Abstract
This paper examines the effectiveness of two types of programs aimed at reducing HIV prevalence among young South African women. Adolescent women in South Africa are up to six times as likely to have HIV as their male counterparts ("Understanding the Impact of Apartheid on South African Social Investment", 2015). Therefore, it is critical to explore the impacts of these programs in terms of the needs of this group specifically. This paper will consider the impact of Life-Skills Education programs, as put forth by the South African government, compared to that of basic financial assistance interventions. Life-Skills Education programs assume that lack of education and information drives HIV transmission, while financial assistance interventions consider poverty the driving force. A comparison of the two helps to elucidate weather addressing information or poverty is a more promising avenue for preventing HIV in young women. The paper finds that increased HIV-knowledge did not have the anticipated impact on adolescent women. Instead, small financial assistance programs resulted in significant behavioral changes that ultimately reduced HIV-risk among participants.