![Sample our Health and Social Care journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5938/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Health-Social-Care.jpg"})
Abstract
The Farmer Life School (FLS) is an innovative approach to integrating HIV education into life skills and technical training for farmers. This study aims to gain insight into the strengths and weaknesses of this relatively new approach, through the implementation of an adapted version in South Africa. The results are presented of a pilot with three groups of community gardeners, predominantly women, attending weekly sessions. Impact was assessed in terms of three key elements: participation, learning, and empowerment. Data were collected through extensive session reports, follow-up interviews, and reflection exercises with facilitators and participating groups and individuals. The results suggest that a group-based discovery learning approach such as the FLS has great potential to improve food security and wellbeing, while allowing participants to explore issues around HIV/AIDS. However, the analysis also shows that HIV/AIDS-related illness and death, and the factors that drive the epidemic and its impact, undermine farmers' ability to participate, the safety and trust required for learning, and the empowerment process. Participatory approaches such as the FLS require a thorough understanding of and adaptation to the context.
L'école de vie de fermier (FLS) est une approche innovatrice à l'intégration de l'éducation du VIH dans les compétences de vie et la formation technique de fermiers. Cette étude a pour but d'examiner les points forts et les faibles de cette approche relativement nouvelle en exécutant une version adaptée en Afrique du Sud. Cette communication présente des résultats d'une étude pilote qui consistait de trois groupes de jardiniers de la communauté, la plupart étant des femmes. Ces femmes ont assisté à de sessions hebdomadaires. L'impact fut évalué grâce aux trois éléments: la participation, l'apprentissage et l'autonomisation. Les données ont été recueillies à travers des longues sessions de rétroaction, des interviews et des exercices de réflexion avec des animateurs, des groupes en participation et des individus. Les résultats suggèrent que l'approche de découverte et apprentissage de groupes comme le FLS a du potentiel d'améliorer la sécurité alimentaire et le bien-être, et en même temps permet aux participants d'explorer les questions du VIH/SIDA. Cependant, l'analyse montre que les maladies et les morts liés au VIH/SIDA et les facteurs qui poussent l'épidémie et son impact sapent la capacité des fermiers à participer, la sécurité et la foi requises pour l'apprentissage ainsi que le processus d'autonomisation. Les approches à participation comme le FLS exigent une compréhension et une adaptation approfondies au contexte.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Kees Swaans
Kees Swaans is a PhD candidate at the Athena Institute for Research on Innovation and Communication in Health and Life Sciences, VU University Amsterdam (the Netherlands). He graduated in biology from Wageningen University in 1994 and in Management of Agricultural Knowledge Systems from the same university in 2000. He joined the department in 2002. His PhD thesis will be on interactive and integrated approaches for innovation development at the interface of HIV/ AIDS and agriculture.
Jacqueline Broerse
Jacqueline Broerse is head of the Department Science Communication and associate professor at the Athena Institute for Research on Innovation and Communication in Health and Life Sciences, VU University Amsterdam (the Netherlands). She graduated in medical biology from the VU University Amsterdam in 1988. She wrote her PhD thesis on participatory strategies for generating biotechnological innovations in the small-scale agricultural sector of developing countries (1998). Her current research focuses on the development and application of interactive learning and action strategies in health policy and research.
Monique Salomon
Monique Salomon is an honorary research fellow at the Centre for Environment, Agriculture and Development (CEAD) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), where she is pursuing a PhD on communal cattle grazing. At the time of the study she was director of the Farmer Support Group, an NGO in sustainable agriculture and natural resource management, which has since evolved into the community development and outreach division of CEAD. Her areas of expertise are stakeholder analysis, institutional transformation, gender and participatory development. She holds a Masters degree in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Nijmegen (the Netherlands).
Maxwell Mudhara
Maxwell Mudhara is director of the Farmer Support Group, the community development and outreach division of the Centre for Environment, Agriculture and Development at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa). He holds a PhD in Food and Resource Economics from the University of Florida, Gainesville, USA. His experience is in farming systems research and extension, modelling of smallholder farming systems, impact assessment, economic analysis and participatory approaches. He worked for more that 10 years for the government of Zimbabwe in a multi-disciplinary team before becoming a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension. He has published several book chapters and journal articles.
Makhosazana Mweli
Makhosazana Mweli is a freelance researcher, based in Durban, South Africa. She holds a Social Science degree and a postgraduate diploma in adult education from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa). She has worked in different projects in the following fields: adult education, gender, poverty alleviation, and HIV mainstreaming. She is currently engaged in research projects, looking at the impact of HIV on rural development, mostly within the context of land tenure security.
Joske Bunders
Joske Bunders is founder and director of the Athena Institute of the VU University Amsterdam (the Netherlands). She graduated in chemistry and physics at the University of Amsterdam and wrote her PhD thesis on participatory approaches to the development of science-based innovations in agriculture at the VU University Amsterdam (1994). She was appointed Professor in Biology and Society at the VU University Amsterdam in 2000. Parallel to her work for the department, she participates in several governmental committees and international advisory boards. Her specific field of interest is the linking of knowledge and expertise of end users (e.g. small-scale farmers or patients) with developments in modern science and (inter)national policy.