Strengthening resilience through peer leadership.
In South Africa, Beyond Stigma has partnered with local organisations and young peer supporters to strengthen self-worth, emotional wellbeing and leadership among young people living with HIV.
Building on the success of the Wakakosha model developed in Zimbabwe, the programme has been thoughtfully adapted to the South African context while maintaining its community-led, evidence-informed foundation.
The Challenge
Supporting the people who support others.
Internal stigma remains a significant issue for young people living with and affected by HIV in South Africa. Internal stigma is also an issue for those experiencing gender-based violence. HIV and gender-based violence often occur together and make self-worth and agency challenging for those experiencing them.
Many young people living with HIV take on important leadership roles within their communities, supporting their peers through lived experience.
Yet these young leaders often carry their own experiences of internal stigma, shame, self-doubt and emotional stress.
Beyond Stigma's work in South Africa recognises that strengthening peer supporters themselves creates stronger, healthier and more resilient communities.
WAKAKOSHA SOUTH AFRICA
From self-stigma to self-worth.
In 2025, Beyond Stigma partnered with Zvandiri and Right to Care to deliver a six-day residential Wakakosha programme for young people aged 18–24 from Limpopo, North West and Northern Cape.
The programme combined:
Inquiry-Based Stress Reduction (IBSR)
Peer support
Creativity and storytelling
Mindfulness
Emotional literacy
Reflection on gender, shame, identity and consent
Together, these approaches created a safe space where participants could question self-limiting beliefs, strengthen emotional resilience and develop practical tools for everyday life.
Measuring Change
Programme evaluation demonstrated meaningful improvements in participants' wellbeing six weeks after completing the programme.
Increase in self-confidence
Increase in constructive coping behaviours
in shame, guilt and negative emotions
emotional resilience and self-awareness
Peer Leadership in Action
Creating change beyond the programme.
A core goal of the South Africa programme was to build long-term community leadership.
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All participants were equipped to become peer leaders, using the Beyond Stigma Peer Support Guide to continue supporting others within their own communities.
This creates a ripple effect, allowing the programme to extend far beyond the residential workshop while embedding self-worth and stigma reduction within existing peer networks.
These findings directly informed the development of Wakakosha—meaning "I Am Worth It."
A Model for Scale
Building sustainable systems.
The South Africa programme is helping shape the next phase of Beyond Stigma's work.
Learning from the programme is informing:
Train-the-Trainer pathways
Long-term peer mentorship
Gender-based violence programme development
Community-led implementation
Programme evaluation and future scale-up
By combining evidence, lived experience and local leadership, South Africa is helping demonstrate how community-led approaches can create sustainable change.
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OUR PARTNERS
Working together for greater impact.
Beyond Stigma collaborates with organisations committed to strengthening mental wellbeing and reducing internal stigma, including:
Right to Care
Zvandiri
Community peer supporters
Healthcare professionals
Local facilitators
International research and programme partners
Together, these partnerships ensure programmes remain locally relevant, evidence-informed and sustainable.
LOOKING AHEAD
From local impact to regional leadership.
South Africa represents an important step in Beyond Stigma's long-term vision to expand community-led approaches across Africa.
Future priorities include strengthening peer leadership, developing local trainers, expanding mentorship and continuing to evaluate programme outcomes so that successful models can be adapted and shared with communities around the world.
Every programme delivered strengthens the global evidence that when people move from internal stigma to self-worth, healthier individuals and stronger communities follow.
Help Create Lasting Change
Together, we can help more people move from self-stigma to self-worth.
Choose how you'd like to support our work.