THE CENTRE FOR HIV AND AIDS PREVENTION STUDIES Follow Us: Higher Education VMMC program Dr Dirk Taljaard CEO: CHAPS
Mission: To reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa by providing innovative and preventative health solutions through evidence-based strategies, particularly the safe and efficient scale-up of voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) as part of a fully comprehensive HIV prevention package. What We Do: CHAPS is structured under 4 Key Business Units: Service Delivery Technical Services/VMMC Training Research WHO WE ARE: Technical Assistance/ VMMC Start-up
The Launch 2012/2013 Launch of the VMMC drive aimed at youth based at Universities and TVET Colleges as well First Campaign was hosted by TUT (Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria West Campus) that aimed to circumcise 10 000 eligible men aged 18+ by the end of 2013 Dr Motsoaledi performed 3 VMMC on the day
Collaboration (s) Working at TVETs and Universities Collaborative effort through The Higher Education and Training HIV/AIDS Programme (HEAIDS). Health and Wellness centres on campus
Process of Recruitment What happens? Contact Campus Health and Wellness Centre Give them Information on the service provided, which is Free Medical Male Circumcision. Negotiate to attend Health Events: Demand creation: give information on VMMC (we also leave posters and pamphlets at Campus Clinics) Mobile Service Delivery at the event on site I will explain Benefits of Circumcision to Students and explain of certain STI s that can be prevented after being circumcised. When giving information, I will speak to all Students, Males and Females, because some might have Partners who are not Circumcised yet and They might pass the information on. We emphasise-that Circumcision is not Seasonal Summer or Winter They still heal, They just have to follow instructions given during information sessions. I will get them to do the circumcision by explaining that they don t have to skip classes to come to our clinics, we give the option of collecting them from campuses after 14:00 where most are back from classes and even for those who [want to] attend in the morning they can be given a chance of coming in the morning. Another thing that I will emphasise is that our services are free, We also provide free transport to and from our clinics, so as students they shouldn t worry about spending any money on this wonderful service brought to them
Gauteng Tshwane Universities and TVETS: Tshwane University of technology (TUT) TCE- Soshanguve Block G Soshanguve Block L Ga-Rankuwa Sefako Makgatho University (Medunsa) TUKS (Pretoria) Tshwane North College Soshanguve (Block L) University of Pretoria Medical (PTA) Education (PTA) WITS Activations: We mobilised at WITS, Main campus Using Health and Wellness Centres as well VMMCs were done on site
Ekurhuleni, Gauteng TVETs/Universities : Ratanda College Ekurhuleni West College (EWC) Usizo College Campuses served by Katlehong North Clinic, Amcare clinic and South Rand
North West Province Universities TVETS: Rustenburg College Mankwe College Rock Of Springs College Services at Phokeng and Bapong
Limpopo University of Limpopo: Turfloop Campus Director Mr Norman Letebele (in charge of all wellness activities) Health and Wellness Centre have seen great cooperation First Things First campaign CHAPS Service provider Mobile Clinics an added advantage (easy access and convenient) This collaboration have assisted Turfloop with achieving their objective of community engagement (Campaigns involve not only the students but the community as well).
Challenges Working at Higher Educational institutions is very challenging Struggle to access the student population unless there is an event on campus! Uptake have been relatively low, some reasons for this: There are small windows of opportunity where students are not under pressure academically When students go home, we have no way of monitoring if they do go for VMMC When students go home they most often return to partners in their hometown and do not want to abstain In some areas peer pressure assists us in recruitment In other areas peer pressure hinders us and students do not want to be seen entering our clinics or vehicles Improved when we moved off campus in Soshanguve This regional details and differences necessitates tailored programs for each area Even with these tailored approaches numbers have been hard to come by
Successes Our Higher Education programs have had some successes These are hard to quantify mostly anecdotal in hard to reach areas Better data available in culturally accepted areas Turfloop Unfortunately our routine data capturing system not designed to tease out these numbers, manual process slow and tedious but ongoing HEAIDS activations have been very successful On-Campus Health programs have been successful Nursing services in on-campus clinics have been good at referral We need to build on past successes and re-launch the program Student population obviously has a quick turn over of roughly 3-4 years
Thank You! Dr Dirk Taljaard CEO: CHAPS Call me on 082 454 6964 Mail me at dirk@chaps.org.za