Voices of girls with disabilities in rural Iran

This paper investigates the interaction of gender, disability and education in rural Iran, which is a relatively unexplored field of research. The responses of 10 female students with disabilities from Isfahan indicated that the obstacles they faced included marginalization, difficulties in getting from home to school, difficulties within the school building itself, and discrimination by teachers, classmates and school authorities. The data collected for the study contain a wide range of conservative gendered discourses, and show how traditional gender beliefs interact with disability to aggravate the problems faced in education by young women with disabilities. It is hoped that the findings will raise awareness among policy-makers of the many formidable obstacles that make it difficult for young women with disabilities to achieve their full potential in education

Citizens, bribery and the propensity to protest

It is widely assumed that the more one experiences corruption the more likely one is to want to protest about it. Yet empirical evidence illustrating this is thin on the ground. This paper fills that gap by focusing on the extent to which self-reported experience of bribery affects the willingness to engage in protests against corruption in Africa. We find that the more one experiences bribery the more one is likely to support anti-corruption protests. A further unexpected finding is that the personal experience of corruption also increases the willingness to rely on bribes to solve public administration problems

Effectiveness of a peer educator-coordinated preference-based differentiated service delivery model on viral suppression among young people living with HIV in Lesotho: the PEBRA cluster-randomized trial

BACKGROUND: Southern and Eastern Africa is home to more than 2.1 million young people aged 15 to 24 years living with HIV. As compared with other age groups, this population group has poorer outcomes along the HIV care cascade. Young people living with HIV and the research team co-created the PEBRA (Peer Educator-Based Refill of ART) care model. In PEBRA, a peer educator (PE) delivered services as per regularly assessed patient preferences for medication pick-up, short message service (SMS) notifications, and psychosocial support. The cluster-randomized trial compared PEBRA model versus standard clinic care (no PE and ART refill done by nurses) in 3 districts in Lesotho. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Individuals taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) aged 15 to 24 years at 20 clinics (clusters) were eligible. In the 10 clinics randomized to the intervention arm, participants were offered the PEBRA model, coordinated by a trained PE and supported by an eHealth application (PEBRApp). In the 10 control clusters, participants received standard nurse-coordinated care without any service coordination by a PE. The primary endpoint was 12-month viral suppression below 20 copies/mL. Analyses were intention-to-treat and adjusted for sex. From November 6, 2019 to February 4, 2020, we enrolled 307 individuals (150 intervention, 157 control; 218 [71%] female, median age 19 years [interquartile range, IQR, 17 to 22]). At 12 months, 99 of 150 (66%) participants in the intervention versus 95 of 157 (61%) participants in the control arm had viral suppression (adjusted odds ratio (OR) 1.27; 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.79 to 2.03]; p = 0.327); 4 of 150 (2.7%) versus 1 of 157 (0.6%) had died (adjusted OR 4.12; 95% CI [0.45 to 37.62]; p = 0.210); and 12 of 150 (8%) versus 23 of 157 (14.7%) had transferred out (adjusted OR 0.53; 95% CI [0.25 to 1.13]; p = 0.099). There were no significant differences between arms in other secondary outcomes. Twenty participants (11 in intervention and 9 in control) were lost to follow-up over the entire study period. The main limitation was that the data collectors in the control clusters were also young peers; however, they used a restricted version of the PEBRApp to collect data and thus were not able to provide the PEBRA model. The trial was prospectively registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03969030). CONCLUSIONS: Preference-based peer-coordinated care for young people living with HIV, compared to nurse-based care only, did not lead to conclusive evidence for an effect on viral suppression. TRIAL REGISTRATION: clinicaltrials.gov, NCT03969030, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03969030

South African girlhood in the age of AIDS: towards girlhood studies

The article explores the concept girlhood in South Africa and the reasons for the continuing marginalisation and brutalisation of girls in communities, schools and other social spaces in spite of government's adoption of rights-based policies in line with international conventions and human rights policies. The article argues for targeted girlhood studies using girl-methods as one way of understanding girlhood from the girls' perspectives and of sustaining their engagement in interventions that aim to eradicate violence against them.

The gendered dimensions of food security in South Africa: a review of the literature

MarchThe study establishes that interventions addressing food insecurity in its gendered context imply that women are playing key roles in households and that to meet the food gaps, a combination of factors need to be employed by women and girls that must be supported by the policy framework. Consequently, gender needs to be more strongly foregrounded as a feature of the policy framework; more targeted programmes focused on female-headed households require attention. There is a marked absence of empirical studies addressing women and gender in the food insecurity arena, and that a more holistic understanding of problems is required. To this end, issues such as natural disasters, education, poverty, ageing, technology, ageing, genetically modified foods etc.), should be prioritised in future policy that addresses the multidimensionality of food security to ensure a grounded understanding that could alleviate potential problems related to the position of women and gender more broadly in relation to food security

On working with a single photograph

Drawing on work with children and young people on photo-voice techniques as a creative process and a key feature of 'taking action' in the context of poverty, HIV and AIDS and schooling, this chapter focuses on some of the methodological issues of engaging in close readings of photographs. In so doing it highlights the ways in which one might apply Clifford Geertz's notion of 'going thick and deep' to working with visual data. The chapter highlights the value to social science researchers of visual culture