Driven by the loss of my loved ones to HIV, my M.Sc thesis focused on the sociocultural narrative surrounding HIV.

In this paper, we found out that although participants had knowledge about HIV, traditional beliefs about HIV were still present within a supposedly developed context such as the UK.

We noted:

“Therefore, a fight against HIV should not be perceived as an outright fight against these traditional beliefs. This is because to fight against traditional beliefs without a better understanding of them as part of the existence of people may alienate any form of cooperation, thereby defeating the entire process. This aligns with the concept of lay perspective where the experiential knowledge of lay people equips them in understanding health. The importance of lay knowledge in planning health interventions remains firm because it ensures sustainability as laypeople take ownership of interventions. Therefore it becomes important to not consider people with these beliefs as “passive recipients of a paternalistic professional effort” but as partners in the fight against HIV.”

In our recommendation, we posited:

“The study recommends that health interventions should be inclusive of laypeople and communities to ensure sustainability. It is therefore important to raise context-specific HIV awareness while being conscious of the significance of traditional beliefs to the existence of Africans”

Special thanks to the co-authors (Dr. Samantha Davis, Assistant Prof. Candidus Nwakasi and Victor Baba Oti) who contributed to this paper.

I am also thankful to the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK for funding my M.Sc during which this paper was conceptualised.

https://ijcmph.com/index.php/ijcmph/article/view/7935/4902

#AAPTalks#CommunityDevelopmentWorker#Aa2Zi