MASIBAMBANE—LADIES CHAT: DEVELOPING AN ONLINE GENDER-ENHANCED PREP INFORMATION-MOTIVATION WORKSHOP FOR YOUNG SOUTH AFRICAN WOMEN

This article describes the processes of transforming an in-person group-based intervention to promote uptake of PrEP among young woman in South Africa to an online interactive “workshop” during the COVID-19 pandemic. Beginning in person and continuing virtually, we used a step-by-step partici-patory approach with multiple stakeholder groups to develop nine activities to increase knowledge about, as well as motivation and intention to take PrEP, and to address gender-based barriers to PrEP. Activities were informed by our theoretical framework and formative work with young women ages 18–25. We demonstrate how we developed a gender-enhanced online PrEP workshop that was interactive, group-based, and in accordance with elements of established successful intervention design; why WhatsApp emerged as the most accessible application for the young women in our workshop; and how an intervention with a hybrid approach—alternating between chat box and live sessions—combined with verbal, written, and emoji-based communication enabled interaction among participants.