Indlela Life Skills
Durban, South Africa
Indlela Life Skills and HIV Prevention Programme has been running in Amaoti, KwaZulu-Natal’s largest informal settlement, since 2005. Amaoti is home to an estimated 100,000 people and with a high HIV prevalence rate, young people are at great risk of becoming HIV positive. This programme is closely associated with Church of the Good Shepherd in Durban and focuses on preventing the spread of HIV amongst children and young people.
The life skills programme that Indlela is using has been professionally developed and evaluated by iThemba Lethu, another of iThemba's partners, and is already proving to be effective. The programme has been endorsed for use in schools by the Kwa-Zulu Natal Department of Education. It fits with the Department's objective to provide Life Orientation skills to school children in the area. Until now, no other life skills programmes have been offered to local schools.
The programme is based in two primary schools and combines classroom tuition, counselling and support, with after-school and holiday clubs, to give hundreds of children a real choice to remain HIV negative. They will be well-informed and well-aware of the risks they face in everyday life and how to respond.
Partnerships with local churches are invaluable in ensuring that family issues and needs highlighted through the work with the children can be followed up and addressed.
The programme runs side-by-side with other Indlela activities to ensure that a holistic community approach is adopted.
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