Zimbabwean stories of "Best Practice" - SAfAIDS

• Life changingAuntie Stella is offering life-changing services to the youths. These young men and women arebecoming more confident and assertive (especially the girls) and are better-placed to negotiate forsafer sex practices with their partners. Here are some comments to support this claim:“The issues in the cards are real… 'Auntie Stella has given me the courage and the confidenceto share my experiences.”-Teenage girl, Bulawayo“Auntie Stella has changed the perspectives of the community and the knowledge of our rights.I was especially helped by the card 'Should I sleep with my sister's husband.'”- Teenage girl, Bulawayo• AdaptabilityThe Auntie Stella toolkit is adaptable in two ways: in the way it is used; and in terms of its content.In terms of the way it can be used, there was evidence that Auntie Stella was being adapted to awide variety of contexts, by a wide variety of people. It can be found in churches, schools, youth andhealth programmes and even in private homes. One peer educator explained how as the owner ofa toolkit, he was providing a lending service which allowed youths to borrow one or two cards andreturn them later. One of the reasons for the flexibility of the cards is that each is a separate entity.Therefore, Facilitators can choose those appropriate to a particular situation. If any cards are deemedinappropriate, they can be ignored. For example, the cards on homosexuality may not be appropriatein some contexts, and so, can be left in the toolkit. A surprising example of the adaptability of thetool is that many of the adult interviewees mentioned that parents were using the toolkit to helpthem communicate with their children and one counsellor mentioned how she had helped a husbandand his wife with one of the Auntie Stella cards entitled “Is my penis too small?”Adaptation of the content is happening through translation of the cards and adaptation for contextsoutside Zimbabwe. Adaptation has also been happening informally with Facilitators sometimes usingthe 'agony aunt' ideas, to develop their own cards, using their specific problems and issues. In thiscase, Auntie Stella can be seen to be a packaged process rather than simply a set of cards. Ratherthan disseminating educational materials, it is disseminating a method of discussion and a cultureof empowered participation.Auntie Stella is also transferable to a variety of contexts. Using the adapted cards described above,projects and programmes should find it relatively easy to replicate the training and facilitation servicesoffered by Auntie Stella. As mentioned earlier, Auntie Stella is already helping regional organisationsto develop similar programmes.8.4 ChallengesLike any other programme Auntie Stella has faced some challenges in implementation.• An interesting M&E challenge in relation to the Auntie Stella programme is that the toolkit is not astand-alone intervention. It therefore becomes difficult to evaluate the toolkit independently of otheraspects of a youth programme. For example, if young women say they are more assertive as a resultof using the Auntie Stella toolkit, one might ask whether that is because of the toolkit per se, orbecause of the well-trained and dynamic peer educators in the programme.58