Kanika Harris

Microbicides:

Education, behavior change, and condom use are the main methods used for HIV prevention in Africa.  However gender power dynamics have been a barrier in effective HIV prevention.  Microbicides by definition are a range of different products that will have the ability to prevent HIV and other sexual transmitted diseases topically. Microbicides are currently being tested for efficacy in clinical trials supported by a number of multinational stakeholders, including, among many others, the Population Council and the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations.  The first product release to the public is expected to take place in Africa in 2007 (Kumaranayake, Terris-Prestholt, & Watts, 2004).  Research to date has failed collect substantive data on women’s perspective and opinions about using microbicides in South Africa. It is critical to assess the barriers and considerations of women users’ to ensure that is product is useful and beneficial to South Africans as a method of HIV prevention.  Michigan students who participated in Pedagogy of Action class were rigorously trained in qualitative methods and face-to face interviewing techniques using an open ended interview module with a purposively selected sample of South African women.  The study was multi-citied with selected samples of women from  Kwa-Zulu Natal, Durban and Soweto. Students conducted a total of 25 interviews gleaning information on women’s experiences with HIV, gender dynamics and cultural considerations for microbicides in South Africa. In essence, this research is activism because it will highlight the voice of women who have been left out of the decision making process of  implementing microbicides into HIV prevention.

-Kanika Harris