Joining The Dots: Amazing Abstracts @ICASA

One of the many exciting aspects of this years ICASA are the abstracts.

They are many, diverse and detailed. Some will be presented in person at the abstract sessions but MANY MORE will presented as posters.

If we don't make the effort to see these posters we may be missing some rich research.

I perused the list (my track has over 150, WOW) and was fascinated by the amount of interesting research that is going on (and the number of potential collaborations to be had if we join-them-all-up). If you are looking for impact, you need to get yourself down to the poster displays and start joining-the-dots.

SAfAIDS are presenting a good number of posters- there must be something in here that interests you? Take a quick look ahead of time- and come talk to the authors to find out more.

 SAfAIDS Young for Real Model- homegrown in Zimbabwe, and now operating in six countries in the region :D 

 Healthy collaborations- an extra pair of hands with Aids Accountability International on the situation in prisons regarding SRHR- it's a first step towards a broader scorecard survey! 

Both these papers talk to improving services for ALL- a step by step process to ensuring no-one is left behind! 

 SAfAIDS YPISA Model on adolescent sexual and reproductive health- to change we must first begin, within! Our peer educator model- get to know it, it works :D 

We put together an awesome bi-directional guide for programmers in both the WASH and the HIV sector. This showcases the wider dialogue model process in developing this resource. 

This poster unpacks Zimbabwe's hot spots on risky health behaviour, great if value for money, efficiency and effectiveness are your thing (of course they are, right?)

This poster looks specifically at the mining sector, with a special focus on TB issues amongst mine workers and their families. 

SAfAIDS @ ICASA 2015

It is all GO here at SAfAIDS. We have Condomise at our Resource Centre training ICASA Volunteers.

We even have a book launch :D That's just what we do!

So, come and join the Vibrant SAfAIDS@ICASA Series of Events for Rich, Topical and Progressive Knowledge Exchange and Dialogue. Please confirm your attendance at any of the sessions you are interested in, by sending an email to icasa@safaids.net.  Admission is absolutely FREE!

SEE YOU THERE :D 

Changing the Rivers Flow- A New Generation!

Changing the Rivers Flow (CTRF)

In 2009 SAfAIDS rolled out an ambitious programme across southern Africa whose hope was to challenge the cultural practices that were keeping communities stuck in a vicious cycle of new HIV infection.

SAfAIDS experience as researchers and HIV activists highlighted that some cultural practices were riskier than others. Culture after all is dynamic! One example common to many African communities is wife inheritance, which traditionally brought stability to families but in the context of HIV can spread new infections rapidly.

SAfAIDS Changing the Rivers Flow materials shared reports from baseline studies, best practice documentation and field tools to support policy makers, programmers and community based volunteers to engage and understand localised HIV risk factors and facilitate knowledge for action.

Acknowledging cultural problems was an important first step and today SAfAIDS and others now work more closely with traditional, religious and other community leaders as the space to discuss southern Africa's dynamic culture opens up. This space was opended up by creatively imagining and dreaming solutions and alternatives for families committed to their culture that are life-affirming.

Changing the Rivers Flow 4YP
SAfAIDS is again being supported by Sweden to creatively imagine and dream and dig deeper into the gender bottlenecks within our global cultural practices. This time the focus is on Africa's largest constituency- young people- to support gender transformation. Why?

Africa has the youngest population in the whole world, with an average of 30% or more of populations across African nations being young in 2015 (and this can be much higher in individual countries). All young people of the world face challenges but young people across Africa are many and face some of the biggest (UNFPA 2015):

• every day 39,000 girls in Africa become child brides, or about 140 million in a decade;
• tennage pregnancy and adolescent birth rates in Eastern and Southern Africa are higher, as are unwanted pregnancies and unmet demand for contraception; 
• new HIV infections are highest amongst Africa's young people, especially young women
• gender gaps in Africa's schools favour boys, but both boys and girls have much lower enrollment and retention rates in schools.

The common thread in this shortlist of challenges is the relationship between women and men, which continue to favour men OVER women. 

So we are partnering with Sonke Gender Justice to put together a gender transformative programme for young people that will help young people recognise and strive for healthier relationships to secure the future of Africa.  After all, change comes from within. Let's work together for greater equality! SAfAIDS and SONKE know that the enabling environment for young people is critical so we have not left out parents, guardians, traditional, religious and political leaders.

If you have not already seen SAfAIDS existing CTRF materials check them out on SAfAIDS website (see the link below), and watch this space for a new generation of knowledge for action materials =D

http://safaids.net/content/changing-rivers-flow-series-challenging-gender-dynamics-cultural-context-address-hiv-march-2

Engaging Communities across Africa on Sexuality Education

Back in October 2014 UNESCO commissioned SAfAIDS to help engage countries across eastern and southern Africa in support of teaching comprehensive sexuality education, or CSE, in schools.

Why communities and not the teachers? 
UNESCO and many others are already working with regional and national bodies supporting in school education

(check out this blogs on 30 October 2014 http://knowledgeforaction.blogspot.com/2014/10/an-adolescents-hiv-prevention-and.html ).

One of the biggest barriers is community support and endorsement. Without this the teachers find it hard to teach (and remember, teachers are parents and community members too and need also to be on board). Communities are the game-changers!

When we talk about CSE, most people just think sex! But CSE is about soo much more, essentially it is keeping our young people safe.

Is there a problem that needs solved?
YES! Africa has the youngest population in the world, with one in three in eastern and southern Africa aged between 10 and 19 years. This group also records the highest new HIV infections, are married too early and pregnant too soon, many of the children unwanted (UNFPA). Approx 13 million pregnancies are terminated each year in Africa, inflating maternal mortality rates across the continent (WHO)!

With these sort of facts our young people need defense systems and THIS is what CSE is all about- prevention and access to information and services. UNESCO studies have shown that where CSE is taught well in school, sexual debut is delayed. Others have shown us where young people get access to contraceptive and SRH information and services, unsafe abortions are fewer.

Whatever your thoughts on CSE - it is most likely that you NEED TO KNOW MORE! SAfAIDS have developed a CSE Community Enagegement Toolkit for UNESCO that will be initially rolled out in eight countries in southern and eastern Africa (and hopefully with ongoing support to many, many more).

The CSE Community Engagement Toolkit
The kits is beautifully, yet practically packaged, and has been pre-tested with stakeholders and community members in all operational countries (South Sudan and Namibia joining in after the inital workshop on what was needed).

The kit is currently in English but plans are already underway for full toolkits in Swahili and Portugese, with some of the community level IEC also being translated into Arabic, Chichewa, French and Sesotho.

Central to the success of the kit is dialogue- written materials as part of a wider campaign approach have MUCH more impact. The dialouge guide uses SAfAIDS tried and tested Community Dialogue Model and talks to the Radio and TV
campaigns also being rolled out by SAfAIDS Media Team!

Well done UNESCO, and thank you for partnering once again with SAfAIDS. As long term development practitioners and health information communicators we are MORE than the sum of our parts. We are a publication house able to take projects from conceptualisation to dissemination adding technical value at evety stage.

To support the work of UNESCO follow their social media, we do :D

http://youngpeopletoday.net/ 

Lets Talk Disclosure - our latest publication!

SAfAIDS together with Oxfam in Zimbabwe have put together this beautifully illustrated booklet for their Securing Rights in the Context of HIV and AIDS project. It is targeted at families but can also be used by everyone in a young persons circle of care to support earlier disclosure, earlier treatment, stronger support systems and a reduction in self-stigma. 

The booklet uses research findings from a study with young people and their caregivers from selected districts under Midlands, Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South and Bulawayo provinces in Zimbabwe. We used innovative approaches to data collection; roles plays, letters, voice recordings and more. Central to the project was the voice of young people. For young people, by young people. 

Throughout it has a simple Think, Talk, Act approach. 

And a beautiful Disclosure Tree pull-out poster. 

There are quizzes and contact sheets so that follow-up support, even outside of Oxfams programme, is encouraged. 

Want to know more? Get in touch. 

Of month end salaries and menses!

So it is the end of Women's Month and what better way to marks its passing than with my monthly menses.

What? Are you shocked? Horrified? Disgusted? Bored? Going to click off now.

I am not surprised, it is generally not something we talk about here in the heartlands of Africa. Actually, it is not really talked about much of anywhere. Yet, logically, it is the reason we are all here. Without menses, there would be no births, no you and me. Mmmm. Don't we need to keep working on this taboo?


Here are some interesting facts:

Studies in Zimbabwe have shown that as many as six girls in ten miss school every month due to their menses! We hear similar stories across the region.

There are many ways to make this much better for girls at school across southern Africa, and it needn't cost the world!

Last year, SNV Zimbabwe asked SAfAIDS to help them launch their Break the Silence Menstrual Hygiene Day Campaign in May. From there, a partnership formed to help pull together the work they have been doing in the programmes in keeping girls in school.

This month we are finalising a Toolkit to help schools and communities better integrate menstrual hygiene management (MHM) for women and girls. The starting point is Water, Sanitation and Health (WASH) but the end point is everyone in the community understanding
            that menstruation is natural and a sign of good health. Check this out!

It is a very exciting package to have helped develop, well done SNV. The partnership took a collaborative approach, building on existing operational research that had produced some discussion cards,  a ReUsable Menstrual Pad (RUMP) making booklet and a general info flyer in draft form.

We took our own expertise, conducted pre-testing at two primary and two secondary schools with school children, teachers, SDC member as well as community gatekeepers and mothers club members and expanded the kit to include the following:

It is a really beautiful kit, and SAfAIDS Design Team really pulled out all the stops!

We really are looking forward to seeing this printed and in use across Zimbabwe and wish SNV and their programme partners all the best in rolling it out.

Would you like to build on this work and begin to develop products around MHM that can break the silence and change the lifes of women, girls, families and communities? Get in touch. In this pack there are tools for young and old, and critically strategies to engage men. On this issue, they are a real game changer! 

So, it is month end and maybe you get a pay check and maybe you don't. But for women, every month they get their menses, and thank goodness they do. Support them.

Break the silence.

The Blog is Back - From Sailboat to Oceanliner SAfAIDS 20 year journey

Twenty Years of Knowledge for Action is surely a reason to celebrate. SAfAIDS was set up in 1994, initially to provide information and support to groups, organisations and individuals responding to the AIDS in southern Africa region. 

SAfAIDS has continuosly adapted to changing needs and emerging priorities and in the process has become a champion of sexual and reproductive health and rights for ALL the people of Africa. 

Just look at the journey we have taken as SAfAIDS, and this is only the highlights- how AWESOME is that. Look closely, there are a lot of firsts in there for SAfAIDS and its HIV partners!

1994 to 1999: Breaking the Silence 

The first steps were critical steps and the foundation stone on Knowledge for Action. Remember our SAfAIDS News magazine? We still get queries for copies to this day and make back copies available for order in our Materials Catalogue. Online versions can be found through the Publications Catalogue on the SAfAIDS Website. We have a brand new Magazine launching this quarter- so watch this space! 

2000 to 2014: An Award Winning Regional Organisation

Information streams alone were/are not enough, people have to get involved along the way and the next five years saw a rapid expansion of the origanisation and its community mobiliations efforts. We have moved into the somewhat HOT area of HEALTH RIGHTS FOR ALL with our key populations efforts going beyond young people, women and girls to include populations in prisons, sex workers and people of varied sexual orientation. 

Look out for our SWAG Bags for sex workers launch in Zimbabwe and South Africa next quarter (there was a quick show-and-tell in Mhondoro, Zimbabwe this month) as well as SRHR materials for exiting prisoners together with policy overview on prison SRHR standards. After all, noone should be left behind if we are to get to ZERO new infections, transmissions and death from AIDS. 

The rest, as they say, is history (or HERstory) as Lois Chingandu took the helm of this ship called SAfAIDS, upgrading it from the small and speedy sail boat to a long distance and durable ocean vessel able to support and reach a whole continent and more!

So that is SAfAIDS @20, thank you for walking with us! Keep walking with us...

Here is how. This year the blog will feature 20 articles on our work in materials development, that is roughly two articles every month. Read and share. It is your story too. 

Stay tuned, stay AWESOME!