Know Your Body Support Programme.
November 2004 - April 2005

Dessine L'Espoir supported for an initial 6 months period the training of 400 people
in the Durban area with Create Africa South. Aids awareness, and body knowledge.
Targeted population: Young people aged 12 to 14, and people living in rural areas.
November 2004.

Create Africa South

Create Africa South, CAS, is an NGO established in 2000 to preserve and develop creativity in South Africa, dedicated to originate, consult with and assist cultural discussions within Africa. CAS addresses the holistic creative interface of people with society. The concept of Ubuntu (Defn: human-heartedness, generosity, compassion, esp. in African value-systems - Oxford Dictionary) forms the basis of this organisation which endeavours to establish, transform, transcend boundaries and seek meaningful creative engagement in new areas.


Rational & Context


Create Africa South believes that the HIV epidemic is an extension of the Apartheid struggle to establish a functioning society. CAS contends that the social dysfunction and rupture in South Africa is a by-product of a highly traumatised society, and that empowerment of black South African women is the cornerstone of the affirmation and rebuilding of the country.

In a context where 5.3 million people of a population of 45 million are living with HIV/Aids, knowing that 600 people dye of AIDS associated illnesses each day and 1600 become newly infected in the country (two thirds between 15 and 20 years of age), CAS has put together informational "know your body" courses shared with men, women, boys and girls, seeing it as a vital opportunity in endeavoring to curb the statistics:
The body is the primacy site around which all dreams of identity and affirmation are founded.


Content of "Know your body" courses.

"Know your body" courses are four-day workshop dealing with rights of the body, cancer, sexuality, STD, knowledge of the body, planned parenthod, opportunistic diseases and diet.

By first of August 2004, CAS had trained in excess of 6000 people within KwaZulu-Natal in this course with special emphasis on the rural Ugu district and Durban and its surroundings. Knowledge upgrade courses are periodically provided for trainers and the community at large is networked with.

Objectives of "Know your body".

Combat gender violence, sexual, physical and psychological abuse through the dissipation of information.
The body becomes a known interface.
Sex and disease is taken out of the realm of taboo.

Outputs

Women (and men) are informed as to their rights and obligations to their bodies in keeping them healthy, both physically and psychologically.

Within communities where the courses are held, information, with no political, philosophical, religious or traditional bias is made available as trainees go back to their homes and societal environments with basic information to be shared with colleagues, friends and family members.


Training in rural areas, involving groups of men and women, together or separatly.

Inputs

Population targeted

The four day course is presented to ordinary men and women. The course consists of 6 modules and the diagrams used are those originally procured through networking with the Women’s Health Project in Johannesburg. These diagrams are explicit and demonstrations are made using study aids procured or donated.

Team of counsellors

Durban: 14 trainers ­ 12 female and 2 male.
Ugu District: 12 trainers ­ 10 female and 2 male

Groups of between 15 and 25 are dealt with by one trainer for a four day period.
These groups are gathered through community groups or are from schools. They are men, women, boys and girls who are given information in an environment which engenders trust, dialogue and discussion.


Simphewe in a sexual rights course at the university.


Course Content:

Module 1: Body parts and functions and diseases (Diabetes, TB and Gout)
Module 2: Sexually transmitted diseases and HIV (includes: Face of Aids, living positively with HIV, disclosure and non-disclosure, treatment and nutrition)
Module 3: Prevention and treatment of cancer (breast and cervical cancer)
Module 4: Planned parenthood and abortion.
Module 5: Discussion on the rights to your body and having a positive self-image.
Module 6: Nutrition


Administration of the project.

Process.

Courses are planned for groups of women, men or men and women in the greater Durban area (including areas as far north as Stanger and as far west as Pietermaritzburg), or the Ugu district. These groups are either part of community societies or associations or from within schools.
Where full consultation has not occurred with community leaders the Co-ordinator and Administration liaise with traditional authorities and/or elected representatives as well as community leaders to garner support and set up group liaison structures.

Training are organize in conjunction with:
the Amakhosi ( chiefs)
the Izinduna (headmen)
the school principals.



20 of the available 26 trainers each have one course per month.
Courses are run to between a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 25 trainees
(more in the case of schools where numbers are large.)

Records and reports

A register of attendees is kept by the trainer and trainer/course assessment forms are filled in at the end of each course.

A report on each of the courses in written by the Trainer in the Durban area. In the rural Ugu district trainers keep log books in which they keep registers and write a report on each and every course run. These log books are checked and verified on a monthly basis.

Only on completion of the report etc. is the trainer paid.
Random checks are made on the various courses and assessments made by management by visiting the course as to the quality of training provided and whether the courses are run for the full period.
A Monthly Report is prepared by the Co-ordinator for each month.

Feedback meetings are held with community leaders in order to assess the success of the project.

Impact of the project

Improve relationships between men and women and increase respect for women.

Although South Africa has one of the most affirming constitutions in the world,
gender equality is far from a reality.
60% of all AIDS cases are women and gender bias remains a reality due to economic dependency that stems from a traditional patriarchy and an acceptance of violence against women.
This produces barriers to the sexual and personal rights of the individual.
When women have have definetly limited power to insist on the use of condoms with their partners, it becomes clear and urgent that information on one’s rights to one’s body, the education around mutual respect within polarized gender relations, the support structures that exist and methods with which one can protect oneself, is required.

Rights and responsibilitiesawareness
The impact seen thus far through the courses and forseen with the basic dissemination of information throughout communities in KwaZulu-Natal will impact on the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic in our country.
Informing men and women of their rights under the law, the consequences of their actions and asserting that individuals are responsible for their health, wellness and continued existence within a framework of legal rights and obligations, permeates societies with factual information far removed from myth, bias and/or traditional threats to self-determination.

Resistances

Resistance to the dissemination of information on certain topics such as the legal availability of abortion and a woman’s “right to choose” in extremely traditional communities has been found.

On such occasions Create Africa South’s Management consults with the objecting authority/party in an endeavour to communicate the fact that this information falls within the South African Bill of Rights and that there is obligation to share such information.
objections are dealt with equitably in most instances.
In more adamant cases the objecting party prefaces a discussion on the offending material with reference to their particular traditional or religious point of view. CAS makes it clear that this opinion in no way reflects that of CAS or any of its sponsors.

Sponsors of the project

This project was made possible through funding from Australian Aid for the 2003/2004 year (July 2003 to August 2004)
The project also received funding from the South Africa Development Fund early in 2004 specifically for infrastructural support.
6000 people have already been trained.
Continued funding of this programme within CAS is needed to make it possible for the organization to continue it’s roll-out of a proven and successful programme.


Dessine L'Espoir involvment .

Dessine L'Espoir has alocated a 5000 euros donation to cover the training of 400 persons as a start for the last 3 months of 2004. Further support could be followed on the next year, upon results of the first involvment and funds available in 2005.

This amount of € 5000 allows each of the 26 trainers in the employ of the organisation’s Know Your Body division to present one course to 15 people (per course) i.e. covering 400 people.

Additional Budget - Training @ the Desmund Tutu Fundation

Dessine l'Espoir his also preparing fundings to get Milicient Hadebe, in charge of the training, to visit other projects supported by Dessine l'Espoir throughout the country.