Sixteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Within a month long camp for adolescents who have been orphaned due to HIV/AIDS and raised by their grandparents in Northern Vietnam, a Photovoice group for was developed to create support and provide a space to voice their experiences. Due to circumstances that challenge health equity, HIV stigma continues to create barriers in the everyday lives of families affected by HIV/AIDS, such as poverty, food insecurity, and barriers to education. Twenty five adolescents, between the ages of twelve and nineteen, participated in a group in July 2019. Group sessions and journals were analyzed on the youth-identified topics of HIV/AIDS, child labor, reproductive health, substance abuse, childhood sexual abuse and “Our City.” The research team identified seven themes that cut across all topics, and culminated into a context specific framework which included: (a) corruption in the system, (b) laws and law enforcement, (c) lack of child protection, (d) exploitation, (e) views of adults, (f) ineffective community responses and (g) youth’s ideas for interventions. Existing challenges facing Vietnamese adolescents, combined with stigma may increase HIV risk factors such as marginalization, and may push adolescents into behavior that can increase HIV risk. Adolescents identified serious risks within their “system” which included community, government, law enforcement and adults that compound existing risk factors in their lives. Photovoice proved to be effective in eliciting valuable information and generating multi-faceted discussions. This process not only enabled the youth to relate to and learn from one another, but generated ideas for community responses to create social change.