IMAGE Project is a community based HIV and Gender based violence (GBV) prevention programme. It is a collaboration between The Small Enterprise Foundation (SEF), London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand.

The IMAGE Study is a research initiative that seeks to evaluate the potential role of a microfinance-based poverty alleviation and empowerment strategy in behaviour change and the prevention of HIV and gender based violence. The IMAGE intervention combines community level access to a poverty targeted micro-lending scheme (TCP) with a two phase Participatory Learning and Action Curriculum for loan recipients ("Sisters for Life"). The IMAGE Study is an integrated, prospective, randomized, matched community intervention trial that seeks to thoroughly examine the impact of this social intervention that addresses poverty and gender-based inequalities on social, behavioural and biological outcomes - including HIV incidence. The study is based in 8 villages in the Sekhukhuneland District of Limpopo Province. READ MORE