Community Conversations: Enhancing Communities’ Capacity to Respond to HIV/AIDS

In 2007 the Nelson Mandela Foundation, in collaboration with a number of partners, initiated a series of youth "community dialogues" on HIV/AIDS. Close to 5,000 youth engaged in discussions around factors that put them at risk of HIV infection, including stigma, peer pressure, and transactional sex. In 2008, the scope was broadened, with the objective of encouraging younger and older community members to talk and work together. Organisers say that the ten dialogues held in community settings in 2008 helped create a body of knowledge that policy makers, scientists, and activists would find useful.

Published by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, this booklet explains the Community Capacity Enhancement (CCE) methodology that was chosen for the second series of dialogues and how the communities were approached. It shares records of the communities’ concerns and plans, and reflects on lessons learned. It also includes reflections on specific tools used with communities, such as storytelling. Here a facilitator outlined a story which the community can relate to. He or she then left it at a cliffhanging point and invited participants to continue the story, allowing them to put themselves in the place of the characters and encouraging thinking about what happens next from different perspectives. This tool is designed to help to identify people’s values, concerns, and beliefs (as well as misconceptions). The book consists of six chapters:

• The Methodology
• Conversation Series Summary
• Case Studies
• Refining Our Approach
• Training of Facilitators
• Facilitators' Reflections