Projects & Events

Documenting the voices of children living with HIV

11 May 2006

The HIV/AIDS and the Media Project hosted its sixth HIV/AIDS and the Media discussion forum, for the first time in partnership with Constitution Hill, on May 11, 2006. At the forum, HIV/AIDS and the Media Fellows for 2005/6, Glynis Clacherty and Christina Stucky, presented research and journalistic work on HIV-positive children.

After identifying a gap in research and media coverage of children affected by HIV/AIDS, the fellows ran a series of workshops with a group of 17 HIV-positive children to investigate the specific challenges they face. The result is groundbreaking research and writing on children living with HIV in South Africa.

Human and children’s rights expert Shirley Mabusela kicked off the forum by giving her impressions, from a child rights perspective, of some of the challenges of doing this kind of work with children affected by HIV/AIDS. The presentations were followed by a panel discussion where the speakers were joined by Claire Egbers, clinician manager at Harriet Shezi Children’s Clinic at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, and the audience of journalists, doctors, scientists, representatives from children’s organisations, academics and activists. The panel discussion was chaired by journalist and media trainer, Paula Fray.