HIV/AIDS

ENHANCEMENT OF COMMUNITY INFORMATION AND EDUCATION ON HIV & AIDS PROJECT

GAVO is an acronym for General Assistance and volunteer organization, which is youth based non governmental, non-profit humanitarian organization based in Berbera, Hargeisa and Burao, it was founded in 1993 following long period of social strife and political instability in Somaliland. It has a membership of both young men and women the organization has enabled team of young volunteers with a strong popular base.

Just like other major towns in Somaliland, the spread of HIV/AIDS is increasing in Berbera as the day elapses. The statistics from the district hospital has shown that the number of people suffering from the illnesses is increasing and it is already causing a concern to hospital management. There are a number of factors that are thought to be accelerating the spread of the disease among them are the location of Berbera itself; there many travelers who potentially come from countries with high prevalence of the disease and could hence spread it on their visit to town. persistenships that come from the overseas and are dock in Berbera port. Truck drivers from as far as Djibouti and Ethiopia have been traveling Berbera on perpetual basis. These trucks come to collect goods to transport to the neighboring countries.

Due to lack of adequate knowledge HIV/AIDS in terms of the causes it’s risks, transmission, and prevention modalities; the continuous spread is imminent. The local community. At the moment there are no appropriate structures like home based centers for HIV/AIDS that supports people who are already infected by the illness as such the need to provide psychosocial support and care. Consequently raising awareness on HIV/AIDs and community resources mobilization is very crucial. It is therefore obvious that the advent of HIV infection and AIDS brought with it a multitude of medical, psychological and social-economical problems which are affecting an increasing number of individuals and families in the community particularly the youth generation. This in turn will soon place heavy demands on social and economic infrastructure including health care services and continues to challenge the ability to care for those in need. Some of the challenges that community face include:

How to encourage individuals particularly the youth to take personal responsibilities for preventing HIV infection
How to foster community participation in the prevention of HIV
How to encourage support and reinforce changes in attitudes and practices that minimize the risk of HIV infection and transmission
How to support the family, relatives and friends in caring for the loved ones who are infected or ill, often under socio-economic circumstances.

These challenges are made more serious by the fact that at present there is neither a cure for AIDS or a vaccine against HIV. This alone underlines the need for GAVO to elevate and accelerate behaviourally oriented, preventive and supportive responses to the AIDS epidemic. However, To tackle and fight against this above mentioned challenges of HIV/AIDs, GAVO HIV/AIDs project conducted the following activities in the year of 2006 in Berbera.

Capacity Building Activities on HIV and AIDS

GAVO organized various activities with the main objective of providing relevant information pertaining to HIV and AIDS transmission, prevention and control. One hundred and twenty (120/40 F) youth attended HIV and AIDS trainings with duration of 3-5 days, from February to October 2006. In the same period, GAVO organized three consultation meetings participants being youth. The meetings duration was one day, and they drew in total 75 youth out of whom 40 were female Regarding community leaders including religious leaders, GAVO organized two workshop training on HIV and AIDS to 60 community leaders between February and October 2006. Additionally, two consultation meetings were held with the same leaders on HIV and AIDS issues.

ii. IEC Materials Designing & Production.

Alongside training and consultation meetings, GAVO designed and produced various IEC materials as part of its efforts to disseminate HIV and AIDS information to the community of Berbera and its surrounding villages. The IEC materials included 200 leaflets and 5 billboards. While Billboards were stationed at various strategic places in the public, the leaflets were distributed to both youth and adult members of the community

2.1 OTHER RELATED ACTIVITIES

(iii) Leadership & counseling training

GAVO organized five -day training to 3o youth on basic skills in leadership and counseling. The training drew participants from youth in and out of school and the main objective was to empower youth to toke more active roles in peer education activities in the community. Twenty five (25) youth were trained on gender and HIV and AIDS with focus on gender violence, Female Genital Mutilation and polygamy as contributing factors to girls/women risks with HIV infection.

(iv) Formation of Peer Youth groups

Twenty youth with composition of youth in and out of school formed 2 groups, each with 10 members. The groups would voluntarily work with GAVO HIV and AIDS project, and their main role was to help to plan, manage and monitor and evaluation of youth related HIV and AIDS activities in the community. With leadership selected among the group members, GAVO would continue empower the groups with various skills to make them active and key players in HIV and AIDS peer education coordination in the community.

(v) Information Communication Technology Training (ICT)

Besides HIV and AIDS awareness raising activities, GAVO implemented other activities related to youth empowerment so as they could take more initiatives in HIV and AIDS interventions. With the help from UNICEF and through AfriAfya organization, 25 youth attended 2 trainings on resource management skills, and the training took place between September and November 2006 at Youth center, Berbera. The training was also part of youth empowerment on IEC materials design, production and dissemination.

(vi) Workshop on Vulnerable Children

In early December, GAVO organized one day workshop participants being children living in difficult circumstances from Berbera town and the surrounding villages. The main objective of the workshop was to discuss with the participants on their life challenges and problems they were facing as vulnerable children. With intensive working group discussions, a number of findings pertaining to social and economic problems were learnt from the workshop. On the other hand, participants had an opportunity to learn about GAVO activities in particularly in Sahil region. The workshop was also part of GAVO`s efforts to continue interventions on vulnerable groups, document, and share information with various stakeholders as way to advocacy and lobby for resources to address the problems.

(vi) Sports and Recreation Activities

GAVO, in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Sahil regional office, collaborated in planning, and implementation of youth sports activities in Sahil region. The collaboration included but not limited to one day workshop with community leaders including officers from the MoY&S which discussed development of sports activities in Sahil region. During this period, various sports activities and sports competitions were organized and held with youth groups from Berbera and Sheilk districts. Particularly, youth in football, volleyball and basketball games held sports competitions during the Month of Ramadan from September to October 2006. GAVO was also part of the community members who contributed in kind and in cash to support the competitions. More than 200 youth participated in the competitions. Sports and recreation is one among other activities geared towards life skills promotion among youth groups.

(vii) Project Staff Workshops and Meetings.

HIV & AIDS project staff attended various workshops and meetings related to the project programming, monitoring and evaluation. With funding from Oxfam novib, GAVO organized three-day training on Information communication Technology (ICT) and was facilitated by Dr Lishan. Participants were GAVO staff and other stakeholders working with GAVO`s various projects. The workshop took place in Hargeisa in November 2006. Also two staff attended five-day workshop training on HIV & AIDS M & E jointly organized by SOLNAC and CCM-Italy in June 2006.