Background:

HIVAN was established by the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2002 as part of the University’s efforts to address HIV/AIDS on all campuses and all levels within the institution.
Background:

Mission:

HIVAN’s primary purpose is to promote, conduct, and build capacity for research that is responsive to, and contributes to alleviating the circumstances of, people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. By connecting multidisciplinary scholarship with the immediate needs and problems of health-care providers, civil society organisations, and communities, and by making relevant information accessible to them, HIVAN strives to enhance the quality of HIV and AIDS prevention, care and treatment in both the formal and informal public health systems.

Geographic scope:

HIVAN’s priority is to inform and impact practical efforts to address the epidemic in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, but activities elsewhere are not excluded. Regardless of where it works, HIVAN always endeavours to ensure that the outcomes of its work are widely applicable.

Core goals:

The central goals of HIVAN are to:

Conduct and facilitate innovative HIV/AIDS research in partnership with communities, civil society organisations, and public health-care facilities;

Assist in training young researchers and particularly social researchers to work in interdisciplinary teams with biomedical and health colleagues

Build capacity among practitioners in the public and civil society sectors to engage in applied research;

Promote dialogue, better understanding and collaboration between researchers and practitioners in the province;

Connect researchers and practitioners in KwaZulu-Natal with counterparts elsewhere in South Africa;

Support the University in ensuring that staff and students are informed about and engaged with the epidemic and that infected and affected members of the University community have access to adequate support on campus; and<

Disseminate practical information about the pandemic across the various sectors of society.

Funding:

HIVAN received generous seed grants from the Carnegie Corporation and The Atlantic Philanthropies, as well as a prestigious African Partnerships grant from the National Institutes of Health, USA. These three core grants enabled HIVAN to establish five major programmes covering a variety of multidisciplinary research and intervention activities. HIVAN has also been privileged to be funded by the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the National Development Association, Axios International, PEPFAR, the Stephen Lewis Foundation, Bartel Arts Trust, Arts for Human Rights Trust, CSIR, RAISA, the US Embassy, AECI, SAB, WesBank and Measure Evaluation, amongst others.

Programmes:

For the first five years, HIVAN managed its operations through five units, namely: the Social and Behavioural Sciences Unit; the BioMedical Sciences Unit; the Communications, Arts and Advocacy Unit; the Networking Unit and the Campus HIV/AIDS Support Unit. In late 2005, the Campus HIV/AIDS Support Unit was incorporated into, and is now supported by, the University AIDS Programme. Over the past two years HIVAN’s activities have been consolidated into two major programme areas. The first of these, lead by Professor Eleanor Preston-Whyte, is the Social and Behavioural Sciences Unit, the head offices for which continue to be at McCord Hospital. From mid 2006 networking, cultural arts and communications activities have been consolidated under the Communications, Arts, Advocacy and Networking Programme of HIVAN. As a result of this merger, all the non-academic activities of HIVAN are now consolidated under one roof and under the management of HIVAN’s Project Manager, Debbie Heustice. Further details on the activities and achievements within these two main programme areas are provided below.

A. Social and Behavioural Sciences Programme

Multidisciplinary Applied Research - HIVAN is dedicated to multidisciplinary scholarship that contributes practical solutions to the challenges of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Research priorities are identified in consultation with major stakeholders, such as non-governmental organisations, community-based organisations, the public sector and the international research community. These are adjusted continually in response to changes in the nature of the epidemic and are kept in line with the research needs of those affected by the epidemic. Treatment and care are increasingly at the forefront of HIVAN’s agenda. The Social and Behavioural Sciences Programme consists of twelve research projects conducted at various HIVAN urban and rural research sites in KwaZulu-Natal. Many of these projects were initiated on HIVAN’s core funding but now continue through grants from a variety of international donors. While most of these research projects are now in the analysis and writing phase, a number of exciting new research prospects have developed. In particular, the HIVAN/McCord Hospital Participatory Alliance for Care and Treatment (PACT) took a quantum leap during the past few years with hospital staff beginning to consult HIVAN regularly, and to increasingly draw members of HIVAN’s research team into the clinical and biomedical research they were planning. New projects developed include studies on participation in and adherence to ARVs treatment programmes and disclosure in HIV+ women. Professor Preston-Whyte also heads the research sub-committee of the Hospital Ethics Committee and Tamaryn Crankshaw is a member of the McCord Research Forum. All of HIVAN’s reseach programmes have, or are in the process of publishing their findings. Four books are also in preparation – the first written by the Community Responses team, analyses the findings on an in-depth research-linked intervention on KwaZulu-Natal’s north coast; Dr Patti Henderson has spent much of the past two years completing a book detailing the lived experiences of people dealing with HIV/AIDS in the Okhahlamba area. She will soon commence work on a forth book on children and the pandemic; and Professor Preston-Whyte continues to work on her book on the insights and lessons learnt from the six years of research in HIVAN.

Applied research capacity-building, mentorship, graduate teaching and trainingGraduate teaching, training, research capacity-building and mentorship are prioritised and embedded in all HIVAN projects so as to contribute towards developing a representative cadre of well-trained and multi-skilled public health researchers for the future. Particular emphasis is placed not only on training and mentoring junior researchers to become world-class scholars but also on equipping them to link their work with, and indeed to design and implement, intervention programmes. In partnership with the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, HIVAN has lead a five-year ethnographic research training programme directed at building multidisciplinary, ethnographic research capacity in the field of HIV/AIDS and public health. 2007 is the final year of this grant. A final ethnographic research methods workshop was held in May 2007, bringing together the local and international project partners and a number of past students. 10 past participants presented papers on research they have conducted using ethnographic methods which they have applied to projects across a variety of disciplines. The success of the ethnography course resulted in two special requests for additional short courses in ethnographic methods – one at Ekhupileni Clinic, Cato Manor and the other at the prestigious Africa Centre for Population Studies and Reproductive Health. Professor Preston-Whyte, in collaboration with The School of Development Studies (SDS) at the University has been running of a series of high-level forums debating issues of current controversy and public concern in HIV/AIDS in South Africa. To date five debates have been held. These sessions have brought together critical thinkers in the HIV arena. The sessions were recorded on DVD for dissemination to a wider practitioner audience and for teaching purposes (copies can be purchased from HIVAN).

B. Communications, Arts, Advocacy and Networking Programme

Bringing the talents of the networking, communications and arts teams together has allowed HIVAN to explore a number of exciting opportunities with new partners such as the Foundation for Professional Development, the CSIR in Pretoria and MetaLab in the United Kingdom - with whom this Unit worked to develop the prototype for Singazenzela, a virtual space in which children can learn, grow, seek help, store important documents, meet and have fun with their friends. This project is now entering its second phase. The results of the five-country PANCEA cost effectiveness study, the South African component of which was conducted by HIVAN’s networking staff, have recently been published and this study has been drawn to a close in this country. Summaries of the various activity streams within the Communications, Arts, Advocacy and Networking are provided below:

Networking Fora - The team continues to facilitate a wide variety of regular, free information sharing and capacity building, contact events bringing together researchers, practitioners and other community stakeholders within and across sectors in KwaZulu-Natal. Sectors represented at forums include higher education, public, private, faith-based, non-government, and community-based sectors. These events, many now in their sixth year, remain popular and continual feedback from forum audiences ensure that topics are responsive to the needs of organisations working in the HIV-related arena in South Africa. The forums continue to be a marketing and dissemination point for HIVAN resources, such as those created by the HIV-911 programme and new community booklets - Hi-Virus and Shoes of Light.

Website - The HIVAN website (http://www.hivan.org.za) was a richly stocked electronic networking tool that showcases groundbreaking projects and resources committed to alleviating the impact of HIV/AIDS. The website is updated on a daily basis and spotlights positive responses to the epidemic. The site has developed substantially since its launch in the middle of 2002. It boasts an audience of approximately 17 000 visitors per month, with most of these visitors bookmarking the HIVAN site and returning regularly to it. The on-line HIV-911 database is consistently listed as the leading page accessed by website users.<

HIV-911 Programme - The HIV-911 programme was piloted between 2004 and 2006. HIV-911 now incorporates an on-line database of almost 13 000 HIV-related service providers in South Africa, hard copy provincial directories and a telephonic helpline providing free service delivery advice to the South African public and the AIDS Service Sector. The helpline operates nationally on a ShareCall number 0860 HIV 911 / 0860 448 911. The HIV-911 service continues to expand, and it has fast emerged as a flagship umbrella programme for HIVAN’s Communications, Arts, Advocacy and Networking Programme bringing HIVAN into contact with a series of new, more commercially minded, funders and partners. These new partnerships have bolstered the reach and product range of the HIV-911 service, provided excellent national marketing exposure and have secured significant funding for HIV-911 for the next few years.

Popular media - HIVAN produced a dual-language (isiZulu and English) community newsletter called Sondela (lit. ‘Coming Closer’) that disseminated information to, and furthers networking among, communities with limited access to electronic and print media. It was distributed widely throughout and beyond KwaZulu-Natal. Grassroots organisations continually provided positive feedback and now voluntarily contribute stories, articles and other information for publication. The exposure afforded by the newsletter to local-level organisations and individual champions within communities has frequently reaped direct benefits for them. The length and print-run have increased with every successive issue. What began as an eight-page information brief is now a 24-page publication. Further funding is required to sustain this important publication.

Resources - As part of its commitment to be engaging in research which is useful to the broader community, in 2003 HIVAN introduced a series of community resource booklets based on its research. The series now comprises six booklets, namely Supporting Youth: Broadening the Approach to HIV/AIDS Prevention Programmes; Understanding and Challenging Stigma for more Effective HIV/AIDS Management; Babiza’s Story; I got the message; Hi-Virus; and Shoes of Light. A seventh booklet on the subject to resilience is in preparation. Free electronic downloads are available for most of these booklets. HIVAN has also produced a documentary titled, Deadly Myths. DVD recordings of HIVAN’s popular AIDS Debates can be obtained from HIVAN.

Print media archive - This print media archive is an information silo that stores, indexes and cross-references media cuttings about HIV/AIDS and related issues between 2001 and 2007. The library of media articles boasts over 18 000 items, archived in 55 sub-topic files. The value of this resource as a research tool has been widely recognised by academics and non-academics alike, as it is used to prepare media kits and training aids, and to track current national and international debates about the epidemic during this time period.

Cultural Arts Programme - HIVAN’s Cultural Arts Programme is now in its sixth year. During this time the team has conducted an impressive number of participatory art-making training programmes, train-the-trainer workshops, and exhibitions with children, University students, trainee artists, educators and child-care workers, home-based care givers and other HIV-related practitioners. The vast majority of these activities have been funded through grants and extended to participants at no cost. The programme continues to prioritise community-based participatory workshops that uses the Cultural Arts as a vehicle for advocacy and expression and provide an alternative mechanism for the transferal of new knowledge and skills, particularly as concerns treatment literacy and wellness management. Over the past two years the programme has received funding from Artists for Human Rights Trust and the SAB for a series of Home-based Care training programmes in Ethekwini and three sites on the north coast of the province. The training was provided in partnership with Honey Allee of the Islamic Medical Association, with the Cultural Arts team integrating techniques such a body mapping and journey mapping into the formal programme. The HBC trainees embraced these more creative approaches using them to facilitate dialogue between patients and their families,particularly where patients and their kin find it difficult to articulate how they are coping with and affected by HIV/AIDS. The HBC givers also saw potential for these techniques to be used in support group settings and HBC debriefing sessions. The Cultural Arts team published Hi-Virus– a community booklet illustrated and written by seven HIV positive children linked to a well known support group in Durban. Funds for layout and printing of the booklet were provided by RAISA. HIVAN’s seventh booklet in this series, focusing on building child resilience is now in production. Funded by the Steven Lewis Foundation, aspects of this booklet were work-shopped with children in the care of Streetwise, an organisation involved in the protection and rehabilitation of abandoned and neglected children on the streets of South Africa. Child resilience was chosen as the focus of this book because of the dire need to provide the growing number of vulnerable children in South Africa, many of whom are orphaned due to HIV/AIDS, with mechanisms to cope with and rise above their circumstances. This is a partnership project with the School of Psychology in Pietermaritzburg. Finally, the Cultural Arts team has recently secured funding from the National Development Association (NDA) for a two year project titled Izwi Lethu – Ikusasa Lethu (Our Voices our Future). The project will use participatory learning methods to train and mentor school leaving youth in the Uthungulu district municipality of KwaZulu-Natal in the development of income generating projects that will promote the cultural arts and cultural tourism in the area.

C. The Campus HIV/AIDS Support Unit

The Campus HIV/AIDS Support Unit is dedicated to ensuring that staff and students are informed about, engage with, and have access to support in relation to the HIV epidemic. VCT is also conducted at the Unit in partnership with the Campus Health Clinics. The Unit provides a relaxed, creative and inspiring environment for student-led outreach initiatives, peer education and other counselling programmes. Unit activities are defined through consultation with a student-working group and close interaction with other student organisations and service-providers, both on and off campus. HIVAN is pleased to have been able to hand over this Unit to the University of KwaZulu-Natal from 2006. Campus HIV/AIDS Support Units are now functional on all campuses of the University – that is Howard College, Medical School, Westville, Edgewood and Pietermaritzburg campuses. The primary focus of the CHASU continues to be in the area of peer education, VCT, student HIV events facilitation and provision of HIV-related resources.