Social Research Project: based on the enthusiasm of the young men in the Shosholoza and Inkunzi Projects to become involved in HIV prevention work, despite the global perception that men were nearly impossible to engage in this field, TAI decided to tackle the next societal hurdle in our patriarchal society – that caring for children and the ill was exclusively “women’s work”. In the face of the growing numbers of orphans and terminally ill AIDS victims in South African communities, women were being put under tremendous pressure to rise to this challenge, especially as many of them are HIV positive and ill themselves. In response to this need, TAI has piloted the Abafana Bebhola Bayanakekela project to promote the ideal of “men as carers”, that aims not only to promote the meaningful involvement of young men in caring work for vulnerable children, but also to provide additional psycho-social support for vulnerable children.
