Abstract
Globally, female sex workers bear a disproportionate burden of HIV, with those in sub-Saharan Africa being among the most affected. Community empowerment approaches have proven successful at preventing HIV among this population. These approaches facilitate a process whereby sex workers take collective ownership over programmes to address the barriers they face in accessing their health and human rights. Limited applications of such approaches have been documented in Africa. We describe the community empowerment process among female sex workers in Iringa, Tanzania, in the context of a randomised controlled trial of a community empowerment-based model of combination HIV prevention. We conducted 24 in-depth interviews with participants from the intervention community and 12 key informant interviews with HIV care providers, police, venue managers, community advisory board members and research staff. Content analysis was employed, and salient themes were extracted. Findings reveal that the community empowerment process was facilitated by the meaningful engagement of sex workers in programme development, encouraging sex worker ownership over the programme, providing opportunities for solidarity and capacity building, and forming partnerships with key stakeholders. Through this process, sex workers mobilised their collective agency to access their health and human rights including HIV prevention, care and treatment.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Journal | Culture, Health and Sexuality |
| DOIs | |
| State | Accepted/In press - Jan 1 2019 |
Fingerprint
Keywords
- combination HIV prevention
- community empowerment
- Female sex workers
- sub-Saharan Africa
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Health(social science)
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Cite this
Essential elements of a community empowerment approach to HIV prevention among female sex workers engaged in project Shikamana in Iringa, Tanzania. / Leddy, Anna M.; Mantsios, Andrea; Davis, Wendy; Muraleetharan, Ohvia; Shembilu, Catherine; Mwampashi, Ard; Beckham, Sarah; Galai, Noya; Likindikoki, Samuel; Mbwambo, Jessie; Kerrigan, Deanna.
In: Culture, Health and Sexuality, 01.01.2019.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Essential elements of a community empowerment approach to HIV prevention among female sex workers engaged in project Shikamana in Iringa, Tanzania
AU - Leddy, Anna M.
AU - Mantsios, Andrea
AU - Davis, Wendy
AU - Muraleetharan, Ohvia
AU - Shembilu, Catherine
AU - Mwampashi, Ard
AU - Beckham, Sarah
AU - Galai, Noya
AU - Likindikoki, Samuel
AU - Mbwambo, Jessie
AU - Kerrigan, Deanna
PY - 2019/1/1
Y1 - 2019/1/1
N2 - Globally, female sex workers bear a disproportionate burden of HIV, with those in sub-Saharan Africa being among the most affected. Community empowerment approaches have proven successful at preventing HIV among this population. These approaches facilitate a process whereby sex workers take collective ownership over programmes to address the barriers they face in accessing their health and human rights. Limited applications of such approaches have been documented in Africa. We describe the community empowerment process among female sex workers in Iringa, Tanzania, in the context of a randomised controlled trial of a community empowerment-based model of combination HIV prevention. We conducted 24 in-depth interviews with participants from the intervention community and 12 key informant interviews with HIV care providers, police, venue managers, community advisory board members and research staff. Content analysis was employed, and salient themes were extracted. Findings reveal that the community empowerment process was facilitated by the meaningful engagement of sex workers in programme development, encouraging sex worker ownership over the programme, providing opportunities for solidarity and capacity building, and forming partnerships with key stakeholders. Through this process, sex workers mobilised their collective agency to access their health and human rights including HIV prevention, care and treatment.
AB - Globally, female sex workers bear a disproportionate burden of HIV, with those in sub-Saharan Africa being among the most affected. Community empowerment approaches have proven successful at preventing HIV among this population. These approaches facilitate a process whereby sex workers take collective ownership over programmes to address the barriers they face in accessing their health and human rights. Limited applications of such approaches have been documented in Africa. We describe the community empowerment process among female sex workers in Iringa, Tanzania, in the context of a randomised controlled trial of a community empowerment-based model of combination HIV prevention. We conducted 24 in-depth interviews with participants from the intervention community and 12 key informant interviews with HIV care providers, police, venue managers, community advisory board members and research staff. Content analysis was employed, and salient themes were extracted. Findings reveal that the community empowerment process was facilitated by the meaningful engagement of sex workers in programme development, encouraging sex worker ownership over the programme, providing opportunities for solidarity and capacity building, and forming partnerships with key stakeholders. Through this process, sex workers mobilised their collective agency to access their health and human rights including HIV prevention, care and treatment.
KW - combination HIV prevention
KW - community empowerment
KW - Female sex workers
KW - sub-Saharan Africa
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85072028949&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85072028949&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13691058.2019.1659999
DO - 10.1080/13691058.2019.1659999
M3 - Article
JO - Culture, Health and Sexuality
JF - Culture, Health and Sexuality
SN - 1369-1058
ER -