RISING AGAINST THE ODDS
HIV Prevention Through RISE Young Women's Clubs in South Africa
IN 2015 ALONE, 100,000 SOUTH AFRICAN GIRLS AGED 15-24 WERE INFECTED WITH HIV, COMPARED WITH 42,000 BOYS.
Soul City Institute for Social Justice created RISE Young Women's Clubs to help shrink these catastrophic numbers.
Under a cloudless morning sky, a rowdy group of about 30 teenage girls gather at the gate of the Ga-Rankuwa village health center in Gauteng Province, not far from Pretoria, South Africa. Many wear vivid red T-shirts with the Soul City RISE Young Women’s Club logo: a bold fist raised in the air, holding a microphone. After some clowning, teasing and hugs, the girls make their way into the clinic’s shaded open-air waiting area which is quiet on this day, when clinicians don’t see patients. Then 17-year-old Kgantsho Makegata, the group secretary, kicks off the weekly session. Today’s first topic: female condoms, what they are and how to use them.
LAUNCHED IN 2014, RISE CLUBS WORK TO EMPOWER YOUNG WOMEN, AND TO ADDRESS A WIDELY ACKNOWLEDGED PROBLEM:
In sub-Saharan Africa, girls aged 14-24 are being infected with HIV at an alarming rate, and are at much higher risk of HIV than boys their age. South Africa is a stark example of this disparity. In 2015 alone, 100,000 girls 15 - 24 were infected with HIV, compared with 42,000 boys.
RISE Clubs follow a curriculum of discussion topics in a loosely structured way, designed to be fun but thorough. The young women discuss challenges ranging from applying to schools or jobs, preventing unwanted pregnancy, building self-esteem and avoiding unhealthy sexual relationships, often using their personal experiences as a point of reference. Understanding HIV and how to protect oneself from infection is a theme weaving through many of the conversations, from relationship scenarios to seeking counselling and testing for HIV. By facilitating a setting where young women and girls learn from and alongside each other, the goal of the RISE Clubs is that participants develop a strong foundation upon which to build their lives, and to make constructive choices.
TWO YEARS AFTER THE CLUBS WERE LAUNCHED, MORE THAN 1,100 SOUL CITY RISE CLUBS HAVE BEEN SET UP IN SIX OUT OF NINE PROVINCES ACROSS SOUTH AFRICA, REACHING MORE THAN 18,000 GIRLS.
And demand is outpacing supply: Where clubs exist, they spark requests from nearby communities for a local club, according to regional RISE administrators. In addition, there’s a monthly RISE magazine, and a mobile app that allows RISE Club members across South Africa to connect with each other, record their progress and track the topics they’ve covered.
The very fact that the club is meeting at the Ga-Rankuwa clinic is a result of the RISE Club members’ efforts. As a club activity, the girls decided to approach the clinic nurses about making services more teen friendly, and helping clinic staff understand the importance of not judging teens who seek HIV tests or other sexual health services. The staff took their suggestions on board, and went one step further: They invited the club members to use the clinic space for their meetings.
Near the end of the session, a girl in the group brings up the challenge of a boyfriend who has started seeing another girl, and the tendency for boys to always be “shopping” for novelty, even when they have a girlfriend. A mix of heated opinions and laughter follows, and the consensus opinion is clear: “Drop that guy – he’s a waste of time! …And what’s more, think about the risks.”
