Anchoring Awareness in the Community - Handicap International

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SUCCESS STORY: LEADERS THAT LET THEMSELVES BE CONVINCED At the start of the workshop with community leaders, one of the Muslim leaders affirmed that the disease could not affect Muslims by saying to the others, “This disease is your problem; you are the ones who are infecting yourselves. You need only drink camel’s milk to keep it away.” Then, at the end of the day, convinced by the different interventions, testimonials and discussions, he asked the group’s forgiveness for his reaction during the morning. In addition, after this awareness workshop, six of the leaders present went to be tested over the following days. Make the project accepted through the leaders Even in the presence of strong denial, people will accept the awareness program because of the presence of the project advisory committee. Since the members of this committee are leaders, their arguments are listened to and respected. To ensure project acceptance, project advisory committee members sometimes accompanied the animators on their houseto-house visits, either to convince the family to welcome the animator or to provide translation services at the start, if necessary, or simply to express their support of the project. In addition, project advisory committee members prepared communities for the project by speaking to them, in particular when animators wished to visit a “hostile” area, where stigmatization was very strong or where people refused to open their doors to HIV + animators. “Now that we have convinced them, people say the animators can come any time, whenever they want to.” 8 Call on the advisory committee in case of conflict As influential persons in the community, advisory committee members were very useful for resolving conflicts encountered by the animators. If a person at home was reluctant to speak with a animator, the conflict was generally resolved through the intervention of one of these leaders, who accompanied the animator to the home to discuss the importance of awareness and to provide support. “When the project advisory committee was created and signed an agreement with HI, all doors were opened.” 9 Decrease stigmatization using the behavior of leaders Daily behavior of leaders around PLWHIV persons served as an example and was enough to lower the rate of fear and stigmatization. For example, the fact that community leaders accompanied animators or shook their hand was enough to demonstrate that these animators were not dangerous to be around and that saying hello to them would not cause infection with AIDS. Communicate on a large scale through the leaders The leaders communicated on the project as part of their activities: during religious services for religious leaders or during associational or social activities for the other leaders. For example, at project launch, the religious leaders spoke about the project to their different congregations and encouraged 8. Yusuf Hassen, Dire Dawa Project Advisory Committee member and mosque representative 9. Hiwot Taddess, animator at Dire Dawa, Kebele 06 20
people to receive the animators by explaining: “Five animators trained by Handicap International will be coming to visit your homes; dp not close the door to them.” 10 In a similar manner, during public events the leaders relayed information on program dates, location and reasons for participating in order to motivate the people present. Let the project advisory committee define priorities At some sites, leaders carefully monitored the areas covered by the awareness program. Three mornings a week, advisory committee members met with the animators and indicated the neighborhoods to cover, preferably choosing risky areas (with lots of hotels, bars and businesses). 10. Hiwot Taddess, animator at Dire Dawa, Kebele 06 21
Page 1 and 2: LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE: KNOW-HOW A
Page 3 and 4: Contents Introduction 04 P a r t 1
Page 5 and 6: Context and Methodology Part 1 This
Page 7 and 8: 2. An ambitious project Part 1 Alth
Page 9 and 10: homes and implying community leader
Page 11 and 12: A VARIETY OF LEARNING-FROM-EXPERIEN
Page 13 and 14: Implementing Know-How Part 2 1. Dar
Page 15 and 16: ADAPTED AWARENESS METHOD The choice
Page 17 and 18: has come as a “dagou” (meaning
Page 19: COMMUNITY LEADERS AS FACILITATORS T
Page 23 and 24: Through house-to-house awareness de
Page 25 and 26: ANIMATORS AND AWARENESS DEVELOPMENT
Page 27 and 28: INVALUABLE DOUBLE SUPPORT FOR ANIMA
Page 29 and 30: STRENGTHENING PARTNER ASSOCIATIONS
Page 31 and 32: 3. Creating an awareness environmen
Page 33 and 34: of 40 radio programs broadcast over
Page 35 and 36: HIV/AIDS in Somali, which were well
Page 37 and 38: FESTIVE EVENTS TO CONVEY THE MESSAG
Page 39 and 40: 4. Carrying out more precisely targ
Page 41 and 42: SUCCESS STORY: BAR OWNERS ACT AS RE
Page 43 and 44: To learn more… In this document,
Page 45: Handicap International 14 avenue Be

Anchoring Awareness in the Community - Handicap International

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