Sex, sexuality and education in South Africa : editorial introduction

No abstract available.The South African Research Chairs Initiative of the Department of Science and Technology and National Research Foundation of South Africa [98407].http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/csed202020-12-12hj2019Centre for Sexualities, AIDS and Gender (CSA&G

Policy Recommendations for Meeting the Grand Challenge to Achieve Equal Opportunity and Justice

This brief was created forSocial Innovation for America’s Renewal, a policy conference organized by the Center for Social Development in collaboration with the American Academy of Social Work & Social Welfare, which is leading theGrand Challenges for Social Work initiative to champion social progress. The conference site includes links to speeches, presentations, and a full list of the policy briefs

Spectacular Failure - A View from the Epicenter

In 2000, at the XIII International AIDS Conference in Durban, Jeffrey Sachs spoke of the shocking disregard shown by the international community in its failure to respond to the AIDS epidemic. How could the world, he asked, have stood by for the first 20 years of this pandemic, letting it reach 35 to 40 million people before any real funding started? Two years later, at the XIV International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, speakers again decried the world\u27s inaction; Dr. Peter Piot, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), lamented, Why are only 30,000 Africans getting antiretroviral treatment, when a hundred times that number need it? It was at the Barcelona Conference that an inspiring call was issued to make antiretroviral (ARV) treatment available to three million people in the developing world by the end of 2005. Providing treatment to three million-when twenty million are infected-does not seem like an ambitious plea. Yet, even this somewhat modest goal is unlikely to be reached, given the ongoing failure to mobilize international resources for the provision of HIV/AIDS drugs in the developing world. Just a few months ago, on the very day the World Health Organization launched its 5.5 billion dollar so-called three by five plan to meet the treatment challenge outlined in Barcelona in 2002, speculation about the organization\u27s inability to meet the plan\u27s financial requirements began to appear in the media-leaving many to wonder whether the next International AIDS Conference will be yet another reprise of the previous two

Thoughts from the epi(Centre) : interview with Mary Crewe

This interview engages Mary Crewe, founding Director of the Centre for the Study of AIDS, now known as the Centre for Sexualities, AIDS and Gender, at the University of Pretoria, by tapping into her archive, representing a series of active commitments in community and university sites that address a life’s work that is still under construction. Vasu Reddy engages Crewe on her shaping experiences with regard to family, gender arrangements, AIDS, and gender inequalities.http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ragn20hj2021Centre for Sexualities, AIDS and Gender (CSA&G)Sociolog

Education and HIV/AIDS-30 years on

Education has long been identified as having a key role to play in reducing HIV-related risk and vulnerability, and in mitigating the impact of the epidemic on affected individuals and communities. This article reflects on progress over a 30-year period with respect to older and more emergent forms of education concerning HIV and AIDS: treatment education, education for HIV prevention, and education to encourage a positive and supportive community response. It points to a number of priorities for the future. These include analyzing more carefully different forms of HIV-related education, their consequences and effects, and identifying the specific effectivity of education in general and HIV-related education in particular in achieving positive outcomes. The potential of education to enable new ways of seeing, understanding, and hoping is stressed, as is the need to support education processes and systems that “think” faster than the epidemic

In their own voices : a qualitative study of women's risk for intimate partner violence and HIV in South Africa

This study qualitatively examines the intersections of risk for intimate partner violence (IPV) and HIV infection in South Africa. Eighteen women seeking services for relationship violence were asked semistructured questions regarding their abusive experiences and HIV risk. Participants had experienced myriad forms of abuse, which reinforced each other to create a climate that sustained abuse and multiplied HIV risk. Male partners having multiple concurrent sexual relationships, and poor relationship communication compounded female vulnerability to HIV and abuse. A social environment of silence, male power, and economic constraints enabled abuse to continue. "Breaking the silence" and women's empowerment were suggested solutions

Integrating HIV prevention into services for abused women in South Africa

The relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) and HIV risk is well documented, but few interventions jointly address these problems. We developed and examined the feasibility of an intervention to reduce HIV risk behaviors among 97 women seeking services for IPV from a community-based NGO in Johannesburg, South Africa. Two versions of the intervention (a 6-session group and a 1-day workshop) were implemented, both focusing on HIV prevention strategies integrated with issues of gender and power imbalance. Attendance was excellent in both intervention groups. Assessments were conducted at baseline, post-intervention and two-month follow-up to demonstrate the feasibility of an intervention trial. Women in both groups reported reductions in HIV misperceptions and trauma symptoms, and increases in HIV knowledge, risk reduction intentions, and condom use self-efficacy. The 6-session group showed greater improvements in HIV knowledge and decreases in HIV misperceptions in comparison to the 1-day workshop. The study demonstrated the feasibility and potential benefit of providing HIV prevention intervention to women seeking assistance for IPV

The rapidly changing paradigm of HIV prevention: Time to strengthen social and behavioural approaches - Editorial

A decade after the world’s leaders committed to fight the global HIV epidemic, UNAIDS notes progress in halting the spread of the virus. Access to treatment has in particular increased, with noticeable beneficial effects on HIV-related mortality. Further scaling-up treatment requires substantial human and financial resources and the continued investments that are required may further erode the limited resources for HIV prevention. Treatment can play a role in reducing the transmission of HIV, but treatment alone is not enough and cost-effective behavioural prevention approaches are available that in recent years have received less priority. HIV prevention may in the future benefit from novel biomedical approaches that are in development, including those that capitalize on the use of treatment. To date, evidence of effectiveness of biomedical prevention in real-life conditions is limited and, while they can increase prevention options, many biomedical prevention approaches will continue to rely on the behaviours of individuals and communities. These behaviors are shaped and constrained by the social, cultural, political and economic contexts that affect the vulnerability of individuals and communities. At the start of the 4th decade of the epidemic, it is timely to re-focus on strengthening the theory and practice of behavioural prevention of HIV