Adolescent health care planning workshop

Kidzpositive, in partnership with PATA (Paediatric AIDS Treatment for Africa: www.teampata.org) ran a successful planning workshop in Cape Town in May 2008.

  • The workshop was designed to identify key requirements of a health care portfolio for HIV-positive adolescents in the Western Cape Province and to identify priority tasks necessary to develop a health care service.
  • More than 130 health care workers and 20 young people attended the 2 day workshop.
  • Staff training, dedicated facilities for the youth, with one-stop service delivery and additional resources for psychological support and life skills training were identified as major priorities.
  • Workshop proceedings have been published and a DVD recording of plenary presentations has been circulated to participants.

Kidzpositive at PATA 2008 in Kigali

Kidzpositive was a PATA (Paediatric AIDS Treatment for Africa) partner in a most successful fourth PATA forum held in Kigali, Rwanda during the last week of November 2008. The meeting was attended by 44 teams from 19 Sub-Saharan countries. A total of 170 delegates and a teaching faculty met to discuss the headline topics of 'Care of the Very Young Infant' and 'Nutrition in HIV'. The full conference programme is available at www.teampata.org.

A highlight of the three day meeting was a visit to the Partners in Health (www.pih.org) hospital and Training Centre (illustrated in the pictures) at Rwinkwavu, a rural village 160 kilometres from Kigali. Teams visited all facilities at the hospital and were treated to an inspirational address by Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners in Health

Children from the Rwinkwavu Treatment Programme welcome participants to the Training centre in Kigali, Rwanda

Clinical Service improvement

Between January 2007 and May 2008, according to Western Cape Department of Health statistics the number of children on ARVs at clinics supported by the GSH HIV/AIDS service increased from 608 to 870. Retention in care has been good.

Adolescent Services

The Paediatric HIV/AIDS Service opened a dedicated adolescent clinic at the beginning of 2007. The project has benefitted from the inclusion of adolescent care as a topic for the PATA 2007 meeting in Swaziland and will benefit from outcomes of the adolescent planning workshop presented by Kidzpositive and PATA (Paediatric AIDS Treatment for Africa) at the end of May 2008. Kidzpositive employs a full-time counsellor, Ms Phumla Tyulu who runs the adolescent support group. Ms Tyulu is supervised by Ms Nuruneesa Lalkhen, a psychologist based at Groote Schuur Hospital.

'Extra Time' Magazine as a teaching aid in life skills classes

A validation study for HIV/AIDS education involving GRASSROOTSOCCER www.grassrootsoccer.org.

The workbook, designed to look like a soccer magazine and using the game of soccer as a metaphor to transmit messages about HIV/AIDS is being tested at the Ocean View Secondary School near Vishoek on the Cape Peninsula. Funds were obtained from the Rotary Club of Claremont to print 20 000 copies of 'Extra Time'. The magazine is currently being distributed through youth organizations.

Research Ethics permission for this study has been obtained from the Research Ethics Committee of the School of Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town

If it proves to be of value as a teaching aid, it is possible that the Department of Education will support its distribution throughout the Western Cape Province.

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From beaded flags and logos to bookmarks, conference name holders, glasses strings, keyrings, pens and more, the Positive Beadwork Project produces beautiful customised beadwork and provides income for over one hundred HIV/AIDS affected women.