Zimbabwean stories of "Best Practice" - SAfAIDS

Cost-effectivenessThe Auntie Stella cards are individually laminated and the bag is strong with pockets to protect the contents.This is because the Auntie Stella cards are used frequently, often passed around the different individualsin a group and carried to different meetings. Therefore, they must be robust. The longevity of the toolkitsmakes them a good investment.The cost effectiveness of the Auntie Stella programme cannot be disputed, given that it is a relatively smallprogramme yet it manages to achieve widespread dissemination. It achieves this through the judicious useof partners who implement training programmes that use the Auntie Stella toolkits. These partners havetheir own funding sources.Relevance“As girls we were shy to tell others about our problem but Auntie Stella has really helped usto solve this problem…it has relevant issues that really help”.- Teenage girl, BulawayoThe broad stakeholder consultation process that Auntie Stella embarked upon at the initial stages of itsdevelopment, and more recently, its continued commitment to those processes in the development of newcards, have ensured the relevance of the cards to the youth. Auntie Stella is one of the first programmesin Zimbabwe to respond to the latest medical understanding of the importance of male circumcision andis in the process of developing a new card on this topic.Ethical soundnessOne of the greatest strengths ofAuntie Stella is its ethicalsoundness. This was observed in anumber of the programme'scharacteristics, including:• the strongly participatoryprocess of developing thecards;• the frequent references toappropriate facilitationbehaviour in the Facilitators'guide;• the careful way in whichFigure 24: Confident young women in Bulawayo, beneficiariesof the Auntie Stella workshopspeople are chosen to receivethe toolkits, to ensureequitable distribution (potential users must fill out a request form to demonstrate their need for thetoolkits);• the content of the cards, which are sensitive to the needs of marginal groups, such as gays andlesbians, OVC and PLHIV;• the training sessions, which are equally represented by women and men; and• the weighting of issues in the cards to give a balance to the concerns of both boys and girls, althoughthere are slightly more cards dealing with issues relevant to girls.56