Partnerships for HIV/AIDS Research in KwaZulu Natal

说明（由申请人提供）：拟议项目的目的是促进和促进艾滋病毒/艾滋病领域的社会科学研究和培训，并促进社会和生物医学科学家之间开展持续和相互提供信息的多学科互动，以寻求非洲人口中这一流行病的解决办法。拟议的项目将在南非的夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省开展，尽管研究结果将与艾滋病毒对生命和福祉构成重大威胁的非洲其他地区产生共鸣。为了实现这些目标，将在人种学研究方法的具体领域内，根据当地艾滋病毒/艾滋病研究人员、积极分子和决策者的需要，制订一个综合的、反复的和相互加强的培训和研究方案。一个由来自南非纳塔尔大学艾滋病毒网络中心和纽约市哥伦比亚大学梅尔曼公共卫生学院的社会、行为和生物医学研究人员组成的跨学科小组将参与该项目的两个组成部分，每年向16-24名学生提供社会科学培训，并在夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省的一个城市和一个农村地区进行基础研究。通过以课堂为基础的社会科学理论和方法的指导，以及实地的指导经验培训，受训者将能够以成熟的研究人员或专业人员或社区工作者的身份对艾滋病毒/艾滋病的生物社会观点作出贡献。经验培训将在对妇女和儿童在其生活的三个领域所面临的与艾滋病毒有关的挑战进行多年扩展案例研究的背景下进行：诊所环境，妇女和儿童接受医疗护理；家庭和住户每天都要面对这一流行病，因为他们要面对家庭成员对其艾滋病毒状况的反应；在更广泛的社区，他们可以提供关键的支持，例如照顾生病的妇女和孤儿。这些研究是由于采用抗逆转录病毒疗法以防止艾滋病毒母婴传播和维持贫穷妇女健康这一里程碑事件而促成的。一旦实施，民族志研究和培训计划将成为一个无缝的整体，民族志项目将成为培训计划的教学参考点和学习场所，而培训计划将为民族志项目及其未来的扩展提供能力。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The aims of the proposed project are to facilitate and foster social science research and training in the field of HIV/AIDS, and promote the development of sustained and mutually informative multidisciplinary interaction between the social and bio-medical scientists in seeking solutions to the epidemic in African populations. The setting of the proposed program will be the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, although the research results will have resonance for other African situations where HIV constitutes a major threat to life and well being. These objectives will be achieved by a combined, iterative and mutually reinforcing training and research program in the specific field of ethnographic research methods tailored to the needs of local HIV/AIDS researchers, activists and policy makers. An interdisciplinary team of social, behavioral and bio-medical researchers from the Center for HIV Networking (HIVAN) at the University of Natal in South Africa and the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York City, will be involved in both components of the project, providing social science training annually to between 16-24 students, and conducting foundational studies in one urban and one rural location in KwaZulu-Natal. With classroom-based instruction in social sciences theory and methods followed by mentored experiential training in the field, trainees will be able to contribute biosocial perspective on HIV/AIDS either as full-blown researchers or as professionals or community workers. The experiential training will occur in the context of multi-year extended case studies of the HIV-related challenges face by women and children in three domains of their lives: clinic settings, where women and children receive medical care; families and households, where the epidemic is faced on a day-to-day bases as they face the reactions of family members to their HIV status, and, in the wider community, which may provide critical support, such as care for women when ailing, and for orphaned children. The studies are prompted by the milestone event of the introduction of antiretroviral therapy to prevent both mother-to-child transmission of HIV and to sustain the health of the poor women. When implemented, the ethnographic research and the training program will make up a seamless whole, with the ethnographic project acting as a teaching reference point and learning site for the training program, and the training program providing capacity for the ethnographic project and its future extension.