Maeneo ya ukurasa huu ni kwa Kiingereza. Hariri tafsiri
In may 2007 survey was conducted and 25% revealed that majority of community members in Kimandolu ward lack information, education and communication to enable them making decisions on testing blood for HIV or to assist people living with HIV/AIDS effectively. Mr. Alex as the pioneer of this project decided to carry forward the findings so as to help the people of kimandolu ward for a number of reasons:
1 There are so many researches which have been conducted which revealed the same but they have not been addressed.
2 Mr. Alex has been living with HIV since 1995. He decided to check for HIV after the death of his wife who left a child of two years and this child started developing some infections from time to time. In 2001 Alex and his child were detected both positive. Since then he accepted his situation and is living positively. He is very transparent about his situation and he has being working with different organizations and assisting them in education, counseling, care and support of PLWHA. This includes Arusha Living Positively with HIV/AIDS (ALPHA+), Post Test Club (Angaza Arusha) Uhai Centre, Selian Lutheran Hospital, Pathfinder International and Student for International Change (SIC) In these organizations Alex has being working as TOT(Train of Trainers on Nutrition for people living with HIV/AIDS, ARV Drug Adherence Counselor, teaching counterpart and also a mobilizer of the community.
Having realized the need for educating community in order for them to make decisions of knowing their sero- status and the need for the affected community to know how to assist the infected relatives; CSG is committed to assist the Kimandolu community. This intention raised after they had gained knowledge and skills from the organizations where they worked closely and also from different areas where they attended workshops, seminars and conferences at national and International levels. They gained experience from creating awareness and talking to various people in the working places such as Bonite Bottlers, Tanzania Breweries, Primary and Secondary Schools, Standard Chartered Bank and CASEC to mention but a few.
From this experience CSG has realized that the ward has a lot of problems which need to be addressed. CSG through survey conducted realized that in Kimandolu there are people who have been tested positive but they are not adhering to what they have been taught. Others are due for starting medication but they have not started. There are people who are infected but have not been tested for HIV to rule out their status. The community is being infected with these people and the innocent are the sufferers.
There has been a sharp increase of street children and orphans in Kimandolu Ward, Arusha Region, Tanzania just because their parents died of AIDS. The future of these children has a great impact to the community since they stand a great chance to be infected with HIV if they are not well informed, educated and communicated on AIDS issues.
On the other hand there is a growing number of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) in Kimandolu Ward equally there is a great risk of more people being infected with HIV if (PLWHAs) are not consulted and counselled to stop spreading the HIV to others who are not infected.
Kimandolu Ward has four villages namely, Tindigani, Kitiangare, Kijenge chini and Kijenge juu with about 6020 households with a population of about 30100 an average of 5 people in each household, the majority of them can neither read no write and worse still are subjected to abject poverty earning below 0.5 $ per day. The low level of education characterized by abject poverty and bad traditional customers attribute to the widespread of HIV infection causing social, economic and health crisis
The HIV prevalence rate in Arusha Region is between 5-10% according to the report prepared by National AIDS Control Program Tanzania on HIV/AIDS/STI surveillance Report Jan-December 2004, whereas efforts to complement and supplement the community efforts to combat AIDS in Kimandolu Ward is still at low level.
Support from within the same community is viable answer to the problem since everyone has a role to play. The current situation in Kimandolu Ward demand more integrated approach involving a broad base of local leaders, volunteers, activists, PLWHAs and other stakeholders at large
The CSG intervention is to organize and mobilize local leaders and the community to initiate partnership between leaders, volunteers, activists and PLWHAs in a bid to complement and supplement the community efforts towards accessing information, education and communication about HIV and AIDS. The CSG strategy is to inspire, motivate and involve the local volunteers to take active role in addressing the key problems in their home area. CSG apparently operates AIDS health information, education and communication project whose priority is community outreach and education about AIDS.
The main activity is reaching and teaching the people in the community about HIV and AIDS using participatory approaches. The activities are categorized into the following sub-activities namely.
The Community Support Group (CSG) has formulated a project which is intending to tackle the problem identified in Kimandolu Ward and ensure that all community knows about HIV/AIDS. CSG is working in collaboration with a Zonal Health Training Centre (CEDHA), which is a Centre for Educational Development for Health. The centre is the government institution under the Ministry of Health which conducts several short courses and seminars related to health and in particular for HIV/AIDS interventions. CSG have realized that most people are afraid of testing blood, they need to be sensitized, as they are unaware of the impact, they also have misconceptions which need to be addressed. The surveys also have revealed that orphans living in orphanage homes loose culture and family element and sometimes they face stigma and discrimination. The group also intends to address this issue. Advocacy is needed to win more people in voluntary counseling and testing. Thus the project is justified
1 There are so many researches which have been conducted which revealed the same but they have not been addressed.
2 Mr. Alex has been living with HIV since 1995. He decided to check for HIV after the death of his wife who left a child of two years and this child started developing some infections from time to time. In 2001 Alex and his child were detected both positive. Since then he accepted his situation and is living positively. He is very transparent about his situation and he has being working with different organizations and assisting them in education, counseling, care and support of PLWHA. This includes Arusha Living Positively with HIV/AIDS (ALPHA+), Post Test Club (Angaza Arusha) Uhai Centre, Selian Lutheran Hospital, Pathfinder International and Student for International Change (SIC) In these organizations Alex has being working as TOT(Train of Trainers on Nutrition for people living with HIV/AIDS, ARV Drug Adherence Counselor, teaching counterpart and also a mobilizer of the community.
Having realized the need for educating community in order for them to make decisions of knowing their sero- status and the need for the affected community to know how to assist the infected relatives; CSG is committed to assist the Kimandolu community. This intention raised after they had gained knowledge and skills from the organizations where they worked closely and also from different areas where they attended workshops, seminars and conferences at national and International levels. They gained experience from creating awareness and talking to various people in the working places such as Bonite Bottlers, Tanzania Breweries, Primary and Secondary Schools, Standard Chartered Bank and CASEC to mention but a few.
From this experience CSG has realized that the ward has a lot of problems which need to be addressed. CSG through survey conducted realized that in Kimandolu there are people who have been tested positive but they are not adhering to what they have been taught. Others are due for starting medication but they have not started. There are people who are infected but have not been tested for HIV to rule out their status. The community is being infected with these people and the innocent are the sufferers.
There has been a sharp increase of street children and orphans in Kimandolu Ward, Arusha Region, Tanzania just because their parents died of AIDS. The future of these children has a great impact to the community since they stand a great chance to be infected with HIV if they are not well informed, educated and communicated on AIDS issues.
On the other hand there is a growing number of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) in Kimandolu Ward equally there is a great risk of more people being infected with HIV if (PLWHAs) are not consulted and counselled to stop spreading the HIV to others who are not infected.
Kimandolu Ward has four villages namely, Tindigani, Kitiangare, Kijenge chini and Kijenge juu with about 6020 households with a population of about 30100 an average of 5 people in each household, the majority of them can neither read no write and worse still are subjected to abject poverty earning below 0.5 $ per day. The low level of education characterized by abject poverty and bad traditional customers attribute to the widespread of HIV infection causing social, economic and health crisis
The HIV prevalence rate in Arusha Region is between 5-10% according to the report prepared by National AIDS Control Program Tanzania on HIV/AIDS/STI surveillance Report Jan-December 2004, whereas efforts to complement and supplement the community efforts to combat AIDS in Kimandolu Ward is still at low level.
Support from within the same community is viable answer to the problem since everyone has a role to play. The current situation in Kimandolu Ward demand more integrated approach involving a broad base of local leaders, volunteers, activists, PLWHAs and other stakeholders at large
The CSG intervention is to organize and mobilize local leaders and the community to initiate partnership between leaders, volunteers, activists and PLWHAs in a bid to complement and supplement the community efforts towards accessing information, education and communication about HIV and AIDS. The CSG strategy is to inspire, motivate and involve the local volunteers to take active role in addressing the key problems in their home area. CSG apparently operates AIDS health information, education and communication project whose priority is community outreach and education about AIDS.
The main activity is reaching and teaching the people in the community about HIV and AIDS using participatory approaches. The activities are categorized into the following sub-activities namely.
The Community Support Group (CSG) has formulated a project which is intending to tackle the problem identified in Kimandolu Ward and ensure that all community knows about HIV/AIDS. CSG is working in collaboration with a Zonal Health Training Centre (CEDHA), which is a Centre for Educational Development for Health. The centre is the government institution under the Ministry of Health which conducts several short courses and seminars related to health and in particular for HIV/AIDS interventions. CSG have realized that most people are afraid of testing blood, they need to be sensitized, as they are unaware of the impact, they also have misconceptions which need to be addressed. The surveys also have revealed that orphans living in orphanage homes loose culture and family element and sometimes they face stigma and discrimination. The group also intends to address this issue. Advocacy is needed to win more people in voluntary counseling and testing. Thus the project is justified