OTHER PREVENTIONS

This is an HIV/AIDS prevention project targeting the Most At Risk Populations (MARPS) in the fishing community. The Project seeks to achieve this through promotion of risk reduction activities among the MARPS through behaviour change communication, HIV/AIDS education and enhancing access to prevention measures.

DEVLINK identified "Jaboya", "Jo abila", Commercial Sex Workers, "bodaboda" riders among others as the key MARPS in her area of operation.

Selected representatives from each of the identified MARPS were recruited for training on peer education, reproductive health, gender issues, and life skills for onward use during their peer education sessions.

The following are our key activities:

  • Training of peer educators
  • Mounting of condom dispensers
  • Distribution of condoms
  • On site peer-peer sessions
  • Fortnight and monthly peer educators meeting
  • Referral and linkages with other prevention services including VMMC (Voluntary Medical Male Circumssion), STI diagnosis and treatment, PMTCT, Care and Support, Post GBV care, drug rehabilitation among others
  • Stake holder review meetings

Our Achievements are as follows:

  1. Successful training of all the 150 peer educators
  2. Identification of sites and mounting of 120 condom dispensers
  3. Provision of HIV prevention and peer education services to 1,380 men and 2,672 women a total of 4,052 people
  4. Extensive involvement of the beach management units (BMUs) in the respective beaches
  5. Increased the number of VMMC clients through referrals to Tuungane Youth Project

DEVLINK has succeeeded in this preventive course by identifying Most at Risk Populations and implementing activities to reduce the the number of HIV infections, however at some point we have faced a few challenges which include:

  1. Little access to condoms for distribution
  2. Mobility of peer educators
  3. Inefficiency of referral networks