Evaluating the role of 'critical consciousness' in a rural South African development intervention : implications for structural approaches to HIV prevention
Traditional, information-giving approaches to HIV prevention have failed to curb the rapidly expanding HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa. Scholars and practitioners have looked to new interventions for HIV which centre upon structural changes, or the broader societal forces which shape HIV vulnerability. In recent years, Paulo Freire's notion of 'critical consciousness' has been cited as a way to involve communities in critical analysis and social change for HIV prevention. However, increasing calls for critical consciousness within HIV literature fail to recognise the complexities of integrating the notion at the ground-level. The Intervention with Microfinance for AIDS and Gender Equality (IMAGE) is a South African structural intervention for HIV which has been guided by critical consciousness. IMAGE aims to impact on poverty and gender-based violence by partnering a participatory gender curriculum with group-based microfinance. The research examines how IMAGE has translated the notion of critical consciousness into distinct processes, and evaluates the implementation of these processes by drawing from qualitative research with programme planners, facilitators and participants.
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