Psychosocial Support and Girls Infected or Affected by HIV and AIDS Education in Maseno Division, Western Kenya

There wide gender disparities in education in places with high HIV and AIDS prevalence despite the support of many stakeholders. The study was to identify the psychosocial support in the area under study and establish areas of inadequacies’. The objective of the study was to establish the influence psychosocial support on education of girls’ infected or affected by HIV and AIDS. The study was conducted between June 2011 and February 2013. The response rate was 98% among the girls while among the teachers it was 99%. The mixed approach was used in this study. Schools in the study were categorized into 21 primary schools, eight secondary schools and a special institution. Girls infected or affected by HIV and AIDS were purposively sampled while snowballing was used to trace girls infected or affected school drop-outs. The study sampled 148 teachers, 294 infected or affected girls in 30 schools sampled and traced 15 girls who had dropped out of the same schools. Data was collected using questionnaire, interviews and documents. The Chi-Square (X2 statistic) was used to analyze data at the confidence of 0.05. The study found out that girls in this area are receiving instrumental and informational psychosocial support while emotional psychosocial support is lacking. The lack of emotional support is making girls to engage in relationships that are compromising their education. In the face of HIV and AIDS psychosocial stressors girls need emotional support to build resilience and be able to cope with their school work hence enhance academic performance.