Challenges and obstacles in early HIV and AIDS education in South Africa, 1989/1994

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Periodical article

Title:	Challenges and obstacles in early HIV and AIDS education in South Africa, 1989/1994
Author:	Grundlingh, Louis
Year:	2009
Periodical:	Historia: amptelike orgaan
Volume:	54
Issue:	1
Pages:	239-261
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	AIDS health education medical history
Abstract:	Little research has been done on HIV and AIDS education in South Africa in the 1980s. AIDS cases rapidly increased from less than 1 percent in 1990 to almost 8 percent in 1994. Both the government and nongovernmental organizations started to launch HIV and AIDS education campaigns and programmes. Whilst the levels of awareness may have been relatively high, the same cannot be said for the knowledge levels. There were numerous impediments with the educational efforts. These ranged from a restrictive conservative morality, and a strictly biomedical interpretation of the disease, to the racial context of South Africa. A variety of methods were used to convey the HIV and AIDS message. Considering the levels of illiteracy in the country, educationists made use of visual aids and dramatic perfomances to convey the message. Prejudice, as well as inadequate financial and human resources, impeded the educational drive. By 1994, knowledge levels rose, but no major inroads were made in the ultimate goal of behaviour change. Notes, ref., sum. in English and Afrikaans. [Journal abstract]