5.2 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
5.2.3 THEME THREE: USING THE ARCHIVE FOR ENGAGING WITH
5.2.3.5 Raising awareness
…Nokuthi uma ekhaya bebona lezithombe ezinombhalo kungashintja nendlela abaphatha ngayo abantu kwicommunity. (And also that if the parents can see these pictures and the captions that can reflect the way they treat other people who are infected and affected) [Translated from isiZulu].
The educator‟s reflections on his mother‟s source of information highlights the importance of informal channels of communication such as local meetings, which could be exploited to reach men, women, and children with vital information (Duvuury et al., 2006). There is a need for understanding how specific personal actions can improve population health. The challenge is to use the body of knowledge to create interventions that will succeed in changing people‟s behaviour as Neuhauser and Kreps (2003) propose. Health communication is a process that seeks to change a person‟s physical, psychological and social world. An effort to transfer and to share information using the digital archive in this research could allow educators and learners to address the issues of HIV and AIDS stigmatisation not only in their personal lives but also in their schools and in the community; in this way exercising a sense of agency.
2006). HIV knowledge should be associated with consistent protection and preventative behaviour (Peltzer et al., 2004).
HIV-related stigma and pregnancy
The educators felt that they could make the link between teenage pregnancy and HIV clearer, using the digital archive.
…If the young ones are still getting pregnant it shows clearly that they still don‟t play it safe. So HIV can spread very quickly…
…I will come with a magazine with an adult pregnant female, but also projecting the picture on the wall, showing them the difference between the young pregnant female and the old one…
…Learners will come forward and each one would tell about the advices they get from their home about their safety. What the parents tell them about engaging into sex while they are still young.
The rate of teenage pregnancy is still high despite the risk of contracting HIV and it is increasing in South Africa. In addition, most teenage pregnancies are the consequence of sex without consent or rape; many girls‟ first sexual experience is forced and one in every five women is a rape victim (Amnesty International, 2004). There is a need to address the issue of pregnancy especially among the youth as there is a high risk of contracting the virus (UNAIDS, 2008).
HIV-related stigma and rape
Some of the photographs showed a link between rape and HIV. One participant suggested that the visual data and the captions can be used to raise awareness of HIV infection through rape. She suggested raising awareness in learners that rape cases should be reported so that victims can get treatment (ARV) before it is too late to prevention contraction of the virus, as explained in the caption. The photograph and the caption (Figure 5.6) could be used:
…The girl was raped and the girl told Aphiwe but Aphiwe didn‟t help the girl instead she was gossiping about her. When the aunt of the girl heard that the girl was raped but it was too late. When they took the girl for a check up, she
was already infected…
Figure 5.6: Ltph043 from the Learning Together digital archive
The participant also felt that it is necessary to find out how much information the learners have about the link between rape and HIV:
…Questions like, umh, what is the first thing that you need to do when you find out, or what is the first thing to do if you are raped by someone? And further encourage them that they should report such instances
…You are not supposed to keep quiet but you need to tell someone who is closer…
Rape is condemned but victims are stigmatised and some rape victims prefer to be silent. Low perceived personal vulnerability is a risk factor because it reduces the necessary precautions (Phaswana-Mafuya & Peltzer, 2006). Most children often do not tell anybody if they had been raped because of the way sex is culturally constructed.
Without knowing the risk involved in silence, they eventually contract the virus. It has been documented that young women in South Africa face a greater risk of becoming infected than elsewhere in the world, and that girls between 15-24 years account for
about 90% of new infections. This could be linked to the fact that South Africa has one of the highest rates of gender-based violence (UNAIDS, 2008).
Sensitising towards solutions
The participants also suggested that the archive could be used to elicit solutions from the learners regarding stigmatisation in their rural context.
… The picture of the learner who lost his parents, I think I can use this picture like to ask what can be done to help a learner who lost a parent. Like to put emphasis on the…They can also say how do they treat learners who do not have clean, (tidy uniform) or those who have complete uniform…
…Learners will start answering questions using the pictures/ the picture and how they would help and HIV positive boy…
…teacher will let the learners role-play, how to treat an HIV learner in your school or within the school…
The concept „teaching for tomorrow‟ which Hayes (2006) uses in her book ICT in the early years, is intended to convey the dual purpose of teaching tomorrow‟s lesson and also tomorrow‟s citizens. We cannot second-guess the future of the learners we teach, but we can try to keep ourselves informed about how the present is changing. The learners we teach today are future adults who will be determining the future and it is the educators‟ responsibility to enable them to make informed decisions and choices (Hayes, 2006). Feasy and Still (2006) assert that ICT develops learners‟ thinking and problem solving skills by experimenting with world roles in models of real life problems using a range of contexts. The learners, using a digital archive, could generate solutions regarding stigmatisation.
5.2.4 THEME FOUR: USING THE ARCHIVE FOR CHANGE IN THE