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TVU wins
prestigious funding from one of the world’s leading non-profit
organisations
The Richard Wells
Research Centre, Thames Valley University (TVU) has won an international
grant from the Elton John AIDS Foundation to fund a research project that
will help improve the lives of people living with HIV in Africa.
Working in close collaboration with the NHS-funded Living Well Programme
and the Institute of Cultural Affairs, TVU Lecturer Simon Jones will
travel to Africa in July 2007 to conduct an important TVU-led impact
evaluation of the Positive Self-Management Programme (PSMP) which was
first piloted in Kenya and Uganda last year.
The PSMP which has been successfully running across London for the past
five years is designed to provide people living with HIV with the
knowledge and skills they need to better manage their condition. Research
conducted by TVU has shown that UK participants who complete the PSMP
become more confident, more motivated and more able to make more informed
decisions regarding their physical, psychological and sexual well-being.
Delivered by facilitators who themselves are living with HIV, the PSMP
also allows participants to meet other people facing similar concerns and
challenges, helping them to overcome HIV-related isolation and build a
supportive social network.
Supervising colleagues from Aga Khan University (Kenya), Simon will
interview over 50 people to assess whether the PSMP has had the same
positive benefits for Africans as it has done for those in the UK. Simon’s
multi-cultural research team will gather evidence of the long-term effects
that the PSMP has had on the participants, facilitators, and partner
organisations who were involved in the original pilot. His findings will
form the basis for the future development and improvement of PSMP delivery
in the African setting. This research is part of the Richard Wells
Research Centres continuing efforts to help in the global fight against
HIV/AIDS and forms part of their summer HIV/AIDS initiative.
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