Photo-voice as an analytical and activist tool in the fight against HIV and AIDS stigmatisation in a rural KwaZulu-Natal school

Abstract

In a project involving learners, parents, teachers and community health care workers the participants identified stigma as a persistent problem and barrier against prevention and care efforts around HIV and AIDS in their schools and communities. This paper focuses on the use of participatory approaches to research and intervention and explores the uses of photo-voice as a means of promoting childhood and youth activism in the context of HIV and AIDS. It reports on the analyses of findings from a photo-voice project with Grade 8 and 9 learners in one of the three schools participating in the project, in which they use photo-voice as both an analytic and activist tool to identify, understand, and interpret incidents related to stigma and discrimination against people living with, and affected by HIV and AIDS, as well as the strategies they propose to reduce and ultimately eradicate them.