Anchoring Awareness in the Community - Handicap International

SUCCESS STORY:
BAR OWNERS ACT AS RELAYS
At Jijiga (Ethiopia), bar owners were trained about HIV/AIDS and its means of
transmission and prevention. After this training, one of the owners was particularly
militant concerning the prostitutes who worked in her bar. She obliged the prostitutes
to systematically offer condoms and, above all, supported them when customers
were reluctant to cooperate.
role in prevention. Using humor was important
to show their friendliness before introducing the
topic. Introducing the subject of HIV/AIDS too
rapidly in the conversation risked angering
the drivers, who would then say things like,
“Who told you I was concerned by AIDS? Who
are you to talk to me like that?”
Find the proper relays
Sometimes, for making some persons aware,
it was useful to identify those who had an
influence over them, whether for financial
or social reasons. Thus, making prostitutes
aware of the usefulness of using condoms for
protection risked being ineffective if the owners
of the bars where they worked required them
to refuse nothing to customers. These owners
were thus invited to training sessions and made
aware of the importance for prostitutes and
their customers to use condoms to mitigate
propagation of the disease.
In a similar way, a workshop for community and
religious leaders enabled raising awareness
of the topic. Afterwards, these leaders were
very active within their communities as relays
for the prevention messages. For example,
they repeatedly invited PLWHIV to present
their testimony during religious ceremonies.
PROMOTING CONDOMS…WHERE IT IS ACCEPTABLE TO DO SO
In most areas covered by the project, it was
difficult to mention condoms and even more
difficult to distribute them. Therefore, condom
promotion was done in Ethiopia in urban
areas only or with populations at risk, such
as prostitutes or truck drivers. In Somaliland,
it was culturally not possible to talk abut
condoms in public or to promote them; it was
also very difficult to find them, except in some
pharmacies.
Locate the most pertinent places
To distribute condoms to truck drivers, towns
on the routes where the drivers habitually
stopped were chosen. In these towns, the
places where drivers most frequently went
to relax or see prostitutes were identified.
Condoms were left next to a lavatory in one
of the restaurants most appreciated by truck
drivers in one of the towns. In another town, a
popular store was chosen, which was next to
the places where drivers got together to chew
khat.
Make condoms available daily
At Handicap International and at partner
locations, in offices and more intimate places
such as restrooms, condoms are available for
employees and for passers-by. In addition to
being part of the project theme, this initiative
also followed the governmental policy of
fighting AIDS in the workplace.
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