Snapshots from SPAU’s pilot Memory project in Wakiso:
Through working with AIDS affected single parents and children over the past nine years, SPAU experiences revealed that many single parent families that were also affected by HIV/AIDS faced psychosocial challenges in addition to those challenges already posed by the desperate conditions of poverty in which they were living. Consequently, SPAU embarked on the preparation to implement strategies that provided for the emotional and psychosocial support of households that were affected by HIV/AIDS, alongside SPAU’s regular income generating activities.
SPAU took on Memory Work to meet this need. In Uganda, Memory Work was first adapted by the National Community of Women living with HIV and AIDS (NACOWLA) to help its members and their families cope with the realities of HIV in their lives. Memory work developed as a creative response to the impact of the HIV epidemic on children, particularly children who faced being orphaned. Memory work is an example of a child-centred approach – that is, an approach that involves children in decision making processes in a way that is appropriate for their age and stage of development.
Memory Work consists of several key elements:
- Communication skills
- Child development and parenting
- Disclosing HIV status
- Planning for the future and legal support
- Loss and bereavement
The memory book is an important part of this work, and is a simple tool that can support children, strengthening their sense of identity, and helping them to understand their family background. The memory book is only part of the approach, and is stronger when it is not used in isolation from the other elements of memory work.
In partnership with Co-operaid, SPAU is currently implementing a large-scale Memory Work Project in Wakiso district as part of its support to communities affected by HIV/AIDS to develop coping mechanisms for the effects of the HIV/AIDS.