Anchoring Awareness in the Community - Handicap International

has come as a “dagou” (meaning “bearer
of information” in the Afar language). This is
the opposite of Dire Dawa residents, who tire
easily if a conversation takes too long.
Measure what is acceptable
In Somaliland, the house-to-house awareness
program was supported by community
elders, who accepted HIV/AIDS to be spoken
about because they knew it was a problem
for the community. They strongly supported
awareness, on the condition that there would
be no promotion of condom use. Contrary
to what was done in Ethiopia, there was
no mention or promotion of condoms in
Somaliland, since this was not considered as
socially acceptable.
APPROPRIATE MESSENGERS
Once the outlines of the awareness effort were
well defined, it was necessary to choose the
most pertinent animators for this task. At all
intervention sites, they were selected as nearly
as possible from within the community itself.
However, their profile could vary according
to the context. For example, in Ethiopia,
animators were all HIV + and often older than
forty. But in Somaliland the disease remains
highly stigmatized and very few persons reveal
their status; it was thus difficult to find HIV +
animators. In consequence, leaders were
chosen from young people in the community.
In all countries and regions, animators carried
out their activity part-time for a few days a week
and received a salary. At all sites, it was decided
to encourage an almost daily presence of the
animators. Thus, in Somaliland new animators
were recruited from within the community
after the program had started to strengthen
the existing team, who were too few to ensure
daily awareness initiatives simultaneously at all
sites.
Using pioneers for an innovative approach
In Ethiopia, animators were often among the
first in their community to declare their HIV
status and take responsibility for their status.
For the innovative house-to-house approach,
we could thus count on these brave people,
who were pioneers in declaring their HIV
status. In Somaliland, where the PLWHIV do
not reveal their status, young people were
chosen because they accepted to talk about
AIDS, which was still taboo for their elders.
Facilitate acceptance by the community
The fact that the animators were themselves
members of the community where they
worked greatly facilitated their acceptance
by families for carrying out the awareness
program, since they came “as neighbors”. In
Somaliland, for example, the community had a
benevolent view of this project, which allowed
some of the younger members to work. It was
thus well received, whereas the community
would probably have refused to listen to
strangers speaking on the subject of HIV.
Use the expertise of the sick as a base
In Ethiopia, persons living with HIV were the
ones who educated the community. Being
HIV + made it legitimate for them to speak
about the disease, its consequences and the
ways it is treated, since they live with it every
day. Animators were thus living witnesses
and for this reason were listened to very
attentively. Their experience was a convincing
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