29 May 2009

Kang and Gumare, Botswana: Botswana has one of the highest rates of people affected by HIV/AIDS in the world. It is only by addressing the root causes of HIV transmission that the problem can be mitigated, and a UNV-led project aims to do just that.

The idea of the Community Capacity Enhancement Programme (CCEP) is to help civil society organizations to work together as they mobilize communities in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Via the project, communities themselves distribute information about HIV/AIDS to the local authorities, helping them put in place better policies.

People in the communities also need to work with each other to stem the tide of HIV/AIDS. National UNV volunteer Tunda Omondi, who works in Kang in Botswana’s southern Kgalagadi District, describes how it works in practice.

She and 12 other Botswana national UNV volunteer colleagues across the country guide and assist communities across the country “to unearth their capabilities and look into available resources within themselves”, she explains. This enables people to make decisions and implement projects “as a collective unit to enable sustainability and community ownership”.

“Through community conversation, the CCEP uses a methodology that seeks to empower communities to identify their concerns and  come up with solutions without external influence,” says Ms. Omondi. “The  methodology is named a ‘process’ because behavioural change - focusing on HIV/AIDS issues - and social development are a continuous phenomenon.”

“Part of my assignment is to do community conversations in villages to identify people’s concerns and with them find solutions,” says Kebonyemodisa Watota, another UNV volunteer who is based in Shakawe near Botswana’s northern border.

“I am involved in the formation of Village Multi-sectoral AIDS Committees, which we believe can act as a catalyst to spread HIV/AIDS information when UNV volunteers are not around,” he adds.

“We also train local facilitator and support groups in order to increase the flow of true facts about HIV/AIDS, because around Shakawe access to information is inadequate and the majority of services like hospitals are hard to get to.” 

The national UNV volunteers also come up with innovative ideas to get the point across. In Kang, Tunda Omondi formed a theatre youth group called ‘Gae la Ngwao’ (‘home of culture’). Unemployed youth get together in theatre performance to disseminate information about HIV/AIDS and other social issues to the community.

“In a small settlement known as Phuduhuhu,  40 kilometres from Kang, with my assistance people have formed a support group called Tsaakgatho (meaning ‘take a step’) that seeks to counsel and offer consolation and support for people living with HIV and affected families,” she adds.

The CCEP method calls for an understanding of the communities that national UNV volunteers are well placed to provide, adds Pusetso Morapedi in Gumare, North-West District.

“It was necessary to bring the people that the community looks up to on board,” she remarks, “so that they can give us support… They also help strengthen institutional capacity to develop effective communication strategies for behaviour change at the community level.” (Read more from Pusetso Morapedi here.)

The CCEP is part of a wider initiative relating to an agreement between the Government of Botswana and UNDP in 2003. It was recognized as a ‘best practice’ in recent UNDP regional evaluations.