HIV&ME – A FACILITATOR’S VIEW

Cynthia Swartbooi is a facilitator new to HIV&Me. She is working in the Limpopo Province. She shares her thoughts and experience with us.

I recently joined the HIV&Me program as a training facilitator, and have found my work on this program to be one of my most worthy life experiences.

HIV&Me sent us, a team of 4 facilitators, to run teacher training workshops at 30 junior schools in the Ngwaabe Circuit, Sekhukhune District Municipality (SDM), Limpopo. I left Cape Town on the 29 July 2011 and headed on my journey. We remained in the region for 5 weeks returning on 3 September 2011 wiser, sadder, happier and with a greater understanding and realisation of what our work means to those that have seldom been given credible information and education on HIV&AIDS; a pandemic that is affecting over 5 million of our fellow South Africans.

In short, the programme provides information on the prevention and management of HIV&AIDS and fits with the national curriculum and the OBE learning model. The training intervention comprises four days per school of teacher training, teaching application up-skill, coaching, monitoring, and assessment and is implemented over a 3 month period. During this time the educators also deliver the eight HIV&Me lessons to their grade 6 and grade 7 learners.

The program covers fears about HIV&AIDS; general viruses vs. the HI virus; the rapid and speedy spread of the virus; myths and stigma associated with HIV&AIDS; how to take ownership and responsibility of your own body; how to respond to social pressure; and the importance of sharing HIV&AIDS information with others. All this works towards enabling learners to make better informed decisions about their health and sexual behaviour.

The content of the program is developed by experts in the field of education and HIV&AIDS and does not add extra work to the educator’s already busy workload. The HIV&Me educator guides includes step by step lesson plans with the lessons designed according to experiential learning methodology. The program is authorised by and partnered with the Department of Education (DOE) and aligned with the National Curriculum. Learner assessments and learner worksheets are included in the materials given to the schools.

I just sensed that we, as a group, were in the right place at the right time. We were made alert very early within the project that HIV&AIDS is still not a topic up for discussion as culture and tradition play a convincing role in the region. However, the training schedule we underwent as facilitators prepared us thoroughly on how to sensibly and sensitively tackle what lay ahead. We are trained to equip educators with the essential skills to deliver the eight HIV&Me lessons to learners and empower educators to deliver these lessons with knowledge support, methodology support and positive energy. We enable them to be motivated and confident in their work.

From discussions with my educators, many of them said that before the HIV&Me intervention, as a rule, they believed in many of the myths regarding HIV&AIDS. They were also extremely scared of the stigma associated with the disease. Educators and learners were surprised and shocked at the same time by the information communicated to them...it was new and enlightening.

After the workshops quite a lot of them told us that they finally gained information that is reliable and credible. They are now more open-minded knowing the true facts about HIV&AIDS.

Written feedback includes the following responses...

“I've learnt that HIV&AIDS are incurable and that by taking the ARVs can help the infected person to live longer. That we must learn to say no to unprotected sex.”
K. S. Makua, educator Madibeng Primary

“The workshop makes me aware of HIV&AIDS. It encourages us to help our community and learners. Develop our knowledge. Improve my standard of living.”
Educator, Masago Primary

“What I liked most about the workshop is when we put our fears in a fears box, pick up others fears and try to tell how best we can deal with them. The answers I get about my fears make me more confident.”
M.B. Hlakudi, educator Legapana Primary

“As an educator I am going to deliver some lessons to my learners as the workshop gave me some more knowledge about HIV&AIDS. Our learners are now going to know how to take care of their bodies and how to say ‘NO!’.”
R. D. Mokgabudi, educator Tibamoshito Primary

Our heartfelt thanks and appreciation to our Corporate Sponsor, EVRAZ Mapoch. Without their and our other partners’ generous sponsorship, this project would not have been possible.

For more information on our HIV&Me programme please visit http://www.regency.org/hivandme.html.