Our QI Project Design

We held two focus groups over a period of two weeks focusing on HIV stigma at boarding school for children ages 17-24.  The idea to hold focus groups with boarding school students developed after several meetings with the clinical staff including the medical director, Dr. Gilbert, and the psychosocial counselors, Edmund and Laetitia.  We were assisted by the research team, Charles, Josette and Aíme.  A list of increasingly open-ended questions was composed and translated into Kinyarwanda prefaced by an introductory paragraph explaining the purpose of the focus group and asking for verbal consent.  The participants were reminded multiple times that their names and answers would remain private and only be shared with healthcare providers within WE-ACTx.  The facilitator also explained how the information shared during the focus group could help improve the care of their peers at WE-ACTx For Hope clinic.

The first focus group was held on July 10^th, 2016 at Sainte Famille Primary School in Kigali and consisted of 10 participants with an average age of 18.5 and included 6 males and 4 females.  Each of these participants had been previously enrolled in boarding school.  Stephanie was the facilitator with Leontine and Aíme serving as Kinyarwanda translators.  The entire session was held in Kinyarwanda and translated into English for Stephanie and Lizzy.  Lizzy took notes in English and Augustin took notes in Kinyarwanda. 

The second focus group was held on July 20^th, 2016 in the conference room of the WE-ACTx For Hope clinic in Kigali.  There were 4 participants with one having previously attended the first focus group on July 10^th.  Of the participants, the average age was 20.25 with 1 male and 3 females.  Stephanie once again served as the facilitator with Aíme translating and assisting in facilitation where possible.  Both Aíme and Augustin took notes in Kinyarwanda while Lizzy took notes in English.