The Drum Beat 277 - HIV/AIDS Prevention

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World AIDS Day is December 1, each year. In support of this "day", this issue of The Drum Beat will share just some of the communication-related experiences, strategic thinking and publications from HIV/AIDS projects and organisations around the world.

For more experiences, thinking, opportunities, networks, publications, etc. from The Communication Initiative (The CI) network related to HIV and AIDS, please visit The CI's HIV/AIDS Window

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EXPERIENCES

1. Garífuna AIDS Prevention Project - Honduras
Physicians and community members are working to raise AIDS awareness and promote preventive measures in Garífuna communities in Honduras. The project has been training community AIDS educators to teach their peers about HIV/AIDS and the need for prevention. A key focus is on challenging a culture of denial that is based on the perception that only people of low moral standing are at risk of infection. The project's central strategy is reaching community members through networks of informed volunteers.
Contact elbupa@sdnhon.org.hn

2. The ONE Campaign - United States
Launched in May 2004, The ONE Campaign is an effort to rally Americans to get involved in resisting global AIDS and extreme poverty. The ONE Campaign engages Americans where they tend to gather - in churches and synagogues, on the Internet and college campuses, at community meetings and concerts. Centered around advocacy, this campaign urges Americans to contact their members of Congress and to engage their local communities in leading the fight against hunger, poverty, and AIDS around the world. ONE is being promoted with the help of a diverse coalition of faith-based and antipoverty groups, celebrity spokespeople such as U2 lead singer Bono, and corporate partnerships and local ONE Campaign organisers through a petition, a rally, and a website for networking among interested parties.
Contact info@theonecampaign.org

3. Lifenet - Thailand
The Urban Life Network, or "Lifenet", is an approach to meeting young people's health needs, particularly in the area of reproductive health, by building skills and strengthening relationships. The network, based at the Chiang Mai University Faculty of Nursing, was established to respond to increased morbidity of Thai adolescents - mostly due to HIV/AIDS and motorcycle accidents - linked to the migration of young people seeking educational and work opportunities in urban areas like Chiang Mai. Lifenet's strategy involves mobilising local resources - and young people themselves - to redefine cultural values within their peer groups, hopefully leading to more positive and protective behaviours.
Contact Dr. Warunee Fongkaew or Ms. Ratchanee Srionsri webmaster@mail.nurse.cmu.ac.th

4. Staying Alive - Global
For the 2004 (Staying Alive 6) campaign, MTV International and CNN International are co-producing a 30-minute news special on HIV/AIDS to premiere on MTV globally (Dec 1 2004) and on CNN International and sister network CNN en Español (Nov 27 and Dec 1, respectively). Local MTV channels and CNN bureaus around the world will work together to jointly produce news segments focusing on how HIV/AIDS affects young people in each region. The special will deal with issues such as access to treatment, condom usage, discrimination and rising infection rates, among others. By covering such a wide variety of topics, the show aims to offer viewers the chance to see how HIV/AIDS touches all people regardless of age, ethnicity, country, or socio-economic background.
Contact info@staying-alive.org

5. Amakhosi's Theatre for Community Action - Zimbabwe
Imlemented by Zimbabwe's Amakhosi Theatre for Social Change, this project uses a Theatre-for-Community-Action (TCA) methodology to support and involve rural community members in the fight against HIV/AIDS. A one-year-long practical theatre skills training programme was organised to promote the use of the TCA methodology in all 7 districts of Matabeleland North Province. Workshop participants visited people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) and children affected by AIDS in order to get a first-hand experience of the impact AIDS has on families and communities. The young participants perform 2 theatre shows in each ward in the whole district, distribute advocacy materials in local languages, engage audiences in post-performance discussions, and collect data.
Contact Cont Mhlanga continstitute@telconet.co.zw

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Pulse Poll

Development institutions rely on gender stereotypes rather than foster resistance to them.

Do you agree or disagree?

[For context, please see The Drum Beat 273]

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6. Have Your Say: The AIDS Debate - Global
A series of BBC News' interactive online programme Have Your Say is called The AIDS Debate. This project, which involves inviting submissions of photographs, comments, and questions from citizens worldwide via email and the internet, is designed to provide an online forum for discussion of the issues and exploration of the facts surrounding HIV/AIDS.
Contact talkingpoint@bbc.co.uk

7. Haath Se Haath Milaa - India
A youth television show that was produced in north India by the BBC World Service Trust in association with Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) and National Aids Control Organisation (NACO). The aim of this series was to create an unbroken human chain of 80 young people, joining their hands to raise awareness and to participate actively in the fight against AIDS. Two caravan-style buses (one for girls and one for boys) journeyed through 5 Indian states picking up 2 young people (or "Humsafars") from each village visited. The Humsafars aimed through the journey to increase awareness about the disease, create an AIDS charity anthem, and release a charity music album to raise money for the fight against AIDS. The record they produced, Lau (Flame), reached the top 10 of the music charts in 5 major Indian cities.
Contact Roy Head roy.head@bbc.co.uk

8. Project for the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV - Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Population Services International (PSI) has launched a prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) initiative to communicate to pregnant mothers in urban Carrefour, Port-au-Prince, Haiti the dangers of passing HIV on to their children during childbirth. Through partnership, a network of clinics has been created to provide HIV testing for expectant mothers and to provide information and treatment related to preventing or lessening the chances of transmission. In order to create demand for services, PSI is promoting the PMTCT network using a branded logo and a national behaviour change communication campaign featuring this logo. The campaign will also be reinforced by interpersonal communication activities implemented by project sites and NGO partners.
Contact Paul Hamilton phamilton@psihaiti.org

9. HIV/AIDS: The Creative Challenge - Global
An effort to prevent HIV/AIDS worldwide by drawing on communication characterised by culture and creativity. The UK-based Creative Exchange launched this process in June 2004 in an effort to build Internet-based dialogue and gather data on best practice in using cultural and creative approaches to HIV/AIDS prevention and care. The goal is to use this process to develop a set of guiding principles and practical reference materials for development practitioners. Creative Exchange has developed its strategies based on the notion that culture operates at the following levels in development: as a context in which development takes place, as a source of locally appropriate content for communication programmes, and as a method of building dialogue.
Contact info@creativexchange.org

10. Sida dans la Cite 3 (AIDS in the City) - West & Central Africa
A 16-episode television series that aims to promote safer sex and address several issues about HIV/AIDS in West Africa. The series' 4 separate stories promote responsible behaviour change amongst the sexually active populations of West and Central Africa, motivate increased demand for and use of voluntary counseling and HIV testing services, and aim to reduce stigmatisation of people living with HIV/AIDS by demonstrating the possibility of living positively with the virus.
Contact Dana Ward ward_dana@yahoo.com

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Communication & HIV/AIDS information
Click here!

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THINKING

11. Gendering AIDS: Women, Men, Mobilisation, Empowerment
by Miranda Lewis
Research for "Gendering AIDS" was carried out in South Africa, India, Namibia and Cambodia. The report examines how national and international policies designed to protect women's rights can be put into practice, and how men can be more constructively involved in HIV and AIDS work at the grassroots level.

12. Catholics Back AIDS Condoms
by Jonathan Petre
CAFOD, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, says that condoms can be used in the battle against AIDS, according to a news article in the "Telegraph". "The agency, which comes under the [authority] of the Roman Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, said campaigns to counter the disease in the developing world had to be realistic and employ a range of methods..."

13. New Challenges and Opportunities? Communication for HIV and Development
by Jacques du Guerny and Dr. Lee-Nah Hsu
Published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP South East Asia HIV and Development Project), this paper aims to challenge the conventional wisdom in sectoral communication strategies by pointing out the opportunity for communication experts to collaborate with development sector and HIV/AIDS experts in devising effective communication that addresses root causes related to HIV epidemics and development.

14. Unprotected Women: Gender and the Legal Dimensions of HIV/AIDS
by A. Waafas Ofosu-Amaah
In this "Development Outreach" article published by the World Bank, the author asserts that gender differences affect risk and vulnerability factors for HIV/AIDS in complex ways because gender norms influence people's attitudes, and therefore men's and women's relative ability to protect themselves. Ofosu-Amaah advocates for a multisectoral response to addressing women’s and men’s different vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.

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PEER-REVIEW HIV/AIDS RESOURCES

There are currently 48 substantial resources for peer review related to HIV/AIDS on the Health e Communication website. Click here to participate.

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MATERIALS

15. Makaburi Yatasema (Only Stones Are Talking) [film]
This community-based and community-created film deals with the stigmatisation of HIV/AIDS patients. In this film, stigmitisation is placed within the context of the fact that many people still practice the same risky behaviour that leads to someone acquiring HIV/AIDS.

16. How to Create an Effective Communication Project: Using the AIDSCAP Strategy to Develop Successful Behavior Change Interventions
This handbook, developed by FHI's AIDSCAP's Behavior Change Communication (BCC) unit, is part of a collection of 9 handbooks that discuss concepts in BCC in relation to HIV/AIDS/STI issues. "How to Create an Effective Communication Project" outlines a strategy of 8 levels in a Communication Pyramid designed to help readers identify the information needed, the questions to ask and the actions to take.

17. Free World AIDS Day PSAs [Public Service Announcements]
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) produced three 30-second PSAs for World Aids Day 2003. The announcements are not event-specific and can be used at any time for free.

18. Teacher Training: Essential for School-Based Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS Education - Focus on Sub-Saharan Africa
by Tijuana A. James-Traore, William Finger, Claudia Daileader Ruland & Stephanie Savariaud
This 30-page Youth Issues Paper examines the importance of teacher training, the limited evidence in the field, elements of teacher training curricula, teacher selection issues, and issues in Africa including teacher training projects in 4 countries.

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