HIV and AIDS Education

Over recent years, a significant amount of effort has gone towards enhancing people’s understanding of HIV and AIDS. As a result, more people are getting tested and receiving the counseling that was never made available before. Alongside these endeavors has been an increase in the positive steps taken towards people already living with HIV (including home based care and support and anti-retroviral treatment) in order to reduce the spread of the disease and help them to cope both mentally and physically. Despite efforts by the Tanzanian Government and other private parties, HIV and AIDS still takes many lives and infects more and more people every day. This outreach programme is intended to increase awareness about the disease and what can be done to reduce the rates of infection. Such a campaign is also of paramount importance if we are to eliminate stigma that a near constant throughout Tanzania.

 

Working with SAIDIA and our partners, volunteers can:

 

• Visit both schools and the community at large, passing on their knowledge of the disease, contraception and behavioral change.

• Participate in an awareness programme that uses the superior entertaining skills of more than a dozen peer educators. The group, or “kikundi”, as it is known in Swahili, visits all the wards in Mwanza region, with a focus on the rural areas. They also visit schools where the message is most needed, because after all, what do we have, if not the next generation?