HIV/AIDS Prevention

Monday, 21 November 2011 04:30

" Mankind! Fear your Guardian Lord, who created you. From a single person, created, out of it, His mate, and from them twain, Scattered (like seeds) Countless men and women……Surat An Nisa`a 4:1O "

" Then the Lord GOD said, ‘It is not good for man to live alone, I will make him a suitable companion to help him… Genesis: 2:18-22 "

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

The HIV prevention program aims at contributing towards the campaign to reduce HIV infection in Uganda through Behavior Change Communication (BCC) interventions. The program promotes mainly primary HIV prevention behaviors: abstinence among the youth and mutual fidelity among the married and cohabiting couples. It also promotes biomedical preventive strategies to address the AIDS scourge. The goal is to strengthen the provision of comprehensive faith based HIV prevention services in Uganda.

OBJECTIVES

• To promote HIV prevention through behavioral (AB) messages and moblisation for bio-medical prevention using the faith based approach.
• ommunity leaders with knowledge and skills to communicate HIV/AIDS prevention messages while doing their routine work.

ACTIVITIES

The program mainly focuses on Behavior Change Communication (BCC) that increases personal risk perception and promotes Abstinence from sex among the in and out of school youth and Being Faithful to a partner among the married couples.

BEHAVIOURAL PREVENTION

Apart from training for religious leaders and community volunteers to integrate HIV prevention communication into their routine religious work, various approaches of BCC complimented by Information, Education and Communication (IEC) strategies are used to disseminate prevention messages integrated into religious structures. These include; interpersonal communication such as spiritual guidance, premarital counseling, couple dialogues, focus group discussions and debates; Peer education and lifeskills development sessions; Edutainment including music, dance and drama, video and radio talk shows as well as testimonies by role models.

MOBILISATION FOR BIO-MEDICAL AND OTHER PREVENTIVE SERVICES

Under the program, religious leaders are empowered to sensitize and mobilise communities to access biomedical HIV prevention services at FBO supported sites, and other facilities through referral networks and partnerships. Prevention services include:

• Prevention of Mother- to- child transmission of HIV
• Promotion of Safe Male Circumcision
• Diagnosis and treatment of Sexually Transmitted Infections
• Post Exposure Prophylaxis
• Positive living
• HIV Testing and Counseling

APPROACH TO SERVICE DELIVERY

HIV preventions interventions are implemented using the Faith Based Approach (FBA) that comprises of five components: The approach entails building the capacity of religious leaders to use relevant faith teachings,their structures and comparative advantage to disseminate basic scientific HIV/AIDS information to the communities to promote Abstinence among youth and Faithful among couples.

TARGET BENEFICIARIES

The program targets,children, youth, married couples and individuals especially those at high risk. These include: fishing communities, truck drivers, and discordant couples among others.

GEOGRAPHICAL COVERAGE

The HIV prevention interventions initially started in 18 districts of Uganda but the number has increased to 43 districts across all regions in the country.

ACHIEVEMENTS

• A total of 2,528 (1,342 males and 1,186 females) religious leaders and peer educators have been trained in HIV prevention and communication.
• Approximately 16,869 (8,333 males and 8,536 females)in and out of school youth were reached with BCC that promotes Abstinence.
• As of June 2011 alone a total of 7,305 married and cohabiting individuals were reached (as couples and as individuals) with messages promoting fidelity.