Research

The aim of this study was to assess secondary school teachers' comfort in teaching adolescents about sexuality and HIV/AIDS, behavioral control and outcome beliefs about HIV/AIDS education and teacher knowledge about HIV/AIDS. The sample consisted of 54 male (35.6%) and 96 female (64.4%) secondary school teachers who were mostly life stkills teachers, from 150 schools across South Africa. Findings suggest that most secondary school teachers, are knowledgeable about AIDS, feel moderately comfortable teaching students about AIDS-related topics, have the knowledge and ability to teach about HIV/AIDS, but lack some material and community support. Teacher in-service training was found to have a significant impact on perceived behavioral control of HIV/AIDS education and HIV/AIDS knowledge.

Teenage pregnancy has militated against the educational success of girls in South Africa. Statistics show that four out of ten girls become pregnant overall at least once before age 20. Education is important for these girls in order to break the poverty cycle in which most of them are trapped. Though the girls are allowed to return to school after becoming mothers, they face many challenges in trying to balance motherhood and the demands of schooling. The aim of this study was to find out how teen mothers cope with schooling, hence how much support is rendered to them. A qualitative research approach was used to understand the social phenomena of teenage mothers as learners. The result of the research showed that teen mothers in Cape Town receive insufficient support (physically and emotionally) and the consequence in that many quit or do not succeed with schooling.

Regarding gender equity, higher education in South Africa is somewhat anomalous by international comparisons. Absolute gender parity in overall enrollments was reached by 1997. By 1999, women students were in the majority. At universities, women were already the majority in 1995. While still in the minority at technikons, there has been a very rapid increase in female enrollment, more than doubling from 42,000 to 86,000 from 1993-99. This signals a strong entry into vocational fields by women. However, these overall figures hide the fact that women remain underrepresented in certain fields, such a science and technology, and at the higher qualification levels, particularly at the master's and doctoral levels. Within some fields, such as business and commerce, women tend to be concentrated in "lower" programs such as public administration, rather than the "higher" ones such as business management. Conversely, women students tend to be concentrated in the traditional fields associated with females, such as teaching, social work, and the "lower" health and law programs, as well as at the lower certificate and diploma qualifications levels in all fields.

This report comprises an overview of the South Africa YMCA Adolescent Reproductive Health Program, as well as key evaluation findings, a detailed narrative of the evaluation methodology, the achievements and challenges, and future directions of the program. CEDPA provided support to the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) of to implement adolescent reproductive health programs in Gauteng/North West, Kwa Zulu Natal, Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces. This was the first national program to be implemented by the YMCA in post-apartheid South Africa.

Cancer of the cervix is a very common malignant disease in South African women. This cancer can mostly be prevented by the early detection of cancer precursors using regular screening (Pap smear) and gynecological check-ups.  Cancer of the cervix is often associated with the human papillomavirus (HPV), which mostly is sexually transmitted. The most common symptom of cancer of the cervix is abnormal vaginal bleeding.

Although caring for children orphaned by AIDS is increasingly acknowledged as a priority area for HIV/AIDS and development programs, there is limited knowledge on caregivers. Rapidly growing numbers of children orphaned by AIDS warrants increased attention from researchers, policy makers, and program planners. This paper explores dominant theoretical and policy paradigms of care for children orphaned by AIDS. Then, drawing from an analysis of interviews with staff at nongovernmental organizations and community based organizations, and focus groups with caregivers gathered during fieldwork conducted between July 10 and September 8, 2006 in KwaZulu-Natal Province, Republic of South Africa, this paper contrasts local understandings of childcare with theoretical and policy notions of care. Findings from this qualitative study suggest that childcare practices are more diverse and complex than those currently recognized within existing theoretical and policy formulations. Such findings lead to the conclusion that current policy approaches towards care for children orphaned by AIDS face a potentially detrimental disconnect with local realities of care. Re-formulating policies to take into account how local practices of childcare are shifting in dynamic ways in response to the pandemic will be essential for the formulation of effective policies and programs.

The Southern African HIV and AIDS and Gender Baseline Study is the most extensive study of its kind ever to be undertaken in the region. A corner stone of the Media Action Plan (MAP) on HIV and AIDS and Gender, the baseline study involved monitoring 37 000 news items in eleven countries of Southern Africa for a one month period. Among the wealth of information generated by this study is the fact that HIV and AIDS constitutes only 3% of total coverage in the region and that People with HIV comprise a mere 5% of news sources on the topic. The baseline study, conducted by the Media Monitoring Project (MMP) that leads the monitoring and evaluation leg of MAP, and Gender Links, responsible for the policy sub-sector of MAP, provides a key rationale for an ambitious programme to assist media houses in developing HIV and AIDS and Gender policies. MAP is led by the Southern African Editors Forum.

Amidst South Africa's escalating epidemic, its rapid social, economic and political transition, and the changing roles of the state, civil society and international actors, there emerge a multitude of complex and yet unanswered questions. My doctoral research, the larger backdrop for this scoping study, focuses on one such area: little is known about the dynamics of community-level mobilisation, nor about the interface between these groups and national and international bodies. This report investigates, in a preliminary way, one component within this - what is happening within South African ‘communities' and why?
Social mobilisation is a growing theme among AIDS researchers in southern Africa. Indeed, as we become increasingly weary of attempts to measure and predict ‘impact' (which could mean anything from macro-economic effects to psychological traumas), and as the promise of technological interventions (such as circumcision, microbicides and vaccines) inevitably begins to wane, some researchers are increasingly shifting their gaze to learn from what those most affected are doing every day to respond to HIV/ AIDS - a shift in focus from formulaic or sequential views of impact to understanding differentiated, creative, and perhaps unpredictable collective responses.

Women are said to be more active on social networking sites

Media development organisations have the opportunity, through the kind of work they do and topics they cover, to lead by example in showing that gender is intrinsic to free speech, citizen participation, and progressive media practice and content.