Dr. Jennifer Belus

Studying if men living with HIV who hold unhelpful idealized beliefs about masculinity have more difficulty disclosing their HIV status, and in turn, are less likely to be retained in HIV care.

Community-based Chronic Care Lesotho is a five-year implementation research project addressing chronic disease care in remote villages in rural Lesotho. In a cohort of over 100 villages we assess through cluster-randomized trials within cohorts (TwiCs) different innovative models where ehealth assisted lay community health workers provide care for hypertension, diabetes and HIV.

In settings such as Lesotho, where young women face enormous HIV and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) challenges, novel and accessible spaces to complement traditional health facilities are urgently needed. HIV- and pregnancy-related complications are still the leading cause of death among young women in high HIV prevalence settings in Southern Africa. 

Hair salons may offer a safe, accessible, trusted community space to engage young women and address barriers related to HIV/SRH.

In a first step, we concluded an innovative cross-sectional survey – co-designed and conducted in collaboration with citizen scientists – and gathered data among 100 hair stylists and 300 clients across Lesotho. The findings were complemented by qualitative research, narrative storytelling and a video documentary.

In a next step, we are designing and implementing a pilot to evaluate a first HIV/SRH service intervention at a few hair salons in Lesotho.

Adolescents and young adults in sub-Saharan Africa are facing increasing threats to health and overall quality of life.This project seeks to address adolescent and young adult well-being by simultaneously tackling alcohol and other drug (AOD) use, inequitable gender beliefs, and high rates of unemployment in Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Specifically, this project aims to develop and test a brief, behavioral intervention to reduce problem AOD use and gender inequitable beliefs, which will be delivered to adolescent and young adult peer groups and embedded within existing vocational training programs. The study will also assess vocational training program characteristics that may facilitate or hinder scaling up of the proposed intervention, should it be successful.