Identifying & leveraging men¿s social networks to prevent HIV & violence in Tanzania

Dr. Maman will present work that she has conducted in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania with colleagues at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences to identify and engage young men at risk for HIV and perpetration of violence in prevention interventions. She will describe men's social networks in this setting, and characteristics of the networks that they have leveraged to implement an intervention that combines microfinance with health leadership training for men. She will describe the intervention trial and present findings from the baseline assessment of this trial. Suzanne Maman, MHS, PhD is a social scientist trained in public health with over 15 years of research experience related to HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence prevention in sub-Saharan Africa. Dr Maman's work focuses on two aspects of the association between HIV and violence: 1) violence as a barrier to women implementing HIV risk reduction strategies and; 2) violence as an outcome of women's experience with HIV testing and HIV status disclosure to their sexual partners. She uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods to develop and evaluate interventions that address the nexus between HIV and violence. She has conducted NIH-funded intervention trials in South Africa and Tanzania that address HIV and gender-based violence. She is currently leading a trial with social networks of young men in Tanzania that is designed to reduce HIV risk and violence perpetration through a comb