Technique: Family Dynamics
Updated - Friday 26 January 2007
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| Section | Content |
| 1 | Description of technique | A participatory technique that assists participants to explore the implications of HIV/AIDS on family life |
| 2 | Level of intervention | Community level |
| 3 | Stage in planning cycle | Situational Analysis |
| 4 | Purpose and use of technique | To assist participants to reflect on the impact of HIV/AIDS on family- and community life |
| 5 | Requirements for facilitation | Ability to deal with emotions of participants during the exercise |
| 6 | Duration | 1-2 hours |
| 7 | Materials required | · A number of sets of silhouettes, each representing a different type of family, each having members of a different age and sex such as: · a single mother with infants and young children · a household with a father, mother, young children and a grandmother · a young girl with an infant · and so on, depending on types of families existing in the local context: some of these figures will need to be colour-coded with a red dot on the reverse side to indicate the presence HIV |
| 8 | Methodology | · The group is divided into subgroups of 4-5 persons · Each group receives a set of silhouettes representing one family/household · Each group is asked to give ‘life’ to their family by discussing the questions; what would the people in the household be doing? What are the relations between family members? How does the family survive? What are the goals and dreams of the family as a whole as well as of each individual household member? · Participants turn over the silhouettes and discover that at least one family member has a red dot on the back of the silhouette. The person/people with the dot is HIV positive · Participants discuss the implications: what has changed within the family? How will the family manage their situation when the infected person(s) falls ill? What will happen when the infected person(s) die? Could that person transmit HIV/AIDS to the other family members? If so, how and what are the implications of this? How have the family members’ dreams and ambitions changed as a result of the HIV infection? · Participants report back in a plenary session what they have been discussing · Participants place their silhouette families in the centre of the room. They represent the community at this point in time. Participants now visualise this community in three years time. Who would still be there? Participants remove the silhouettes they think will not be part of the community in 3 years time. Participants then visualise the community in 5 years time and remove all the silhouettes of people they think may have died by that stage. · Participants once more return to their subgroups to discuss what could be done at household level to care for family members with AIDS. How can their lives be made as comfortable as possible and how could they be treated with dignity? · Participants go back to the plenary group and place all the silhouettes in the centre of the room, again representing the community. The community has now to decide what to do with the problems associated with HIV/AIDS. The only condition is that someone from the family affected by HIV/AIDS has to ask for help from either another family or the broader community · Participants put themselves in the role of one of the silhouette family members that had been defined at the beginning of the session. They either ask for help or respond to the one asking for help during this plenary group discussion. They can do that by offering help with cooking or cleaning, or using their position to support the family member affected by HIV/AIDS. For instance a ‘store owner’ who is a member of one the silhouette families’ offers to assist in paying the school fees. A discussion takes place whereby participants look for ways to support the affected household members, while taking the ‘role’ of a family member. This way the discussion avoids becoming too personal |
| 9 | Impact (positive, negative) | · Participants can create their own situations and experience the impact of HIV/AIDS through their silhouette families, thus learning in a creative way · Making use of silhouette families gives life to typical situations faced by families affected by HIV/AIDS, without giving the participants the feeling that they are talking about their own family – this facilitates discussion |
| 10 | Critical issues for success | Participants go through a process, which can be quite emotional as it may remind them of their own experiences with HIV/AIDS they have not been able to share with anyone. The facilitator has to keep a close eye on the direction the discussion is going and the emotions of participants |
| 11 | Source of technique | Adapted from an article on ‘Participatory Approach to Community based HIV/AIDS awareness from Development in Practice, Volume 9, Number 4 – August 1999 Main source:
Dr. Lyra Srinivasan
Galaxy Building Fax: 201/662-4594 Also published in “Strengthening Community Responses to HIV/AIDS”, UNDP July 2000 |
| 12 | Editor’s note for learning | |
| 13 | User feedback |
