by Tunda Omondi

29 May 2009

Kang, Botswana: I started my assignment in 2006 in Kang. It was not a smooth start, but I managed due to the intense training I acquired and the spirit of volunteerism that my parents inculcated in me when I was young. 

The Community Capacity Enhancement Programme (CCEP) process has various tools that are used during conversations to help communities have a better understanding of the methodology. I and a team of facilitators have used the ‘loss bed count tool’ during community conversation in different villages.

The loss bed count tool enables participants to reflect on the magnitude and impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic at individual levels. It also shows communities that if not infected we are all affected - so let’s bear one another’s burden to win the war against HIV/AIDS.

During community conversations, people are asked to pick up stones to symbolize the number of people they have lost to HIV/AIDS. Then seated in a circle and in a solemn mood, an individual is asked to talk to the others about the stones they have collected.

At the end of the exercise, the stones are counted to see how as a community they have lost so many people to HIV/AIDS.

These stones are then gathered in a position of the community members’ choice, and a memorial tombstone is erected as a symbol of the community members’ collective agreement to continue to fight - and a constant reminder of the need to change behaviour and prevent HIV/AIDS.

With the assistance of the District Multi-sectoral AIDS Committee, my team of CCEP facilitators and the community have been able to erect three memorial tombstones in different villages (Kang, Lehututu and Monong). The one at Monong was dedicated to the late ‘Miss Botswana HIV-positive Stigma Free’ who visited the village during her reign.

I also volunteered as a peer educator with the Botswana Women Young Christian Association in the Peer Approach to Counselling by Teenagers (PACT) club in Gaborone. As a peer educator, I learnt various life skills which I used to start off similar clubs at junior and senior secondary schools in Kang,

I met with the guidance and counselling teachers, the school head and the students to share the idea. I am proud to say the idea was accepted by both secondary schools where these clubs exist, and now meet once in a week.

During their meetings, with the assistance of the guidance teacher we coach students to be peer educators. The peer educators are to assist in guiding and counselling, or offer support to their fellow teenagers facing social issues. These students sometime collect outgrown clothes from students in the school and donate them to the needy as an outreach to the community.

We share topics such as the qualities of a good peer educator, communication skills, basic counselling skills, and information about HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, peer pressure and the dangers of teen pregnancy.