Reaching the un-reached with HIV & AIDS information

Providing accurate information on HIV & AIDS prevention and treatment to every member of the society is the key to reducing the spread of the virus and mitigating the impact of the disease.

However, HIV & AIDS information dissemination is sometimes segregated and adulterated as many people who need to be regularly and correctly informed about it are being left out. And due to the assumptions many people have of these people, only very few AIDS-service organizations include them in their programme implementation.

Treatment Action Movement (TAM) Lagos, - the civil society group spearheading activities on access to treatment and services in Nigeria- started working with the African Shrine in 2005 by conducting outreach programme in collaboration with the management of the African Shrine. The African Shrine is a special musical club based in Ikeja, the capital of Lagos State, Nigeria and it is reputable for the best Afro-beat music in the world. Of course the president of the Shrine, Femi Anikulapo-Kuti who is also the HIV/AIDS Ambassador for United Nations Children’s Fund is the son of the Afro-beat legend – Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.

TAM through its outreach program has been providing regular information including counselling and referral services on HIV & AIDS prevention, testing and treatment. The audience were also encouraged to be adequately protected from contracting HIV by ensuring correct and consistent use of condom.

The counselling session held on Sunday, July 30 was quite unique as the entire programme for the day was dedicated to one-to-one counselling and distribution of IEC materials in English and local languages. The management and crew of the African Shrine also joined in providing relevant information and distributing IEC materials among the people at the shrine.

Though reaching out to certain category of people in the society can be more challenging yet, AIDS-service organizations are encouraged to reach out to all the nook and crannies of the society especially the highly vulnerable groups and provide comprehensive information on HIV & AIDS prevention, testing and treatment using appropriate strategies suitable for each target audience.