Dr. Chenneville spent time talking with families about HIV in a slum community called Barut in the city of Nakuru, Kenya.
Dr. Chenneville works with HIV-positive youth to end the stigmas surrounding the disease
Psychology professor, Dr. Tiffany Chenneville, was welcomed by warm hearts of children, parents and community leaders in Kenya, where she spent just over two weeks conducting HIV research.
After about 20 years of researching the disease, she was given the opportunity to further her studies with a $50,000 Pediatric HIV Global Research Grant from a private donor.
Chenneville noted that her extensive commitment to studying the disease grew out of personal experience. She was inspired when someone close to her was diagnosed.
“At the time (of the diagnosis), HIV was very much a death sentence,” Chenneville said. “When I found out in grad school, it was just an outlet to cope with the grief around somebody so close to me dealing with the disease.”
The donor of the grant, who prefers to remain anonymous, also introduced Chenneville to Molly Bail. Bail is the director of Springs of Hope Kenya, an orphanage home to children diagnosed with HIV or children orphaned by parents who have died from AIDS.
“This opportunity has been one of the most fortunate professional things that has ever happened to me,” Chenneville said. “Molly helped coordinate everything and, very significantly, contributed to the overall success of the trip.”
Young children in the slum community of Barut were educated in HIV prevention and treatment by Dr. Chenneville and her research team.
During an initial trip to Kenya, Chenneville conducted a needs assessment with HIV-positive youth, the “key stakeholders” in the program. This allowed Chenneville to “get a feel” for what facilitators and barriers exist around HIV research in the area and to determine a plan of action.
According to Chenneville’s progress report, the mission of the Pediatric HIV Global Research Program is to “conduct relevant and timely psychosocial research designed to positively and immediately affect the lives of youth with HIV.”
The model is unique in that it embraces the relationship between researchers and the people most impacted by the topic of a study.
Because conducting applied research takes a long time, and years can go by before the benefits of research are realized, Chenneville stressed the importance of building something with the people most affected, rather than studying their lives separately.
“The research process itself can be beneficial to the people involved,” she said. “And by involving the key stakeholders, you can avoid becoming too removed from the real purpose.”
The key objectives are to improve the lives of children with HIV and to address HIV-related stigmas, which have consistently been a barrier in advancing both research and care.
Chenneville said she was struck by the genuine interest the people in Kenya showed toward collaboration, and was surprised by the need for learning fundamental concepts about HIV prevention and treatment.
“What did not surprise me, but was deeply disturbing nonetheless, was the level of HIV-related stigmas that exists, which we know is a significant barrier to HIV testing and retention in care,” she said.
According to the progress report, some of the disease’s misperceptions include that: (1) It can be transmitted through shared dinnerware like utensils and bowls, (2) Men with HIV can be cured by having sex with a virgin and (3) You can tell if someone’s been diagnosed by looking at them.
Chenneville said she plans to return to Kenya in the spring or summer to work with children who have HIV. The long-term goal is to create an HIV youth ambassador program, where HIV-positive adolescents from the United States go to Kenya, and possibly other countries, and vice versa.
The project, tentatively called SEERs (Stigma reduction through Education, Empowerment and Research) would train the kids, assist them in collecting data from other HIV-positive youth, and deposit a sense of hope in the community.
The trip was unlike anything Chenneville expected.
Bagamoyo is a sewing center for women and men living with HIV that provides an income for workers and supports the Springs of Hope Kenya orphanage.
“It is difficult to describe the most poignant or inspiring aspects of this trip because the trip was incredibly inspiring in so many ways.”
