Mapping Workshop Manual: Finding your way through life, society and HIV

The manual summarizes the main tools used by a group of peer educators know as the A-team in the AIDS and Society Research Unit (ASRU), Capetown University, South Africa: Journey mapping, body mapping, memory books, disclosure and social maps. The various "mapping" exercises are designed to help people in HIV-positive support groups to encourage critical reflection, and lead to new insights to live positively.

Some of the tools draw from the tradition of memory work: Memory books and boxes that help HIV positive mothers to disclose their positive status to their children, as well as to begin the process of future planning together. Moreover, as anti-retroviral treatment becomes increasibly available, the Mapping our Lives initiative in ASRU helps people in HIV-positive support groups grapple with the social constraints and possibilities which shape their lives. The various mapping exercises are designed to encourage critical reflection, promote understanding and lead to new insights about living positively.

The tools have been developed within the Memory Box Project of ASRU and are constantly being updated. Feedback from others using these tools are welcome. Published by ASRU, Centre for Social Science Research, University of Capetown, March 2004.

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Mapping Workshop Manual Finding your way through life, society and HIV.pdf