Community-based educational programmes as support structures for adolescents within the context of HIV and AIDS

Abstract

South Africa is one of the countries with the highest prevalence of HIV infection in the world, particularly among the youth between the ages 15 and 24 years. The number of infections among the youth in South Africa is still increasing and this does not exclude the youth under study in the community of Eersterust. The HIV and AIDS epidemic is affecting large numbers of adolescents, throughout South Africa leading to serious psychological, social, economic and educational problems. Because of the devastating effect and rapid increase of HIV-infections among adolescents, it has become evident that not only government departments (Department of Health and Department of Education), but also community-based educational support structures (organisations) should share the responsibility by playing a pro-active role in awareness and the curbing of the spread of HIV-infection among adolescents. Various researchers have been focusing on the knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of adolescents but limited research has been done on the contribution of community-based educational support programmes with regard to creating awareness and the curbing of the further spread of HIV-infection among adolescents. This study which seeked to address the need for ongoing research in this field, attempted to investigate whether and how communitybased educational programmes address the educational needs of adolescents within a particular community, namely Eersterust. In order to determine these needs, quantitative and qualitative descriptive research approaches were utilized comprising of a questionnaire survey and focus group interviews. The questionnaire survey explored the knowledge, skills, attitudes and sexual behaviour of the 916 participants. The results from the questionnaire were utilized to determine the educational needs of adolescents. Focus group interviews were conducted with 11 adolescents who attended the educational support programmes at the Youth Development Outreach Centre and the Circle of Life Centre. The latter are two community-based organisations in the community under study (Eersterust). The focus group interviews were utilized to determine the views of the adolescents with regard to the mode of delivery and effectiveness of the community-based educational support programmes. From the data in the questionnaire the educational needs of adolescents were identified and compared with the content of the community-based educational support programmes of the two community-based support structures. The findings revealed that the community-based educational support programmes are to a large extent addressing the HIV and AIDS educational needs of the adolescents under study. The focus group interviews revealed that the participants are of the opinion that they find the programmes interesting and enriching. They benefit educationally by attending the educational programmes and they would recommend the programmes to other adolescents. The findings indicate that the educational programmes are appropriate to address the HIV and AIDS educational needs of the adolescents. The educational needs identified in the empirical research are however not fulfilled because many of the adolescents do not attend the educational programmes. There are only a few adolescents who attend these educational programmes. The latter might be a contributing factor to the high HIV-infection among adolescents.