Projects > Prevention

Introduction

The Kganya Motsha Adolescent Centre is the first of its kind in the country piloted to address health needs and counseling for teenagers between 14 and 19 years old in the heart of Soweto, Kliptown. The Clinic is supported by USAID and PEPFAR to provide free medical and health services for youth between the ages of 14 and 19 years old. Kganya Motsha, isiSotho for “Shine Young Ones”, was developed by the PHRU following a survey in 2007 in which adolescents highlighted concerns and gaps relating to their health needs. The opportunity exists to reduce HIV transmission and prevalence rates among youth through education, prevention and treatment strategies. The Centre provides a safe, inconspicuous, nonjudgmental venue and staff, recognizing the special needs of teenagers. The project will work with adolescents to determine the best ways to improve their health care and identify particular issues that increase their vulnerability to HIV.

Inception

The following key activities were undertaken during this period:

Voluntary counselling and testing (VCT)
STI education, prevention and treatment
HIV education, prevention and treatment
Psychosocial evaluation and counselling
Reproductive health services
Supportive care
Peer mentoring

This period also saw the development of a comprehensive CRF and creation of a database.

The Launch

A launch for the clinic was planned for the 14 February 2008 and invitation was extended to all stakeholders and NGO’s in the area. USAID/ PEPFAR were represented by Dr Carlene Dei, Melinda Wilson and Press liaison officer Reverie Zurba. The official opening was performed by Dr Dei with Melinda Wilson giving the keynote address.

Workshops

A workshop was then planned and held on 26-27 March 2008 bringing together stakeholders. The focus of the workshop was to unpack legal, ethical, cultural and clinical issues surrounding the care and treatment of adolescents and was attended by representatives from NGO’s working in the area. An important recommendation from the workshop was to have a follow-up one day workshops that will deal exclusively on Legal issues around adolescent health. The follow-up workshop was held on the 8th of May 2008 and was facilitated by the Law reformed commission.

Information Workshops at the Centre

We are holding weekly talk sessions at the clinic and schools. We bring adolescents together and discuss a variety of topics on an informal basis. Topics discussed so far:

Self awareness
The human body
Making important decisions in life

School Programme

We have launched the comprehensive school programme on the 14th April at the Kliptown High school. We have send out letters to the parents informing them about the school programme. We also had an opportunity to address the teachers at the school and to inform them about the programme activities.

One of the major aims of the school programme is to support the life orientation programme at the schools. We have a six part programme that we incorporated into the life orientation programme at the schools. These programmes include the following topics:

Self awareness
Life skills and HIV/AIDS education
Sex and sexual health
Sexually Transmitted Infections
Stigma reduction

We also offer voluntary counseling and testing services to adolescents at the school coupled with VCT education. The purpose of this activity is to make testing a norm amongst adolescents and to make them aware of the importance of knowing their status.

We also promote abstinence due to the fact that a large number of adolescent are still sexually abstinent.

Peer Educators Programme

Peer educators play a pivotal role in getting behavior change messages across to their own peers. The process of identifying prospective peer educators is a very slow one because we have to be absolute sure that they fit the requirements of peer educators. The training for the first group of peer educators will start in June.