Anchoring Awareness in the Community - Handicap International

INVALUABLE DOUBLE SUPPORT FOR ANIMATORS
Although animators developed most of their
know-how by participating in the awareness
program, the effectiveness of their work was
increased by double monitoring: on the one
hand, by the partner association of Handicap
International, which they belonged to, and on
the other, by the project advisory committee
composed of village leaders. Advice from the
association, which had awareness raising
and follow-up/evaluation skills, and from the
committee, which had detailed knowledge
of the community, were complementary,
and both were indispensable to successful
completion of the project. Therefore, in
this chapter we will present the knowhow
pertaining to community awareness
activity follow-up which enabled project
effectiveness.
Maintain regularity and coherence
with double monitoring
On the one hand, double monitoring enabled
ensuring regularity and the maintenance of
an activity level through the monthly report
supplied by the person in charge of animators.
This report listed the number of homes
with increased awareness, which should
correspond to the goals set in terms of number
of monthly visits. On the other, monitoring
enabled ensuring project coherence with
needs expressed by community through
regular meetings with the project advisory
committee, which chose the areas to be
covered.
Get an overall view
of neighborhood awareness
To facilitate monitoring and identify the
neighborhoods already covered by the
awareness program, the animator put a
special mark on the outside of the house, for
example a cross drawn with chalk, to indicate
that the program had been completed. In this
way, it was easy to see the extent of houseto-house
activity of the animators.
Be an available partner
To follow activities, the Handicap International
team planned weekly visits to intervention
sites that were geographically close, as well
as unplanned visits, in such a way as to
accompany animators almost daily, share their
problems and resolve eventual conflicts. Thus,
animators felt supported, the importance of
their work was valued and their motivation
was maintained.
Support animators with regular sharing
Since the activity of the animators within the
community was rather solitary and sometimes
difficult, it was important to create a spirit
of mutual aid and provide them with moral
support. To do this, a follow-up meeting was
organized each month by the association
of persons living with HIV, which they were
members of. During the meeting, they were
invited to talk about problems encountered
and to discuss together possible ways of
solving them.
Use experienced animators
to train new ones
When new animators were recruited for the
project, they received training. During training,
experienced animators came to tell about
their daily activity, share their experience
and present future animators what they felt
to be the indispensable know-how needed
by a good animator, in particular the need for
patience every single day.
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