Responding to the Adolescents’ living with HIV need for a platform to express themselves

 Dearth of information and knowledge about self  Fears and lack of knowledge around Sexual reproductive health and Reproduction  Anxious about the future  Pill fatigue- ARV’s, are they a blessing or a lifelong curse?  Adherence no concordance  Disclosure- for whose benefit?  Fear of death – colleagues are falling am I next?  Conflicting information and conspiracies on medication  Parent/care giver Lack of knowledge and skills on how to assist on emotional issues

 To engage adolescents in conversations on their lives  To encourage adolescents to dream, set goals and aim to achieve those goals regardless of their status.  To learn about the lived experiences of the adolescents living with HIV  To make adolescents actively seek information about themselves to address the common issues around identity crisis  Help teachers effectively engage with students and gain a better understanding of the students  Boost self awareness among the adolescents  As a reflective and therapeutic tool  To facilitate a psychological and physical platform for self expression  To assist medical practitioners gain understanding of psychosocial aspects that can affect taking of medication

 Me now  Big Goal  Symbols  Ladder  My hero  Earlier happy memory  Earlier sad memory  Club of life  My birth family  Along the way  Where I live now  Genogram  My community  Obstacles  Obstacle graph  Shining moment  Tricks and tactics  Hero in me  Portrait poem

 Adolescents who are taking their medication from the OI clinic are targeted  Peers facilitate the hero book writing sessions  The hero book is used to engage in conversations, adolescents who would have defaulted on their medication  The Hero book is used to encourage the adolescents to continue to take their medication

 The hero book writing sessions have been taken to, schools, churches and homes of adolescents who will be struggling with adherence.  One teacher suggested facilitating the hero book to a class of students who had been classified as poor performers- she realised that most of the students were actually going through challenges in their homes and personal lives.  The hero book has been introduced to churches where leaders and youths are being targeted to change their mindsets towards HIV-( addressing stigma and discrimination)

 There is increased youth participation in making the clinic adolescent friendly  The number of youths who have started refocusing on their lives and goals for the future has increased  Conversations between parents / care givers and the students are now taking place and the parents /care givers are now making efforts to be capacitated to talk to the children/ adolescents.

 The sessions have helped bring out issues that can be taken up for operations research – the issue of parental identity  Some participants who might have felt indifferent to activities, open up to Hero book writing  In schools there is an increased understanding of the plight of fellow students and among school mates  Teachers who have participated in the activities have developed sensitivity to the needs of their students

 Issues of suicide and attempted suicide have been picked during sessions  Issues of goals and dreaming about the future have been picked as some struggled to visualise the future in positive terms  Some students who have participated in the group sessions in the schools and churches have indicated that the activities helped them understand their peers better.

 MMPZT is working towards increasing the number of people reached out to with the Hero book as it will help the reached out to individual and other people around them  Working towards concordance instead of adherence-  Some parents have requested to be equipped with hero book writing skills so they can use it to engage in meaningful conversations with their children  Pushing for hero book writing in schools

Thank you