Characteristics of the social and physical environment — the social ecology — can positively or negatively influence the health and well-being of adolescents, including their ability to avoid contracting HIV and other diseases. This environmental/structural view suggests that risk for disease cannot be solely explained by characteristics of individuals, such as knowledge of HIV transmission or attitudes towards risky sexual behavior. The broader social ecology — from micro-level influences such as household resources, neighborhood disorder, and social networks to macro-level factors such as laws and policies — can restrict or enhance individual agency to avoid risk. Thus in developing prevention interventions, it is necessary to understand and address social-ecological factors that influence health in a particular context. This is the objective of CHAMP.
CHAMP stands for Community Health and Activity Mapping. I am working with Dr. Eve Puffer, Dr. Sherryl Broverman, and WISER to develop a participatory mapping project in Muhuru Bay, a small fishing village on the shore of Lake Victoria in Kenya. As part of WISER’s efforts to build a girls’ boarding school and a research center in Muhuru Bay, Dr. Puffer is developing a multi-level HIV prevention intervention for adolescents. We are hoping to add a participatory mapping component to better understand how the social and physical environment enhance or restrict youths’ abilities to avoid HIV. This work could ultimately inform the development of a setting-level HIV prevention intervention.Virginia Rieck, an undergraduate at Duke University, contributed to fieldwork in Muhuru Bay in 2009 as part of a summer research project.
