Samraksha is now working towards large-scale mobilisation of rural communities in Raichur, Koppal and Uttar Kannada, and urban communities in Bangalore to take ownership of HIV/AIDS prevention and care access issues.

This year, the rural and urban community mobilisation programmes have focused largely on team recruitment and training. For the rural programme, field-based training and experiential learning revolved around a participatory three-day process carried out in 46 villages in Raichur district. This included:

Street plays to sensitise communities to the spread of the epidemic in the general population.

One-to-One sessions that allowed space for an individual's concerns about HIV/AIDS to surface in the privacy of her/his own home.

Group sessions that helped larger gatherings of women, youth or men to understand the extent to which members of the general population are at risk and how the epidemic can personally affect them.

Sensitisation programmes in schools conducted separately for groups of teachers and students.

All of these have a cross cutting theme of reducing stigma and discrimination and “ normalizing” the issue of HIV/AIDS so that the issue becomes more visible and early help seeking takes place.

Highlights 2002

World AIDS Day Procession :

World AIDS Day is a major annual advocacy and awareness event. SAMRAKSHA organised a procession from Town Hall in Bangalore to Mysore Road with over 20 Mobile Awareness Carts and at least 500 volunteers carrying placards and banners.

Mobile teams then accompanied each of the carts to different zones in the city to distribute condoms and leaflets.

Mobile Awareness Carts were also used in Raichur, Deodurg and Koppal towns to distribute pamphlets, condoms, and to broadcast awareness messages and songs.

The event also featured a series of street plays, presentations and talks. Government officials and local NGO's participated in all the locations where we conducted the programme. The highlight was the joint participation of governmental and non-governmental organizations including sharing of costs.

KEY LEARNINGS:

Community mobilisation requires SAMRAKSHA organisers to shift from their previous implementation roles to becoming trainers and facilitators with the ability to both challenge and work within community defined parameters.

Information campaigns clearly result in more women and men coming forward to access medical support for RTI, STI or HIV/AIDS and to request a range of counseling, information and treatment services in their local area.

As Nambaduku began performing its street plays in the villages, the team found more and more people from their audiences wanting to participate in the activities themselves. After the plays, audience members would share that the street play had helped them to understand HIV/AIDS much better than listening to someone give a lecture or even a discussion. Many young men said that they would put on plays themselves if the team would teach them how. In the first 25 villages, the Nambaduku team put on shows for the community . Then the team began to integrate talented community volunteers into the street-play troupe. In the next 17 villages, volunteers joined the Nambaduku team to perform the shows. Finally, in five villages, community members performed the shows entirely on their own.

IN THE PIPELINE...

... in Bangalore, SAMRAKSHA will focus on eight of the 30 identified community groups in the coming year. Volunteers will undergo an intensive training programme and then serve as resource persons, taking on responsibility for future awareness programmes.

... organisations will be supported to create condom outlets and spaces for HIV and STI services and/or referrals.

... across Raichur and Koppal Districts, three-member teams in each of the nine taluks will mobilise community support for the continuum of prevention to care needs.