Intervention content
SESSION
By the end of the participatory workshops, a broad outline of each weekly 90-minute session of Yima Nkqo was developed, including a proposed theme and associated activities for each session. Session One focused on welcoming participants to the group and reviewing HIV basic knowledge, with activities including team-building exercises, opportunities for participants to ask questions and dispel HIV treatment myths, and creative drawing for participants to reflect on their personal resources and experiences with HIV. Session Two focused on participants’ identities and support systems, exploring the ways in which coping strategies (e.g., relaxation exercises) and disclosure to peers and family members (e.g., role-playing these discussions) could help ease the transition to ART. Session Three focused on empowering participants to start treatment through overcoming stressors, goal setting, and role playing what it would be like to go to clinics for treatment. Over the course of the next six months, further details of the intervention manual emerged through feedback from the facilitators and full team. Each of the three sessions included time for a welcome and check-in; elicitation of participants’ feelings, questions, and experiences; facilitator-guided new learning; “action” activities to practice new learnings; and reflection. Activities were designed to be highly interactive. The facilitator relied primarily on oral rather than textual communication to be accessible to those with limited literacy. More detail on the content of each session are shown in 