CSPE-Background
The Centre for the Support of Peer Education (CSPE), a programme of Health and Education Training and Technical Assistance Services (HETTAS), a South African Registered Section 21 NPO, with advisory support from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), has been at the forefront of developing standards and materials and delivering training and technical assistance to build capacity and improve the quality and sustainability of partners using peer education (PE) in multiple sectors and settings. Working at scale with governmental and non-governmental partners through schools, clinics, faith-based organizations, sports programmes, drop-in centres, tertiary institutions and workplaces in eight provinces, CSPE is building a national system of rigorous PE engaging learners, older adolescents, young adults, and adult audiences in HIV prevention and support for healthy norms, attitudes and behaviour.
Young people are not merely a population in need; they are South Africa’s most formidable and sustainable indigenous resource. Since people of all ages usually talk, listen, think, and learn about sensitive issues such as sexuality with people like themselves, PE is a component of many prevention programmes. In 2000 South Africa’s first National Integrated Plan for Children Infected and Affected by HIV and AIDS (NIP) identified PE as a critical strategy. But in South Africa as elsewhere, PE was widely used without standards derived from the knowledge base of public health, education, management, and other disciplines. Under the auspices of the SA Department of Health (DOH) and supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), HSPH involved hundreds of representatives of government, NGOs, faith-based organizations (FBOs) and tertiary institutions in a five-year national consultative process on the best ways to design and deliver quality peer education to address prevention goals in the pandemic. Harvard’s Rutanang peer education materials were one result. The best written guidelines are not enough for PE programmes to be effective, any more than guidelines would be enough for schools or clinics or corporations to be effective. Isolated programmes, implementing different programmes, cannot deliver what the pandemic requires of PE. A scientific and sustainable system is needed, integrating evidence-based approaches from all relevant disciplines with practical field experience in a variety of sectors and settings.
The engine and linchpin of such a system, the Centre for the Support of Peer Education (CSPE), was established with CDC/PEPFAR funding in 2006, with offices in Parkwood, Johannesburg and Glenwood, Durban, as a second result of the Rutanang process. In 2007, with USAID/PEPFAR funding, CSPE created with members of this network a unique intervention for SA’s most vulnerable children. Vhutshilo is a time-limited, structured, curriculum-based peer-led prevention education and support group for 10-13 year old orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). CSPE trains partners’ site supervisors, then teaches them to recruit and supervise PEs. In 2008 CSPE expanded the programme and conducted an evaluation study with the HSRC. A new programme for 14-16 year olds (OVC) is currently piloted in 12 sites during 2009. HETTAS receives contracts for some CSPE activities, and currently has a sub-contact from HSPH to implement the Vhutshilo OVC prevention programme for 10 – 13YO and 14 -16YO with selected USAID Partners.
Young people are not merely a population in need; they are South Africa’s most formidable and sustainable indigenous resource. Since people of all ages usually talk, listen, think, and learn about sensitive issues such as sexuality with people like themselves, PE is a component of many prevention programmes. In 2000 South Africa’s first National Integrated Plan for Children Infected and Affected by HIV and AIDS (NIP) identified PE as a critical strategy. But in South Africa as elsewhere, PE was widely used without standards derived from the knowledge base of public health, education, management, and other disciplines. Under the auspices of the SA Department of Health (DOH) and supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), HSPH involved hundreds of representatives of government, NGOs, faith-based organizations (FBOs) and tertiary institutions in a five-year national consultative process on the best ways to design and deliver quality peer education to address prevention goals in the pandemic. Harvard’s Rutanang peer education materials were one result. The best written guidelines are not enough for PE programmes to be effective, any more than guidelines would be enough for schools or clinics or corporations to be effective. Isolated programmes, implementing different programmes, cannot deliver what the pandemic requires of PE. A scientific and sustainable system is needed, integrating evidence-based approaches from all relevant disciplines with practical field experience in a variety of sectors and settings.
The engine and linchpin of such a system, the Centre for the Support of Peer Education (CSPE), was established with CDC/PEPFAR funding in 2006, with offices in Parkwood, Johannesburg and Glenwood, Durban, as a second result of the Rutanang process. In 2007, with USAID/PEPFAR funding, CSPE created with members of this network a unique intervention for SA’s most vulnerable children. Vhutshilo is a time-limited, structured, curriculum-based peer-led prevention education and support group for 10-13 year old orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). CSPE trains partners’ site supervisors, then teaches them to recruit and supervise PEs. In 2008 CSPE expanded the programme and conducted an evaluation study with the HSRC. A new programme for 14-16 year olds (OVC) is currently piloted in 12 sites during 2009. HETTAS receives contracts for some CSPE activities, and currently has a sub-contact from HSPH to implement the Vhutshilo OVC prevention programme for 10 – 13YO and 14 -16YO with selected USAID Partners.
