Strategies

1. Provision of psychosocial support

Psychosocial support is critical in promoting positive living and reducing the social impact of HIV/AIDS. SWAK will provide psychosocial support through the following initiatives:

• Equipping parents LWHA with succession planning skills: Succession planning includes three aspects: will writing, disclosure and memory book writing. SWAK will continue training Parents LWHA on memory book and will writing to reduce the social impact of HIV/AIDS. Will writing is also critical in enhancing protection of the family’s property rights. The memory book provides children with information on the family history and social set up which is critical to them. It is also through this process that Parents LWHA appoints guardians for their children.

• Training of children care givers on systemic child counselling: To enable children to cope with the social effects of HIV/AIDS, SWAK will train children care givers on counselling to enable them support children affected by HIV/AIDS effectively. The care givers to be targeted include teachers, children officers, social development officers and managers of children homes.

• Training of community counsellors: Community counsellors support PLWHA to cope with the social impact of HIV/AIDS.

• Bereavement counsellors training: HIV/AIDS widows will be trained to support other widows cope with bereavement.

• Establishment and facilitation of PLWHA support groups: The support groups provide fora for PLWHA to access information on treatment and care and to promote positive living. Support group meetings also serve as group therapy meetings.

• Conduct nutritional training for PLWHA and care givers: This training will equip PLWHA and the care givers with knowledge and skills on nutrition requirements for management of HIV/AIDS. This is critical as the country moves towards scaling up Anti-Retroviral Therapy.

[ back ]