The HEY BABY team hosts a PATA 2022 Summit Satellite Event
On 21-23 November our HEY BABY team, in collaboration with colleagues from the Health Sciences Faculty at the University of Fort Hare, hosted a Satellite Spoke for the PATA Summit in East London. We were joined by stakeholders from local public health facilities, NGOs, and research institutions. The theme of this year’s PATA Summit was “Ending Aids in Children, Adolescents and Young People. A Roadmap to 2030”. Across Africa there were 24 Summit Satellite events in 12 countries! On the first day our field-team shared some findings and observations from the HEY BABY and Mzantsi Whako projects, focusing on high mortality rates amongst young males, gender-based violence, and adolescent parenting and pregnancies. These findings stimulated lots of discussion with the group, including discussions around how to support young people - especially young men - to access healthcare services. On the second day we heard from Helen Bunt from the Department of Nursing Science in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Fort Hare who is researching a palliative care mobile app for young mothers living with HIV.
On the second and third days we also engaged in group participatory activities like "sticky note storms" and the "fishbowl activity". Summit Attendees noted this was definitely a highlight as they appreciated the opportunity to talk through the challenges they face in their work, and to think through strategies for overcoming these challenges. It was wonderful to see connections being made between healthcare workers, NGO stakeholders, and researchers. Our Young Research Advisors were also instrumental in co-facilitating these group activities. Thank you to everyone on the HEY BABY team for coming together and making this event such a big success
