This paper gives an overview of the research findings of ICRW and its partners in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Vietnam and Zambia into stigma and discrimination around HIV & AIDS, which show many common causes and similar outcomes, and looks at ways to combat stigma
This manual is a guide for community-based organisations to facilitate a community-led and -owned process that addresses stigma and gender-based violence in HIV & AIDS prevention efforts. It is based on findings from the Stigma and Violence Reduction Intervention (SVRI) project, conducted in Andhra Pradesh, India from 2003 to 2005. It is divided into sections: a discussion of three tools that can be used in participatory development projects (participatory learning and action, community-led action research (CLAR) and transformatory workshops); a general guide for implementing community-led action research; a description of the CLAR process among the key populations of the SVRI project and the plans of action that they developed based on this process; the challenges and lessons learned in implementing a community-owned process to address stigma and gender-based violence, and some conclusions. Appendices provide a sample toolkit with a series of workshops designed for the populations who participated in the SVRI project. Although designed specifically for this project, the activities and format could be adapted for use by similar projects working with other populations or in other countries
The report begins by defining stigma and providing background about projects that ICRW and its partners in four countries carried out into HIV-related stigma and discrimination. It then discusses that, in spite of different contexts, the four countries where the studies took place share key features that shape the nature and forms of HIV-related stigma and it presents findings focusing on the similarities across the four different country contexts. It concludes with a discussion of the way forward and an overview of the two anti-stigma toolkits that grew out of the projects’ findings: one that is suitable to many African settings; and one, adapted from the first, which is tailored for Vietnam but suitable for adaptation elsewhere in the Asian region
This report explores the causes, manifestations and consequences of HIV and AIDS related stigma in sub-Saharan Africa. Based on a study in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia, it acknowledges stigma as complex, caused by incomplete knowledge, fears of death and disease and sexual transmission. Stigma is also influenced by socio-economic status, age and gender. The report also discusses in detail how people living with HIV react to stigma, and also how they and their families/ friends develop strategies to cope with stigma. Recommendations include the need to provide safe spaces to discuss the values and beliefs about sex, morality and death, find a common language to talk about stigma and ensure a contextually appropriate and ethically responsible role for people living with HIV
