Youth in Shebeens & Taverns
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Case Study Number One Youth in shebeens & taverns - An HIV and AIDS Prevention Opportunity - Organisation: The Lamontville HIV and AIDS Support Centre, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa Documented and presented by: Mduduzi Phehle Edited by: Margaret Roper JOHAP The Joint Oxfam HIV/AIDS Program in South Africa seeks to strengthen the civil society response to HIV/AIDS through supporting integrated community- based services for HIV prevention and care, including a focus on gender and sexuality and the rights of people living with, and affected by, HIV/AIDS. Deutschland Ireland ISBN 1-875870-57-1 A series of reports on the Joint Oxfam HIV/AIDS Program (JOHAP) 2005 Contents Acknowledgements One of the strategies employed by JOHAP Acknowledgements to strengthen the quality of the civil society Case Study 5 The authors would like to thank the response to HIV and AIDS is to strengthen staff, volunteers and the beneficiaries of partner organisation’s capacity to document Context 5 Lamontville HIV and AIDS Support Centre and share their work with other. This case Overview 6 (LASC), for their contribution to the case study and others in the series are a result Achievements 10 study. Without their generous support and of some of this work. cooperation these stories could not be Lessons 12 shared with others. Photos Front cover: The Lamontville HIV/AIDS Contacts 14 Thanks also to the editor Margaret Roper Centre Peer Educators using Taverns to for her contribution. bring across the message of HIV/AIDS awareness. Matthew Willman/OxfamAUS Thanks to the photographer Matthew Willman whose outstanding images show those Left: Children in Lamontville waiting involved in the projects. for the bus after school. Matthew Willman/OxfamAUS Thanks are also extended to the staff of the Joint Oxfam HIV/AIDS Program (JOHAP) for their sponsorship and support of this research. The opinions of authors or participants in this document do not necessarily reflect those of Oxfam Australia, Oxfam Affiliates, JOHAP or its staff. The various case studies presented in this series were written by different people. As much as possible we have tried to maintain their style of writing to preserve authenticity and accuracy. This document is one of a number of JOHAP OBJECTIVE 1: publications highlighting learning during the second phase of JOHAP (April 2002- March 2005). If you wish to read these Approaches to HIV and STI prevention that effectively address gender and please go to the following web address; sexuality issues, with a particular focus on young people to strengthen civil http://www.oxfam.org.au/world/africa/south_africa/articles.html society response to HIV and AIDS. 3 Case study Context in an economically depressed area. While Young People have not been left unaffected there is a proliferation of spaza1 shops for by the high unemployment rate. It is The aim of this case study is to provide survival, the bigger businesses are at closing estimated that 32% of out of school youth an overview of the HIV and AIDS Shebeens point. As a result, there is an increase in in the township are unemployed. This fact, and Taverns Peer Campaign project, in the number of people living below the bread coupled with the lack of recreational terms of the nature of services provided, line in an already poverty stricken area. facilities in the area, contributes to the target group, extent of participation by Among the employed, monthly earnings high rate of teenage pregnancies. As a young people in taverns participation, vary widely. Of the total working population, consequence, Lamontville has one of achievements, constraints and lessons 26% earn R500 (USD 76) or less per month, the highest HIV infection rates within learnt. Secondly, the case study and while only 1% earn more than R4500 (USD the Durban metropolitan area. findings will be used for advocacy material 689) per month. To make matters worse, to strengthen the development of the South Africa has no systematic income HIV/AIDS Shebeens and Taverns support system for unemployed persons. Peer Campaign intervention. Photo below: Water towers are prominent in Within the Lamontville area, 40% of residents Lamontville. Here young children are able Lamontville is a formal township located live in formal housing, while the remaining to drink the water from one of these towers. 13 kilometres from the centre of Durban, 60% live in informal settlements and hostel Without water these communities could not KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It is relatively dwellings on the outskirts of the township. function or exist. Matthew Willman/OxfamAUS close to one of South Africa’s major road routes, the N2. Approximately four kilometres in extent, Lamontville accommodates a population in the region of 89,000 people as per the 2002 population estimates. During the mid-1980's, when KwaZulu- Natal experienced an increase in political violence, the township had to accommodate large numbers of people fleeing from areas under siege. This was as a result of a successful community campaign against the incorporation of the area into the then KwaZulu Homeland Government. The inflow saw increasing pockets of informal settlements. Lamontville, like any other township in Durban and South Africa, has a very high unemployment rate, especially for women and young people. Local businesses operate Photo left: Ntsiki Mangxo, Nonvuyo Bengu and Standiwe Ngcece (Community Aids Awareness Peer Educators) at Makbi’s Tavern. Matthew Willman/OxfamAUS 1 Local corner shop – can be very informal 4 5 In broad terms Lamontville contains the Overview of Lamonville AIDS Support community and are therefore easy to get to average type of township development with Centre (LASC) and provide a social context for young mostly overcrowded standard houses, people. The campaign with shebeen and Lamonville HIV and AIDS Support Centre is substantial deficiencies and comparatively tavern owners includes HIV and AIDS a Community Based Organisation (CBO) low standards of support and inconsistent awareness workshops for young people that was established in 1996. LASC aims to services. With the establishment of the aged between 18 and 30 years in local empower youth to deal with HIV and AIDS, new political dispensation in South Africa shebeens and taverns. Discussions, videos, STI prevention, gender and socioeconomic in 1994, and in particular with the recent case studies and simulations are the development issue through training, creation of representative local government main teaching tools. workshops and community outreach structures, it can be safely expected that campaign. Other beneficiaries include As with all LASC projects, an extensive there exists substantial pressure within parents, educators and community member baseline study to understand the perceptions Lamontville for the development of more infected or affected by HIV and AIDS. They and knowledge of HIV and AIDS among equitable living conditions. The township undertake awareness raising in schools, youth in shebeens and taverns was has basic services that include a public churches, taverns and shebeens2 and the conducted to guide project design and library, health clinic, schools, and sporting community at large, peer training and assist in determining the success of the facilities. The schools in the township education, public campaigns, peer project. There were a number of features experience hardships, as a number of local counselling, condom demonstrations and that made this study unique: students prefer going to schools in nearby distribution, and host an information centre. suburban areas. • Such a study had never been conducted In response to this situation the in Lamontville before. Health wise, the area has one local Lamontville HIV and AIDS Support government-run Health Centre which only Centre (LASC) developed, amongst other • From conception to completion it was offers preventive health care services. It programs, the HIV and AIDS Shebeens and undertaken by community based people operates only during working hours, from Taverns Peer Campaign. The project using local assets. Monday to Friday. For curative services, the came into operation on 1 April 2004 with • All ten fieldworkers were local young community of Lamontville has to rely on the financial support from the Joint Oxfam people who received free training on services of the nearby Clairwood Hospital. HIV/AIDS Program (JOHAP). The campaign the agreement that they will give their The hospital’s clinic service is a Department is innovative in that it locates HIV and AIDS services voluntarily. of Health facility that does not offer a centrally within the gender and Human 24-hour service, nor does it operate Rights framework. • The methodology was based on the on weekends. Developmental Assessment Model.3 For the first time in Lamontville, shebeen2 Over the years, the township has seen and tavern owners have joined forces to an increasing number of youth dying as provide HIV and AIDS awareness to their a result of the effects of HIV infection. young customers. Shebeens are used by Women, children and the disabled are young people in township environments as vulnerable to different forms of abuse. a place of recreation and a site at which Photo: Two boys standing together outside Poverty and diseases such as TB, HIV and sex can be accessed with relative ease. a spaza shop in Lamontville. The HIV Aids AIDS are rife. Teenage pregnancy, drug Often shebeens are among the few Support Centre works within all aspects abuse and alcoholism have escalated entertainment resources located within the of the community of Lamontville. at an alarming rate amongst youth. Matthew Willman/OxfamAUS 2 Shebeens and taverns are generally the equivalent of a bar/pub. At times the term shebeen is used to denote an unlicensed establishment, while tavern may be used to indicate that the establishment is legal and licensed to trade in the sale of alcohol. The distinction is, however, often vague and not standardised. 3 Explained in the book Reclaiming of Youth at Risks by Brendtro and Brokenleg.