Oxfam Intersections Who's In Who's Out? Report Back

Report back from sessions:
Overview:

Thank you to all at Oxfam Australia for giving me the opportunity of being involved in such an auspicious learning and sharing process, albeit for only one day. The event certainly had a “good feel” (NGO speak for the buzz of people really making the effort to network, engage and participate!), and the organizing of the event using different approaches looked innovative and energizing – I thought that the me-mail was a great idea and I hope that it was used effectively! I have been so impressed with all the arrangements, efficient correspondence and the creative concern for optimum benefit, and I will continue to watch the blogs and website with interest.

In preparing for the day, I was very concerned that filling two hours with a good mix of information and sharing would be difficult, but it wasn’t and in both, some more time would possibly have been used positively.

Skills Building

TB and HIV: outcomes and learning from the Limpopo conferences

Monday 26th October 10:30 - 12:30 Venue 2

Given the high prevalence of HIV and TB in South Africa and the complications of co-infection, organisations have taken a proactive stance in the response. During this session some feedback will be given from the Limpopo TB and HIV conferences and participants will be given the opportunity to share practice and learn from each other.

The attendance at this session was pretty disappointing! Only 5 organisations were represented - I wonder if the thought of conference feedback was a bit off-putting? I thought the session went well with some good learning’s and inputs and some good connections made. Certainly, some of the “smaller” organisations’ knowledge needs attention.

The session had quite a nice flow with research feedback at National level from Sibongile Mkhize from HST, Conference outcomes on a clinically high level from Bela Bela and grass-roots impact from CHoiCe Trust. All presentations were done well with power-point slides and were short enough to hold attention.

The Bela Bela conference topics were fascinating and I do think these should be circulated better to all partners. Ceceile is very knowledgeable on her topic and speaks with confidence on aspects that she has direct experience which makes for very positive learning. She could probably have spoken for longer and there was much interest in some of the sessions that she highlighted. Stephen from TAC requested to engage more with Bela Bela to share some of the conference presentations.

Rebecca circulated the TB game for participants to look at as an alternative and innovative way of continuing to educate.

KEY LEARNINGS expressed

“There are so many more issues that affect TB and HIV co-infection that I didn’t know about or even consider!”

ART adherence has been effective and TB could learn from that process
Treatment supporters can be valuable even for ART
Social support related to illness is a continual challenge
Poverty that affects food and transport is increasingly compromising treatment
ART access in local clinics is vital
Clinical staff at local level also need to be included in education and training programs
The difference in opinions from Health Professionals vs. patients on issues around adherence

MORE INFORMATION NEEDED

• What is the evidence that people ill with TB or HIV will lie about CD4 counts, stop TB treatment, etc in order to get a disability grant?
• The role of mobile phones in reminders for treatment, clinic visits, etc
• Side effects of treatment are not well publicised and needs more open education
•  

VALUE OF THE SESSION
Improved awareness of supportive issues that affect illness such as water
Knowledge of treatment side effects is vital
The worst poverty is that of the mind – education must be liberating!
A “healthy choice” needs to be stressed, especially with regards to grants
Learning from those who successfully adhere to treatment is continuous

Thematic Area: Who’s In? Who’s Out?

Who do we work with and why do we work with them? This is a critical question that many organisations forget to ask when designing and delivering their programs. Our choice of beneficiaries is often informed by a range of factors including personal interest, development theory, popular programming trends, new methods and approaches, and the availability of resources. Being more conscious about our biases and reflecting honestly on the consequences of our decisions could go a long way to improving the design and management of future programs. In the sessions within this thematic area organisations will share experiences of working with a variety of groups, their reasons for choosing these, and the intended and unintended consequences of their choices. The sessions will explore the roles and power that organisations occupy in the communities they work in and through this, reflect on how their program choices impact on communities.

Post test counselling: what about the negatives?

Monday 26th October 13:30 - 15:30 Venue 4

A range of services and programs are made available to HIV positive people and/or people we assume to be HIV positive. They are however, not the only people in need of services who come into contact with our organisations. What programmatic obligations, if any, do we have towards HIV negative people given that their socio economic positions are indistinguishable from their HIV positive peers?

A really nice, diverse group attended this session; however the graveyard syndrome required some creative thinking! It’s always interesting how participants come into a session with very clear ideas relating to the topic and it takes some time to get them to relax enough to be open to share those thoughts and ideas. There seemed to be a nice dynamic at the end and there was some shared laughter in the process. There were a couple of participants that added very valuable inputs and assisted in the conversation. It was particularly interesting to have inputs from Zimbabwe and groups such as SWEAT who provided alternate and different insights.

The session concluded with the general opinion that it was important to be reminded sometimes about people who may be falling through the cracks and that the “negatives” are a vital component of the prevention messaging that needs attention.

Ceceile did a PowerPoint with some numbers showing the Bela Bela findings around people testing for HIV, with again, powerful insights coming from her own experience in the program and her personal insights.

Modjadji from Ba-Phalaborwa and Zandile from HACT shared informally how they handle HIV- clients after VCT – these were interesting and pretty standard. There was some discussion on alternate ideas and suggestions. Bongani from Tholulwazi also had some inputs which he shared regarding their approach with schools which was interesting.

There was interesting discussion around why people who make the effort to get tested and know their negative status still become positive – this could still make some interesting discussion. Clearly, many organisations haven’t even considered this which is concerning…the attitude of “if he is negative now, he will come back positive” needs urgent flagging.

To challenge some thinking and in an attempt to get more innovative interaction, the Aids Consortium Heroes campaign was debated leading into a discussion: are negatives neglected and how do organisations make heroes out of those people who test and STAY negative? This lead to good inputs and debates around what various organisations are currently doing and could do better.

During a buzz session, which got very animated and needed additional time for some of the groups, the partners looked at what an “ideal” campaign aimed at keeping known negetives negative would look like. Negative “heroes” were to be considered and what would it say? This proved to be fairly challenging as many felt they would continue the prevention campaigns as they are with added emphasis on staying negative. One group focussed on the healthy Bafana players with the World Cup in mind, and chose Ronaldo as the Hero! Another group thought Arch-Bishop Desmond Tutu would be valuable in staying faithful messaging.

President Zuma is apparently going to test publically for World Aids Day which also resulted in some very vocal opinions!

NEED TO LEARN MORE ABOUT:

- Risk reduction plans are shared in post counselling – how effective are these and what is included?

PERSONAL NOTE:

A day with a 4am start is possibly not ideal and while I appreciate being included and seriously hope I did contribute adequately to the process, my own learning is that it would have been much more valuable had I been more integrated in the process and with participants.

- Technical assistance was not in the room so we did make a plan…I am not sure where the presentations are

- I was not informed who the rappateur was in my session and whether any notes were taken! It would be helpful to see them!