No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2007.

This thesis is concerned with an evaluation of AIDS education in KwaZulu-Natal schools. Although HIV and AIDS affect all segments of the population and all age groups, prevention efforts aimed at the youth may be the most effective. HIV/AIDS is a disease most prevalent in the fifteen to thirty-five age group, and if we can decrease rates of transmission in people under twenty, we will save much money, pain and suffering in the next ten years. It is often seen as prudent to save young generations, rather than older ones, and this may be especially true in the case of HIV/AIDS, where HIV/AIDS in the younger, reproductive age groups leads to the very youngest group, that it, babies, being born HIV-positive. In addition, the younger generation may be more easy to save: they have not yet formed unsafe sexual practices, and educating them before they develop habits is easier than changing habits of the older generation. I assessed various education departments' AIDS education programmes, based on the criteria of how well pupils are assisted in changing their unsafe sexual practices, or, if they are not yet sexually active, their attitudes towards sex, and on what type of message and ideal is presented about sexuality and sexual activity. Judged by my framework, I found the existent programmes to be lacking. But this act of assessment allowed for a more thorough evaluation of AIDS education in the region to emerge, and from this, recommendations for AIDS prevention programmes to be developed: AIDS education must occur in the context of more general skills development, skills in negotiating sexuality and sexual relationships, and skills for the negotiation of life in the late twentieth century. Innovative developments in the region, regarding AIDS and sexuality education teacher training, and the development of minimum criteria by which to set up and judge programmes, could be used as the basis for a sound AIDS education programme. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1996.

The study aims to explore women's psychosocial needs and concerns following an HIV positive diagnosis. It also seeks to understand nature and various sources of care and support that women need for learning how to live with an HIV positive diagnosis. Finally, to understand what women need from HIV/AIDS health care and social service providers. In order to achieve these aims, a sample of 12 HIV positive women age between 20 and 40 was approached and interviewed at the Centres for Disease Control Clinic (CDC) in one of the local hospital in Pietermaritzburg. A qualitative research approach using semi- structured in-depth interviews was used in the study. The findings of the study reveal that HIV positive women are still faced with a range of psychosocial needs, different to that of HIV infected men. Their main psychosocial concerns centre on the welfare of their children rather their own health. Women fear rejection from their sexual relationships and as a way of coping with this, they choose to abstain from intimate relationships. Many women receive limited support from their families, health, and social welfare systems. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

BACKGROUND: HIV/AIDS has seemingly conquered all medical means of prevention. An approach is therefore needed which focuses on the future of a generation, in equipping today‟s children with the necessary knowledge and skills, to prevent future HIV/AIDS infections and implications. In an attempt to combat HIV/AIDS, Life Orientation has been incorporated in the South African school curriculum as one of the learning areas. Children hereby are receiving knowledge on HIV/AIDS and life skills. Research however, has found that young people do not necessarily respond to, or internalise information received. Programmes which focus on interactive participation and experiential learning are needed for desired outcomes. Specific focus on self-esteem, self-efficacy, communication and a sense of future are also necessary, as these aspects play a crucial role in health behaviour or the lack thereof. iThemba Lethu has been endorsed by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education and focuses specifically on these issues. iThemba Lethu has granted Indlela permission to use their programme in schools in the Amaoti community, referred to as the Indlela Life Skills programme, to make a positive contribution to the youth of this vulnerable community. Because programme evaluation is an integral part of programme implementation and development, this study will focus on process evaluation of the Indlela programme. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

Introduction: Globally, over forty million adults are infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), with twenty-five million people having already died of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) worldwide by 2007. To date, approximately twenty-eight million members of the labour force have been lost to AIDS. In terms of the settings approach to Health Promotion, the workplace presents as one of the most effective and significant settings in which to respond to the epidemic. This study formed part of The Workplace VCT/Treatment Uptake Project (WVUP), which is a longitudinal study located in a company in the South African mining sector. The broad aim of the WVUP was to provide new knowledge on the reasons for low and slow uptake of VCT and treatment services in workplace settings and to implement and evaluate interventions to improve uptake of these services. The specific aim of this phase of the study (a Situational Assessment) was to unravel the contextual influences on VCT and treatment participation rates at the selected site, as a precursor to succeeding phases of the WVUP. Method: This Situational Assessment comprised of an archival documentary analysis (aimed at developing a historical perspective of the company’s HIV/AIDS program) and interviews and focus groups with key organisational stakeholders (aimed at a contextual assessment of the program). A qualitative approach was used for this study, as it provided an in-depth and detailed understanding of the organizational and personal experiences, incidences and occurrences that make up the contextual milieu for the VCT and HIV/AIDS treatment services at the study site. Fourteen individual interviews were conducted with key stakeholders, followed by eight focus group interviews with these constituencies. Data was collected using audiotapes and were transcribed verbatim. A quality assurance check was conducted with random sections of the tape compared against the transcripts. A list of themes across all interviews and data was developed and then reduced and coded using Nvivo7, a qualitative datamanagement software programme. This tool enabled the researcher to store and code the data and search the data thematically. The results of the study were interpreted through the lens of two theoretical frameworks, viz., the Precede-Proceed model and the Elaboration Likelihood Model. Results and Conclusions: The discussion of results incorporated the findings from the archival audit and documentary analysis as well as the various factors that emerged from the key stakeholder and focus group interviews. Even though the mine had high VCT uptake rates, significant concerns were apparent with regard to the VCT and treatment programmes. Some of these concerns centered around the levels of support from mine management and Head Office, support of employees for the HIV/AIDS programme, relational challenges with the union, confidentiality issues, treatment and treatment adherence issues, environmental influences, spousal VCT uptake, race, culture and sexism, and fear. Salient findings have been discussed using the selected theoretical frameworks and several theoretically and empirically derived recommendations were offered to inform the next phase of the WVUP study. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008

This study examines the experiences of HIV/AIDS prevention workers whose clients include injection drug users (IDUs). Via a mixed methods approach (survey questionnaire and interview) the specifics of workers' practices were documented, along with their perspectives on a variety of IDU, addiction and HIV/AIDS-related issues. Foucault's writings on knowledge and power were used as the theoretical framework for this analysis. Thirty-six workers completed a self-administered questionnaire, from which preliminary analyses were conducted to identify emergent themes for exploration during qualitative interviews. Sixteen participants subsequently discussed themes such as treatment options, social marginalization, and the workers' approaches to working with IDUs. The findings reveal that the workers share some common beliefs. They are convinced their IDU clients would be able to practice better self care if they had access to safe and affordable housing. In terms of addictions services, the continued broadening of needle exchange programs (NEPs) is good, but that NEP itself should not be the only harm reduction strategy in place. With regards to abstinence-based services, none of the participants found satisfactory the existing meagre services accesible to their clients who want to stop using drugs. They were ambivalent towards methadone maintenance therapy (MMT), once used as an initial stage towards total abstinence, now more commonly used as a harm reduction instrument, by eliminating opiate use (and injection), or reducing the frequency of opiate injection. Workers emphasized the substanial gaps between the services available and what is needed, in terms of harm reduction or (particularly) abstinence. These workers use their own, local knowledge about IDUs and addiction, and navigate their clients through the limited services available. As hundreds of IDUs continue to become infected with HIV each year in Vancouver, a dramatic increase in access to abstinence-based services, and a more explicit gradiation between "pure" abstinence-based programs and NEPs, could be put in place. Most workers support a more nuanced spectrum of treatment options for IDUs.

The devastation wrought by the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Aboriginal communities is both physical and metaphorical, as the stigmas associated with the virus mediate the way it is both understood and experienced. This thesis examines the role of HIV in Canadian Aboriginal literature, with an eye to the specific ways that these narratives about HIV relate back to real-world understandings of the epidemic. The works of Tomson Highway, Jordan Wheeler, Beth Brandt, and Gregory Scofield demonstrate how HIV/AIDS is frequently tied to colonial histories and personal experiences of disconnect, alienation, and abuse. HIV operates at the boundaries of these texts, drawing connections between otherwise disparate narratives, highlighting stigmas within communities, and focussing on differently marginalized communities of Aboriginal people in Canada. These authors draw from traditional understandings of storytelling, using narrative to incite important discussions about HIV/AIDS, and to work towards greater acceptance and inclusion of HIV-positive people in Aboriginal communities.

No description available.

The original impetus for this investigation into prostitution comes from an economic inquiry into one form of work performed largely by women. But as a feminist study, this investigation cannot look simply at the economics of prostitution. Prostitution is both work and sex and an analysis must therefore also explore the question of sexuality, and the nature of sexual relations between men and women. This study seeks to offer a conceptual understanding of prostitution, and in particular, to examine the structural determinants of the sex industry. The analysis is couched within a feminist framework, taking cognisance of the theoretical divisions within feminism itself. The study attempts further to examine the question of policies towards prostitution, an issue which has been brought to the fore by the AIDS pandemic. In so doing, it refers to historical examples of state control of the sex market and draws on feminist challenges to such regulation. These challenges have exposed a fundamental contradiction for feminist praxis between the need both to protect and empower women. In exploring the nature and implications of this contradiction, the investigation looks also at the feminist debate around the censorship of pornography, a debate which highlights the kinds of questions feminists must confront when considering the issue of control. An attempt is made to resolve this contradiction by drawing a distinction between short-term and long-term policies towards prostitution. Although the long-term feminist project is the creation of a society where the structural determinants of the sex market have been eliminated, it is argued that this vision ignores the reality of prostitution and the problems faced by those women who work in the sex industry. Prostitution must be legalised to ensure the rights and protection of prostitutes, but these measures must be complemented by policies that challenge the structural basis of prostitution, and the oppression of women in society in general. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1992.

This study presents a history of the Canadian AIDS Society (CAS), which began as an informal network of 16 local AIDS Service Organizations (ASOs) in 1986 and grew to 120 member organizations by the time of the renewal of Phase III of the National AIDS Strategy in late 1998. There are two main objectives of the study: (1) to look at why the organizational forms of the collection of groups evolved as they did; (2) to examine the outcomes and effectiveness of these organizational forms for CAS and its member organizations. / Interviews were conducted with founding members of CAS and later staff and activists. Members of a subsection of local General Service Organizations (GSOs) were interviewed regarding group relationships to CAS and involvement with other organizations in their communities. Documentary research on materials produced by CAS (now publicly available in the AIDS Committee of Toronto library) was carried out. Some documentation was also available for local organizations. The Globe and Mail index was used to research CAS national level work. / This dissertation uses the concepts network, coalition and umbrella organization to develop an understanding of why CAS formalized and the positive and negative outcomes of this for member groups and the organization itself. The issues of insider/outsider organization, motivation, identity, framing and ideology are discussed in relation to their impact on both CAS and a subsection of member organizations. / CAS developed as a network, coalition, and umbrella organization. This evolution was in response to the purpose and goals of CAS at a national level, Ottawa based representative of member organizations interacting with the government and gathering and producing information useful to local work. CAS became increasingly formalized over the period under study, seeking and gaining access to government and other elites, as at least a semi-insider organization.