Africa : memory boxes help to say goodbye
INTEGRATED REGIONAL INFORMATION NETWORKS (IRIN)
October 2003
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The article emphasises the principal use of memory boxes as a means for parents living with HIV to leave personal mementos, advice and small tokens for their children as a means of helping them overcome their loss and foster a sense of resilience, so they may approach the future more confidently. Memory boxes are shown to be a generic, replicable, low cost tool for community participation which help to create family/community psychosocial networks, effectively providing counselling on a large scale. This community approach gives participants a sense of ownership of the project and allows it to be adapted to local needs, which is important to its overall success