HIV PREVENTION THAT WORKS

loveLife is South Africa’s national HIV prevention programme for youth. loveLife has brought together a broad based coalition of international foundations working in HIV/AIDS prevention, major South African media organizations and private corporations, the government of South Africa, and leading South African non-government organizations with one shared goal – to turn back the epidemic of HIV/AIDS, and related epidemics of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, among South Africa’s young people.

Launched in September 1999, loveLife seeks to substantially reduce the HIV infection rate among young South Africans – and to establish at the same time a new model for effective HIV prevention among young people.

loveLife’s approach integrates three key components:

• Innovative nationwide media campaigns of unprecedented scale and intensity, including youth-focused television and radio programming, a monthly youth magazine and billboards that promote sexual responsibility and link young people to counselling and clinical services.
• Face to face outreach through service and support programmes, including a network of youth centres that provide HIV prevention services, and accessible adolescent health services in public clinics nationwide. loveLife also works with over 130 community-based organisations know as loveLife franchise-holders.
• Extensive monitoring and evaluation of the programme’s impact and results, with independent external oversight.

Early evaluation data suggests that loveLife is already having a significant impact on adolescent sexual behaviour and that it could help curtail South Africa’s staggering AIDS epidemic.

AN EPIDEMIC OF YOUNG PEOPLE

More than 5 million South Africans are living with HIV, more than in any other country in the world. Studies project that by the year 2010, this toll could reach 10 million, and South Africa’s GDP could be reduced by more than 17 percent as a result of the disease.

Approximately forty percent of South Africa’s population is under the age of 15. About 50 percent of HIV infections occur before the age of 20. If dramatic action is not taken, and current infection rates continue, half of all South Africans now under 15 could become infected with HIV during the course of their lifetime.

Fortunately, this scenario can still be avoided. Research shows that achieving carefully targeted reductions in high-risk sexual behaviour among young people – including delaying initiation of sex, reducing the number of sexual partners, managing STI’s, and increasing condom use – can dramatically change the course of South Africa’s HIV/AIDS epidemic. That’s the kind of change that loveLife is working to achieve.

MAKING A MEASURABLE DIFFERENCE

While much remains to be done, loveLife has made a strong start. Over three years into the programme, loveLife is already making a measurable difference in the lives of young people. A nationally representative survey of South African youth between the ages of 12 and 17 – conducted in late 2001 by Africa Strategic Research Corporation and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation – found that:

62 percent of young South Africans say they have heard of loveLife. Awareness of loveLife is high among young people in all key demographic groups, including urban and rural youth.

Those South African youth who are aware of loveLife –

Embrace its message:

• 89 percent say loveLife is good for South Africa’s young people
• 82 percent agree that more open communication about sex and sexuality can help reduce the risk of HIV/AIDS

Learn more about how HIV is spread:

• 76 percent say loveLife made them more aware of the risks of unprotected sex
  Talk about HIV prevention:
• 67 percent say loveLife caused them to talk to their friends about sex, sexuality, and relationships between men and women
• 64 percent say loveLife provided them with the opportunity talk to their parents about HIV/AIDS

Change their behaviour:

• 65 percent report making behavioural changes as a result of loveLife – changes that include delaying or abstaining from sex
  Among sexually-experienced young people who are aware of loveLife-
• 69 percent say loveLife has caused them to abstain from sex or reduce their number of sexual partners
• 78 percent say loveLife has caused them to use condoms

A REAL WORLD, RESEARCH-BASED APPROACH

loveLife incorporates the lessons of more than 15 years of international HIV prevention, and a dedicated two-year process of consultation and planning – including a thorough assessment of international HIV prevention efforts and extensive focus group research with young South Africans.

loveLife reaches a particularly vulnerable group: pre- and newly-sexually active adolescents ages 12 – 17. Moving beyond the failed “do or die” messages of the past, loveLife takes the straightforward approach in addressing the underlying factors that fuel the spread of HIV, teenage pregnancy, and sexually transmitted infections, including society’s reluctance to address youth sexuality, the impact of peer pressure and sexual coercion, a sense of pessimism, poverty and the obstacles that keep young people away from South Africa’s public health clinics.

INNOVATIVE MARKETING TECHNIQUES

loveLife combines well-established public health approaches with innovative marketing techniques, reaching young people by:

• Speaking in language that young people relate to and understand
• Using a tone of optimism, rather than relying on scare tactics – which have little credibility with youth
• Harnessing the power and influence of South African’s youth culture, including television, music, and sports to promote healthy living

AN INTEGRATED STRATEGY

loveLife’s innovative strategy integrates these key elements:

• loveLife starts with a targeted media campaign of unprecedented scope, featuring TV and radio programming, publications, and outdoor media such as billboards that encourage open discussion about HIV/AIDS, sexual responsibility and healthy living.
• Media connects young people to comprehensive HIV prevention services. These include “Y-Centres,” youth centres providing HIV education and health services in a recreational environment, adolescent-friendly public health clinics, and a national toll-free telephone counselling service that receives in excess of 250 000 calls per month.
• Comprehensive monitoring and evaluations keeps loveLife on course, maximizing its impact and generating new research designed to enhance and update HIV prevention efforts worldwide.

REACHING YOUNG SOUTH AFRICANS

The demand for and impact of loveLife’s programmes is rapidly expanding:

• loveLife’s public service announcements broadcast across the 3 SABC TV channels
• UNCUT, loveLife’s national youth magazine, reaches millions of teens
• loveLife’s national telephone helpline receives in excess of 250,000 calls per month
• Thousands of young people participate in activities each week at loveLife’s 16 Y-Centres across the country
• loveLife has established adolescent-friendly health services in 350 public clinics
• Nearly four million school students are eligible to participate in the loveLife Games – an annual sports programme that promotes healthy living

A POWERFUL PARTNERSHIP

loveLife promotes healthy, AIDS-free living among South African teenagers. Organised under the auspices of the loveLife Trust, loveLife combines a sustained high-powered multi-media campaign with nationwide community-level outreach and support programmes for youth. loveLife’s programmes are implemented by a national youth volunteer service corps known as groundBREAKERS in partnership with more than 150 community-based non-government organisations, 3700 schools and 350 government clinics across South Africa. Major funding for loveLife is provided by the South African Government and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Anglo American Chairman’s Fund, Avis, ClearChannel Independent, Independent Newspapers, the National Lottery, Pick ’n Pay, Primedia, Rapport, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, Southern Sun, Ster-Kinekor and the Vodacom Foundation.

Day-to-day management of loveLife is directed by the loveLife Trustees and implemented by the staff and volunteers of loveLife together with a countrywide network of more than 130 community-based organisations known as loveLife franchises.

INNOVATIVE MEDIA THAT SPEAKS TO YOUNG PEOPLE

loveLife’s national media campaign promotes and sustains awareness of the programme, encourages more open discussion of sex, sexuality, gender and HIV, and connects young people with the services they need to remain healthy.

THE MESSAGE IS HOPEFUL

Despite HIV/AIDS and other social problems such as poverty or unemployment, surveys consistently show that young South Africans are highly optimistic about their futures. loveLife’s message reflects this powerful optimism, motivating young people to accept sexual responsibility as an essential part of a healthy lifestyle that will help them to achieve their goals and aspirations.
Using advertising strategies similar to those used to market popular brands to young people; loveLife is spearheading a sea change from the traditional “doomsday” approach which has had little success in reversing the epidemic.

During its first year, the loveLife campaign focused on encouraging more open discussion about sexuality and the connection between sexual behaviour and sexual health problems such as HIV infection. Today, the campaign also promotes specific behavioural values, including informed choice and responsible sexuality, and links young people to counselling and clinical services.
With the goal of shifting teenage sexual behaviour away from the existing high risk patterns, loveLife specifically advocates delayed initiation of sexual activity, reduction in number of sex partners among the already sexually active, and consistent condom use.

The core values of the campaign include:

• LOVE - self-esteem and confidence in oneself, love for one’s partner based on mutual understanding and commitment.
• RESPECT - for one’s elders, respect for oneself, respect for others.
• DIGNITY - the pride in being who and what you are, never degrading oneself through irresponsible behaviour, protecting the dignity of those you love, and respecting the dignity of others.
• RESPONSIBILITY - knowing that responsibility is a shared commodity and recognizing your share, behaving like you want the world to be a better place, and it is not somebody else’s responsibility.

ON THE RADIO

Radio is South Africa’s most important source of public information, reaching 97 percent of the country’s households. loveLife produces weekly radio programmes on South Africa’s most popular youth radio stations and partners with radio stations that broadcast in all eleven official languages to broadcast culturally sensitive programmed segments on popular shows.

Radio programming produced and presented by young people trained by loveLife is broadcast from fully-equipped radio broadcast facilities in loveLife Y-Centres. loveLife also produces programme content for community radio stations across the country and has linked Y-Centre studios to these stations for regional specific and ethnic language content.

IN PRINT

loveLife’s radio and television programming is supported by print materials, produced and distributed through cost-sharing partnerships with the Independent Newspaper Group of South Africa, Rapport and Mondi and also distributed across poor and remote areas within South Africa.

UNCUT, a youth lifestyle magazine published and distributed nationally through a partnership with the Independent Newspaper Group, once a month.

loveFacts, a youth orientated booklet encapsulating information and advice on sexual health topics such as contraception, sexually transmitted infections, and HIV/AIDS.

Talking and Listening to your Teenager, a booklet designed to help parents talk to their children about responsible sexual behaviour and answer difficult questions.

loving life, a guide to anti-retroviral treatment. Treatment is great in that it prolongs life but it is not a cure so prevention is still needed.

ON TELEVISION

Three of every four South African households have access to television, and television programming is a key component of the loveLife strategy. loveLife’s television programming includes 10 second and 2 minute spots broadcast across the three SABC stations.

loveLife maintains an operating partnership with the South African Broadcasting Corporation including joint campaign development and co productions on radio and television. A five-year cost-sharing agreement gives loveLife major television and radio airtime.

IN OUTDOOR MEDIA

A highly visible outdoor media campaign – including 1,700 billboards, – helps to build awareness of loveLife’s campaign, promotes the national information helpline, and encourages young people and parents to talk about sex and HIV/AIDS.

loveLife ON THE WEB

loveLife’s youth website www.lovelife.org.za is an interactive source of information about sexual health and loveLife’s services. Although Internet access is still relatively limited in South Africa, the site averages 400,000 hits per month and has interfaces for young people, parents and organisations.

SUPPORT AND INFORMATION ACROSS SOUTH AFRICA

loveLife’s media campaign aims to do more than get South Africa talking about AIDS and sexuality. Equally important, loveLife works to promote lasting behaviour change by connecting young people with resources to help them lead responsible, safe, fulfilling lives.

To be motivated to protect themselves, young people must have strong self-esteem, believe that their future is worth fighting for, and acquire life skills to help them make responsible decisions. loveLife addresses these needs through national outreach and support programmes, including a network of youth centres, youth outreach, and a youth helpline – all of which emphasise peer-driven interventions that reinforce HIV/AIDS awareness, provide in-depth support, build adolescents’ sense of self-worth, and stimulate positive social development.

Y-Centres LEAD THE WAY

loveLife has established a national network of “Y-Centres” – multi-purpose youth centres in the poorest parts of South Africa that provide sexual health education, clinical services, skills development, and recreational activities.

• Y-Centres provide a positive, dynamic, and youth-oriented outlet for social development, and have become extremely popular among young people – each Y-Centre provides:
  • Sexual health education, counselling and care
  • Voluntary counselling and testing for HIV and other STI’s
  • A radio studio with live broadcasts in 9 of the centres, run in partnership with local radio stations
  • A computer training facility
  • Recreational activities, such as basketball, netball and volleyball
  • Additional elements, developed in partnership with the local community

TALKING TEEN TO TEEN – groundBREAKERS and mpintshis

loveLife has built a national corps of more than 1000 full-time volunteer peer educators, know as groundBREAKERS. These young people go through a series of training programmes to equip them with sexual health counselling skills and techniques for effective outreach to other young people.

groundBREAKERS conduct outreach throughout South Africa on the “loveTrain”, loveTours and through all other loveLife initiatives. groundBREAKERS also work with schools, clinics, and youth groups in each community to continue the work after the train and tour leaves. groundBREAKERS epitomise the philosophy of living a positive healthy lifestyle and are at the frontline of loveLife service delivery.

groundBREAKERS are supported by 5000 12-17 year old “mpintshis” (friends) who are the interface with communities. These young people run motivational programmes, promote fitness and health, challenge one to think creatively, discuss sexual health and sexuality, conduct sports and debating leagues and facilitate radio production and broadcasting.

loveLife REACHES OUT – loveTrain & loveTours

The loveTrain – a health education centre on rails, helps extend loveLife’s reach to communities that do not have a Y-Centre.

The loveTrain targets rural towns, stopping for up to 10 days, at each stop with repeat visits twice a year. At each stop, groundBREAKERS educate local youth about HIV/AIDS and sexual health through entertainment, sports, and motivational speaking.

ON THE PLAYING FIELDS OF LIFE – THE loveLife Games

Promoting healthy lifestyles to South Africa’s school students is the objective of the loveLife Games, the largest school sports competition in South Africa. The loveLife Games is a year-long series of regional and provincial events that culminate in a national competition. While sports are the main focus, activities such as entertainment, drama, art, and debating are also included to ensure participation by youth with a variety of interests.

thethajunction - YOUTH HELPLINE

lovelife’s toll-free telephone helpline for youth – known as thethajunction, or “place to talk” – is a popular resource for sexual health information, counselling, and referrals to support services and clinical care.

The helpline, which is staffed by trained counsellors and receives more than 250,000 calls monthly, has become a particularly important resource for youth in isolated villages and rural areas: 65% of calls to thethajunction are from young people who live outside a major city.

A dedicated helpline is also available for parents to call for information and guidance on talking to their children about sex.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT - loveLife Franchises

The loveLife franchise enables communities throughout South Africa to actively engage with this exciting and innovative initiative through a national network of loveLife franchise organisations – more than 130 community-based organisations, including faith-based and youth organisations have already joined up. Its main purpose is to help capacitate youth-serving organisations in communities across South Africa and to extend message coverage and outreach to a local level.

CREATING HEALTH SERVICES THAT WORK FOR YOUNG PEOPLE – Youth Friendly Clinics

loveLife research shows that many adolescents feel alienated from South Africa’s public health service, see clinics as a place for only the acutely sick, and perceive health providers at the clinics to be unsympathetic or intimidating, especially on sexual health issues. As a result, many adolescents receive no counselling, screening, or treatment for HIV, sexually transmitted infections, and other problems.

In response, loveLife launched the National Adolescent-Friendly Clinic Initiative, in an effort to ensure that youth throughout South Africa have access to comprehensive health services.
In partnership with the South African Department of Health, loveLife developed national standards for adolescent clinical services. The programme provides intensive technical assistance and training to help improve services for young people, and regular monitoring to ensure that quality care is maintained.

A key part of the National Adolescent-Friendly Clinic Initiative is peer outreach to encourage young people to take advantage of clinic services. This outreach is conducted by young loveLife groundBREAKERS based at the clinics, who are trained and supervised by full-time loveLife staff.

MONITORING AND EVALUATION

Just as loveLife’s design is based on intensive scientific research, its implementation and results are being monitored and evaluated on an ongoing basis, according to rigorous criteria.

loveLife’s six-year, comprehensive monitoring and evaluation programme is being implemented through a partnership of researchers from the Reproductive Health Research Unit of the University of the Witwatersrand and the Medical Research Council of South Africa with independent external review by an expert panel chaired by Prof. Tom Coates, Director of the Center for AIDS Policy at the University of California at San Francisco.

The programme integrates three levels of study:

Baseline Assessment – baseline information is collected from selected participants in all of loveLife’s programmes, and includes demographic information, awareness of loveLife’s messages, and sexual health knowledge, attitudes, and practices – all of which contribute to a comprehensive baseline assessment from which changes are tracked over time.

Sentinel Sites – the impact of loveLife programmes such as Y-Centres and youth-friendly clinics is closely monitored as 33 sentinel sites and compared to data collected from the population at large. A combination of research methods, including behavioural surveys and biologic samples, are used to track sexual risk behaviours, HIV and STI prevalence, and pregnancy rates.

National Surveillance – loveLife is establishing a comprehensive, integrated national baseline from existing data sources and its own national sample surveys among South African teenagers. This will provide the evaluation benchmark for two major national sample surveys of the adolescent population in loveLife’s third and sixth years, which will assess changes in communication about sex and HIV, sexual behaviour, and related HIV and STI infections and pregnancy rates.

A SAFER FUTURE FOR SOUTH AFRICA’S YOUNG PEOPLE

South Africa has faced extraordinary challenges, such as apartheid, poverty, and social upheaval – but AIDS may be the nation’s most terrible burden. The key to stopping the epidemic is to provide today’s young generation with the information, tools, and skills they need to avoid HIV infection.

loveLife has also built the infrastructure for sustained outreach and services to young people in communities throughout South Africa, including the poorest and most isolated areas.

For all of loveLife’s success, changing the behaviour of an entire generation does not occur overnight. International experience shows that having a lasting impact requires an intensive effort over years.

MOVING FORWARD

Building on its early successes and guided by its ongoing monitoring and evaluation, loveLife will:

• Increase the depth, specificity, and personalization of messages across all communications outreach
• Continue to strengthen the connection between loveLife’s media campaign and comprehensive services, ensuring full integration of all programme elements to achieve maximum impact
• Expand the groundBREAKER youth corps to enhance love Life’s community-level outreach and expand exit opportunities for gBs into the formal economy
• Accelerate the National Adolescent-Friendly Clinic Initiative in communities throughout South African to increase access to counselling and care
• Share the results of its ongoing evaluation with other HIV prevention programmes around the world

Touching the lives of today’s youth in South African and changing their behaviour is the key to defeating HIV/AIDS. loveLife is making a difference and getting results – and in the process, saving lives and offering real hope for the future.

loveLife
www.lovelife.org.za
PO Box 45
Parklands, 2121
Phone: +27.11 523 1000
Fax: +27.11.523 1000
Email: talk@lovelife.org.za

loveLife promotes healthy, AIDS-free living among South African teenagers. Organised under the auspices of the loveLife Trust, loveLife combines a sustained high-powered multi-media campaign with nationwide community-level outreach and support programmes for youth. loveLife’s programmes are implemented by a national youth volunteer service corps known as groundBREAKERS in partnership with more than 150 community-based non-government organisations, 3700 schools and 350 government clinics across South Africa. Major funding for loveLife is provided by the South African Government and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Anglo American Chairman’s Fund, Avis, ClearChannel Independent, Independent Newspapers, the National Lottery, Pick ’n Pay, Primedia, Rapport, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, Southern Sun, Ster-Kinekor and the Vodacom Foundation.

For information visit www.lovelife.org.za or call thethajunction on 0800 121 900.