High-Risk Communities HIV/AIDS Awareness and Prevention Project
Description
To increase HIV/AIDS awareness and access to prevention methods for the specific groups at highest risk, we provide them the means and knowledge to protect themselves and others from HIV infection.
Targeting out-of-school youth, truck drivers, sex workers, and other high-risk community members, we offered HIV/AIDS prevention education, free test services and condoms. Through the innovative outreach campaign, more than 10,000 people have been educated or received HIV/AIDS testing; thousands of condoms have been successfully distributed to these targeted high-risk populations. We believe that these practices can and should be successfully replicated across Tanzania.
Objectives
The main objective is to provide HIV/AIDS prevention methods to the high-risk communities.
Main Strategies
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To provide capacity-building for new peer educators within high-risk communities.
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To increase access to Voluntary Counselling and Testing services within high-risk communities.
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To empower out-of-school youth through HIV/AIDS education and prevention strategies.
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To increase access to HIV/AIDS education and prevention services for high-risk communities through outreach campaigns.
Activities
(1) Peer educators training workshops
Targeting high-risk areas, we have conducted 4 workshops and trained 119 participants. They became the seeds of influence in their communities. These training workshops were mostly held in rural areas without access to technology such as projectors and computers.
(2) HIV/AIDS mobile testing and counselling services
In the past, many people were reluctant to test HIV/AIDS in their area/village because some counselors did not keep their clients’ confidentiality. The mobile VCT (voluntary Counsel and HIV test) overcame this barrier as the counselors were from another area and kept strict confidentiality.
Due to the stigma prevalent among most population, people usually don't take the initiative to test HIV/AIDS. By using Edutainment (provider-initiated testing and education), we successfully managed to test more than 2 700 people. We reached these people mostly in seasonal markets and social gathered meetings.
The Road Show campaign is an innovative technique adapting marketing methods used in businesses to spread awareness and reach a wider audience than the typical HIV/AIDS education program. We organized 15 events of VCT (voluntary Counsel and HIV test) mobilization as well as public awareness campaigns.