he only has one!
- The young men want to become more involved in activities that provide care and support for vulnerable children. A number of groups have told TAI they would like to include this in their work. One team have, in partnership with community members, started a crèche to provide education facilities for children in their area.
inkunzi isematholeni
This project, started in 2001, worked with young men between the ages of 9 and 14 years (before puberty), in schools, who played soccer. TAI worked with 4 schools in an area, with 5 areas in total. The project activities were very similar to that of Shosholoza with content changed to be age-appropriate. The project expanded to include a "buddy" system where children helped children in distress talk to teachers or TAI staff, spent time with them or helped them do homework.
Some key learnings from the Inkunzi Isematholeni Project included:
- There are an overwhelming number of children in distress in schools. It was difficult for TAI to help all of them. It is important for TAI to create partnerships with organisations who specialise in providing services for children in distress.
- School children enjoy participating in the programme and are very energetic in organising events and other school activities with an HIV theme.
- The same lessons about involving adults/guardians/parents apply here. It is very important to involve the school governing bodies and school management. However, it was through this project that TAI saw how much of a gap was created between children and their parents. The children were better informed about sex and sexuality, HIV and prevention than their parents. The Inkunzi project groups asked TAI to start a project for their parents and other adults in the community so that they could be better supported in their activities.
sibambiqhaza community project
In 2004, TAI started this project as a way to involve the adults in the community around the 4 Inkunzi schools in Mbulwana (deep rural community in the Greytown area). It was a community that has high levels of gender-based violence (including rape and kidnap marriages), unemployment and poverty, and serious stigmatisation cases (where families were chased from the area when it was discovered that a member was HIV positive).
The main focus of the project was around gender, HIV prevention, AIDS mitigation and destigmatisation. It expanded to include primary health care and advocacy against the abuse of women and children.
The project set up three main structures:
- A CBO that is being developed to be independent of TAI. This CBO should be able to, eventually, raise funds and manage projects on its own. The CBO board members are representatives from a large number of different community structures.
- A trained group of community health workers who visit homes and take turns to work at the community health centre that the CBO created.
- A support group for people living with HIV and AIDS.
These structures work together to organise events, campaigns, and meet with different groups and government departments to improve the services offered to the community.
Sibambiqhaza has made tremendous difference in the level of HIV knowledge in the area. Levels of stigmatisation have decreased and a number of people have openly disclosed their status. There has been a reported decrease in the number of kidnap marriages in the area. The project is widely supported, to the extent where the community health workers continued their work when the stipend stopped.
Lessons learnt from Sibambiqhaza include:
- Broad-ranging stakeholder engagement is a viable and effective strategy. However, there are pre-existing tensions within the community (such between as political groups and even sewing groups!) that need to be considered. The roles and responsibilities and code of conduct needs to be developed and owned by all members.
- It is possible to establish CBOs and build capacity to handover all activities to the CBO. However, this is a very time intensive process and requires a well-structured programme.
- The need to develop programmes that focus on supporting vulnerable children was again highlighted by the Sibambiqhaza groups. This is as a result of the increasing number of "AIDS orphans" and children affected by seriously ill parents/guardians.
abafana bebhola bayanakekela
Due to the number of requests from TAI's community groups to work with vulnerable children, TAI started Abafana in 2006. This project aims to provide psycho-social support for children by involving young male soccer players as their mentors. Each soccer player was assigned as a mentor to three children. They then spent time with the children, visited their homes, helped them with homework, played games with them and other similar activities.
By involving young men in childcare activities, TAI aims to reduce some of the burden on women - both the female parents/guardians of the children in the project and the soccer players' future female partners.
TAI's role is to:
- Provide the young men with training, including HIV prevention and how to care for and support children, and ongoing mentoring and support.
- Provide life skills training for the children, including oral and personal hygiene.
- Organise activities, events and campaigns that encourage the young men and children to play and have fun together.
- Provide some material support for families in crisis.
- Assist parents/guardians and children to access services such as healthcare and government social support grants.
- Network and refer parents/guardian and children to other service providers as needed.
- Work with local structures and stakeholders to improve the environment for the children and young men.
This has been an extremely challenging and exciting project! Some of its successes include children reporting feeling safe in their homes, more families have access to grants, more children accessing essential services and young men feeling that their relationships with the children are valuable.
Some of the key lessons we learnt were:
- Many of the soccer players valued their role as mentor but the requirement of mentoring three children was too demanding on soccer players. Sometimes the young men cared too much and were at risk of burnout.
- TAI did not have a strongly defined child care policy or policies for assisting children in distress. As such, TAI tried to be too many things to too many people and this reduced our impact. We took children to the dentist, organised campaigns, and hosted tournaments, built houses, planted vegetable gardens, shipped close to 10 tons of food and so much more! It's a wonder we survived!
- There is a need to consider the involvement of children who become too "old" for the programme. Some of the children are now as old as the mentors! It is suggested that the older children become mentors but this could then place an additional burden on girls.
healthcare services
Both the VCT (as a NewStart franchise) and HCBC (as a subcontractor to the Department of Health) started in 2007.
TAI runs a mobile, tent-based VCT service that tests over 1000 people a month. We are able to offer VCT where ever there is a big enough piece of flat ground!
- Uptake of the service is very good and many people want to know their status.
- However, when working in rural communities, it is important to do a lot of mobilisation before the day to make sure that people attend.
- A challenge faced by the service is that it is difficult to refer clients after the test, especially in rural communities where there are no services.
In partnership with the Department of Health and KZNPPHC, TAI provides monitoring and mentoring support to 400 home and community based carers (HCBC) in four municipalities in the Umgungundlovu District. The community health workers provide primary healthcare services to households in their community.
- There is tremendous potential in the HCBC to provide extensive care and support for community members, especially vulnerable community members (such as children, people living with disability and the elderly).
- A cause of frustration for the HCBC is that there limited career-pathing opportunities for them.
what the organisation has learnt
As an organisation, we have been blessed with many learning and growth opportunities, especially as we have worn so many different hats over the years!
- It is vitally important to maintain good lines of communication within TAI and between TAI and various partner structures and groups. Without good communication, everything goes up in flames.
- We need to structure the organisation and programmes in such a way that we all understand our role, responsibility and purpose. We need to be clear on how our tasks help the entire organisation achieve its goal.
- We need to more intensively involve community groups in setting our agenda and planning activities. We need to learn to trust our own judgement when it comes to that agenda. We will seek funding that meets our needs, and not seek needs to meet the funding.
