HIV and AIDS - Changing
children's lives
Potential areas of tension
Memory work is a simple concept, but as with any participatory approach, what seems relatively simple in theory can be more complex in practice.
There are potential areas of tension that can arise in the development and scale-up in memory work, while some result directly from the positive impact memory work has in the communities.
The relative simplicity of the memory work approach, particularly the memory book, means that the project can create its own momentum. However, memory work is not just about writing memory books (perhaps the easiest part of the concept to understand and replicate). There is immense value in the training of children's activities and individual and family counselling. Implementing organisations need to plan ahead for expansion, such as bring other organisations on board as service providers.
The
memory work process, encourages communication in family decision-making
processes. Partners organisations are finding that involving children in
decision-making can change family dynamics and create unexpected outcomes.
In increasing numbers orphans are deciding that they want to live on their
own and keep the family unit in tact, rather than staying with relatives.
Child-headed households can face stigma and discrimination, and may result in one or more of the children leaving education in order to financially support the others. This may require the memory work approach to adapt and develop its own strategies for supporting children in this situation. It can also create new demand on health, education and social welfare sectors, as people start to access more services. Partners find themselves having to develop strong referral systems to support people to access a range of services, or to develop these services themselves if they do not exist.
Changing policies and practice
There is growing evidence that memory work is leading to cultural change at community level. This is what is most
evident with succession planning, including a significant increase in will-writing. Although not previously an accepted
practice in many areas, it is now seen by many parents as a crucial way of ensuring their wishes are respected in the future.
This poses new challenges. Memory books are not legal documents, and wills also need to be able to stand up to challenge
in a court of law. The legal system itself, is not easy for people living with HIV to negotiate, and the long duration of court cases is not
favourable for them.
This raises the need for a substantial component of memory work to be devoted
to advocacy work, in order to increase the existence of an enabling environment
for people living with HIV. It calls for organisations to develop new capacities
and skills in advocacy and lobbying at local and national levels, and for
new coalitions and alliances to come together to achieve policy change.
Several of the partner organisations, already, have experience of advocacy
work, and are now starting to integrate issues arising from memory work,
into their advocacy strategies and activities.
Recommendations for policy and practice