Third PSS workshop held in Abuja

The third of four BvLF-funded workshops in psychosocial support for young children affected by HIV/AIDS was held in Abuja, Nigeria, earlier this month. The workshop, on "Findings and Field Applications", is part of an effort to raise young children up the agenda of the 2006 AIDS conference in Toronto.

The four workshops are being held under the banner "The Road to Toronto: Workshops on psychosocial support and care for children affected by AIDS". The first workshop, Defining Psychosocial Care and Support, was held in Johannesburg in November 2004. This was followed by Psychosocial Care and Support for AIDS-Affected Children: Evidence and Measurement Issues in Cape Town in April 2005.

The fourth workshop, Messages and Communication about Psychosocial Care and Support, will be held in The Hague in March 2006.

The workshops grew out of a conviction that psychosocial support is central to promoting the wellbeing of children living in communities affected by HIV/AIDS, together with an awareness that popularising the concept requires it to be more tightly defined and backed with a compelling body of evidence.

The three-day Abuja workshop discussed how to get key information about psychosocial support to field workers and policy makers. It looked at field perspectives and campaign strategies for raising the issue of young children on the global HIV/AIDS agenda.

Participants at the workshop included Dr Joan W. Duncan, professor of psychology at Long Island University, New York; Dr Patrice Engle, senior advisor to UNICEF; Professor Nkandu Luo, former Zambian minister of health; Meena Cabral de Mello, scientist at the World Health Organization; Inviolatta Moyo-Mpuli, executive director of the Community Foundation for the Western Region of Zimbabwe; Lynette Mudekunye and Tanja van de Linde, advisers to Save the Children; Tapfuma Murove, programme officer for children at the International AIDS Alliance; Professor Linda Richter, executive director of Child, Youth and Family Development at the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa; Professor Lorraine Sherr, professor of Clinical and Health Psychology at the Royal Free and University College Medical School in the UK; and Professor Sheila Dinotshe Tlou, Health Minister of Botswana, who is pictured with Peter Laugharn, executive dircetor of the Bernard van Leer Foundation.