Gender inequality is an important factor in the spread of HIV. In Ndawana we have taken on this issue by training selected people in the principles of gender equality, then as facilitators, and then conducting a program called Stepping Stones with all Edzimkulu employees. Following that, we conducted the same program with Ndawana teachers. The response from both groups was overwhelmingly positive. The Stepping Stones program has been used in a number of countries, and we are using a version written especially for South Africa. The program is used to educate and train people in gender, HIV, communication and relationship skills through dialogue. It is essentially a life skills program that teaches participants why we behave in the ways we do, how gender, attitudes and beliefs influence this, and ways in which we can change our behaviour, if we want to.
Now we have been asked to expand this program into the entire Sisonke District (500,000 population). That program will begin in late November, with training of facilitators from an organization called TB/HIV Care and from the Department of Health, then conducting Stepping Stones, first with 100 TB/HIV Care employees, then with all the clinics in Sisonke, about 1000 people, and eventually with community members throughout the District.
Meanwhile, we want to create a tipping point in Ndawana. We now have started a Stepping Stones program for the HIV Support group and will then target students and mothers. We want to work deeply in Ndawana, where the population is 4,000, to make HIV prevention and gender justice a recognized part of the community culture.
These strategies will go a long way toward a sustained understanding of what is necessary to foster gender equality and change the attitudes and beliefs which keep the HIV pandemic going.
