Photo-voice as a tool for analysis and activism in response to HIV and AIDS stigmatisation in a rural KwaZulu-Natal school

Abstract

Objective: This paper focuses on the use of participatory approaches to research and intervention and explores the uses of photo-voice as a methodology and a means of promoting childhood and youth activism in the context of HIV and AIDS.
Method: Photo-voice, a visual participatory methodology, was used with 21 Grade 8 and 9 learners in one of three schools participating in a larger project, 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 proposed by the learners to possibly reduce stigma.
Results: Three themes emerged: awareness of HIV and AIDS, awareness of HIV-related stigma and its impacts, and acceptance of personal agency and taking action.
Conclusions: Understandings of and perceptions about HIV and AIDS are improving, yet significant pockets of ignorance about the dynamics of HIV infection still remain among the youth. Negative attitudes towards people infected with and affected by the virus remain, and stigmatisation continues. The use of photo-voice and other participatory methodologies offers alternative strategies for involving youth in their own knowledge production, as well as in the development of an individual sense of agency for taking action.

Journal of Child and Adolescent Mental Health 2007, 19(1): 19–28