Team members from the Marketing and Corporate Relations section together with the Community Outreach Team held a two-day orientation workshop on Counseling and Testing (CT) for HIV/AIDS.
With funding from the National AIDS Commission (NAC), BLM will be providing CT Services and it is important that the messages that are given to the public are relevant in addressing HIV/AIDS issues.
“We thought it would be very rewarding to orient the Marketing and Community Outreach Teams on HIV/AIDS matters in light of CT because they are BLM’s mouth piece in the form of drafting messages that appear in the papers, posters and leaflets as well as those heard on the radio!” said Timothy Bonyonga, BLM Trainer.
He stressed that most of the messages that are currently being disseminated to tackle HIV/AIDS issues are not reassuring and this calls for images as well as messages that offer hope to those affected with the disease.
The session culminated in the display of a “Hope Kit” that is used as a tool to help Behaviour Change communicators in disseminating a message of hope in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The “Hope Kit” is a portable bag that has a piece of blue material representing a sea or lake.
In this lake there are three boats of “Abstinence”, “Be faithful” and “Condom use” that are sailing to “Hope Island”. The three boats are depicted as a sure way for one to reach the “Hope Island” where a long, healthy life can be attained and dreams are realised. Upon gazing on the “Island” one aspires to be either a doctor, a Country Director of a successful organisation like BLM, a teacher, an artist or anything.
The “Hope Kit” gives choices of Abstinence, Being faithful, and Condom use. If one is not sailing in one of these “A,B,C” Boats s/he risks falling into the lake which is fraught with many a proverbial crocodiles and sharks that put life at risk of HIV/AIDS.
“As health service providers of SRH issues, we have huge responsibility towards the community we are serving in terms of providing correct information” commented Tupochele Mtila, a participant at the workshop. She went on to say that there’s need to constantly update the knowledge base so that the messages that are being sent to the ever-changing target audience is relevant.
by Felistas Sibweza
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