30 YEARS INTO THE AIDS EPIDEMIC: FROM FEAR TO UNITY

It has been 30 years since the first reported case, 15 years since the treatment became a reality, only a few days since the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for global action to end the AIDS disease by 2020: the world has adopted a bold vision, meaning ZERO new HIV infections, ZERO discrimination and ZERO AIDS-related deaths.

There is a dramatic arc to the three decade history of AIDS as an epidemic and social phenomenon: overall the epidemic killed 25 million people worldwide, and nowadays, according to the UN, some 34 million people have AIDS, but about half of them do not know they have the disease. Despite figures, universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support have dramatically increased since the eighties tanks both to medical achievement and global awareness campaigns.

From discrimination and stigma to inclusion, form traditional sources to new technologies, the information flow has changed over the years, and several groups played a crucial role in it, from medical communities to people living with HIV, CSOs, teachers and media.

Since the HIV epidemic began, awareness campaigns helped to convey different messages, confronting the inequity of stigma against people living with HIV, explaining transmission and encouraging prevention. It has been done in many ways:  seminars and workshops, TV and radio, soap operas, internet, newspaper advertisement, street posters and billboard. Theater and role playing have also been creatively used to strengthen the flow of information and the general awareness on the issue.

As a example, the Italian Cooperation Office in partnership with Kenyan Ministry of Information and Communication, the National AIDS Control Council and the National AIDS /STD Control Programme, organized an itinerant initiative, CinemArena, which used screen and images to exchange views on themes such as HIV/AIDS, offering free tests and counseling, along with room for dialogue, to roughly 12.000 people in 15 villages in Nyanza Province, Rift Valley, Eastern, Coast and Nairobi.

Italian Cooperation Nairobi's photostream

Italian Cooperation Nairobi's photostream on Flickr.

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USE OF COMIC BOOKS TO ADDRESS SOCIAL ISSUES

Comic books can be effectively used as tools in delivering development messages and addressing social issues, particularly when the message to be promoted is a sensitive topic as in the case of Female Genital Mutilation and Circumcision (FGM/C) here analyzed.

The methodological reason to use comic books is two fold: strips are flexible and adaptable to changing context. Whatever the topic, the suspension of reality combined with grassroots research and highly culture sensitive language make the medium an ideal tool for communicating social messages to the wide audience: among teenagers and young adults comic strips can be used efficiently for this purpose.

Comics are usually funny, therefore applying them to methodological extent should have a interesting affect stimulating participation and involvement. The important thing is that the story line can be followed step by step and can recall its structure easily because of the logic behind the script, as in raising awareness on FGM/C and women’s rights through the ad hoc booklet funded by the Italian Cooperation and based on the original idea by two NGOs, namely Dialogue Foreign (DF) in collaboration with Association of Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK).

The visual nature of comic strips helps to increase motivation and more importantly, if a concept is accompanied by a picture (a visual image in one’s mind) then learner will memorize and recall it more easily. The choice to use well known settings (Nairobi centre skyline, Eastleigh views) improves readers’ identification, still maintaining distance.

– Comic illustration creates a distance between the reader and itself, so that whenever there’s heavy criticism, the audience wont be alienated by it because it still would not feel directly targeted, on the opposite of written text or photography;

– The comic’s use of mannerism and character distortion will further add to the distancing between audience and comic;

– Even if the image can become the language that breaks the barriers of communication, the presence of type (i.e. slang language inspired by street/urban language, text messages, social network sites and email) is a powerful tool to information dissemination.

HIV/AIDS: Together we shall overcome!

On the 27^th April 2011, the Italian NGO INTERSOS, in collaboration with the local partner WOFAK (Women fighting AIDS in Kenya), celebrated the Grand Opening of the Rescue Center in Kayole, built with the support of the Italian Cooperation.

Considering that more than 1,4 million adults are living with HIV/AIDS, 3 out of 5 HIV- infected Kenyans are female, 4 out of 5 HIV–infected people do not know their status and 7 out of 10 infected adults are rural residents, INTERSOS’ project has succeeded in giving effective and efficient support to the communities of Kayole and Soweto as well as establishing solid relationships with all the actors involved in the project.

The initiative focused on strengthening the capacity building of WOFAK in order to ensure the sustainability of the project and to empower the role of women within the community. Many activities were carried out, such as the implementation of awareness-raising campaigns on HIV/AIDS, assistance to women affected by the disease, sex education, feeding programmes for school children, peer education and recreational activities such as theatre, music and dance classes. Every day the centre guarantees a meal to more than 150 children and supports, with its counseling activities, the members of the community.

The center is much more than a simple building; it represents hope for the Kayole and Soweto communities, especially for those women and children who are fighting for their futures despite their illness.

 Children's Exibition for the Gran Opening Ceremony of Kayole Rescue Center

THROUGH 2011 TO 2013...

The reduction in the Italian Co-operation’s funding over the coming three-year period (2011-2013) does not imply that Italy is disengaging from the area of development cooperation. On the contrary, it has chosen a stronger approach based on meeting the qualitative commitments undertaken together with other donors, partner countries and international organisations.

A working group under the Directorate General for Development Co-operation (DGDC) established, in 2009, the Italian aid effectiveness plan, as other donors have done. In the framework of this plan, the existing sectoral guidelines will be updated, and the system for evaluating and monitoring programmes and activities re-organized and strengthened.

In order to increase the effectiveness of development cooperation activities, several priority sectors, which draw upon the Italian Cooperation's expertise and experience, have been identified. The Italian Cooperation has also reduced the numebr of priority countries and will focuse its resources on specific geographical areas in order to maximize the impact of funding.

In order to plan the Italian Development Cooperation Programme for Kenya 2011-2013 in the context of the new priorities, Mr. Baticci from DGDC also had consultations with the civil society organizations. 

On the base of its long experience and in a donor coordination perspective, the Italian Cooperation in Kenya focuses on few priority sectors, such as Rural and Urban Development, and Water and Irrigation, which includes the related aspect of environmental sustainability. Other important sectors in which Italian NGOs work are Health and Education. Gender issues and child protection are transversal themes to which attention is given in all interventions.

The Italian Cooperation, together with the civil society, decentralized cooperation as well as the private sector, and in coordination with the Donor Community, is working to create synergies in order to achieve the Kenya Vision 2030.

Beneficiaries of an Italian funded initiative in Northern Kenya