Population Council Research that makes a difference

The Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund (NMCF) seeks comprehensive local solutions to address the negative effects of HIV and AIDS on children, adolescents, households, and communities. To this end, NMCF initiated the Goelama project, which uses a community mobilization strategy to catalyze action by local organizations and government bodies to prevent HIV infection and mitigate the socioeconomic impacts of the disease, particularly as they affect AIDS-affected children.

NMCF recognizes that in order to develop indigenous responses to the epidemic, it is important to conduct research to delineate the problem, identify opportunities for intervention, and measure the effectiveness of interventions prior to replication or scale-up.

In response, research was commissioned by NMCF and conducted by Development Research Africa, with technical assistance from the Council’s Horizons and FRONTIERS programs, to identify ways that government and communities can strengthen the socioeconomic capacity of households to care for and support AIDS-affected children. A smaller youth component of the study focused on the sexual and reproductive behaviors of young people in the Goelama intervention areas and factors that may influence these behaviors, such as schooling, orphanhood, knowledge, and involvement in community activities.

Researchers interviewed 29,338 members of nearly 5,000 households in eight predominantly rural study sites situated in the provinces of Mpumalanga, Limpopo, and KwaZulu-Natal.