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Guinean Youth Drive HIV/AIDS and Pregnancy Prevention Program

Country

Guinea

Region

Africa

Programme Summary

Launched in 8 districts in Guinea in July and August 2001, this community-based campaign was designed to foster open discussion about sexual health issues affecting young people. The campaign addressed Guineans aged 15 to 24 with messages about abstinence and condom use in an effort to reduce unintended pregnancy, sexually transmitted infection (STI), and HIV/AIDS. The yearlong campaign combined youth-driven community-based interventions with mass media. PRISM (Pour Renforcer les Interventions en Santé reproductive et MST/SIDA - Strengthening Interventions in Reproductive Health and STD/AIDS), a project designed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) with the Government of Guinea, implemented the campaign in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Center for Communication Programs (CCP) and Management Sciences for Health (MSH).

Communication Strategies

Community participation was a central strategy. Regional and district working groups made up of local leaders and representatives of local NGOs and various ministries met regularly to review campaign strategies and to coordinate activities, like campaign launches. The launches included large events developed for youth by youth that were covered on rural radio and national television. Local and regional political and religious leaders publicly endorsed the activities.


The regional working groups also supervised the process of identifying peer educators, which included an equal number of boys and girls. Parents and community health workers participated in this recruitment process. PRISM trained peer educators to provide both information about preventing HIV/AIDS and unintended pregnancies and referrals to service providers. They reached peers throughorganised community events (soccer and street shows), social gatherings ("grains" and "seres"), and health centre outreach. The latter initiative involved training 22 health providers from 20 health centres in technical issues and interpersonal communication. These personnel worked closely with the peer educators.


Community business owners, media, and artists were also central. 150 owners of cafés, tailors, and hairdressers decorated their shops with campaign logos (featuring the slogan "My right - Information; My duty - abstinence or condom use"). Following training, 8 theatre groups gave performances on health issues. 16 interactive radio programmes were broadcast twice weekly on rural radio in the local language (Maninka). Radio spots were also broadcast before the evening news. Campaign organisers also showed movies and documentaries on STIs, HIV/AIDS, and problem pregnancies. Local working groups organised the broadcasts with support from PRISM and also distributed promotional materials such as T-shirts, hats, balloons, and brochures.

Development Issues

Youth, Sexual Health, Family Planning, HIV/AIDS.

Key Points

Guinea currently has an HIV prevalence of 2.5% among youth, 2.3% among pregnant women, and 43% in certain pockets of the population such as commercial sex workers.


"Our research found that both males and females reported increased community openness in discussing youth sexuality in the areas where we implemented the campaign," said Guillaume Bakadi, CCP's Country Representative in Guinea.

Partners

PRISM, USAID, CCP, Government of Guinea, MSH.

Contact

PRISM, USAID, CCP, Government of Guinea, MSH.

Kim Seifert
Program Officer
ebraud@jhuccp.org
OR
Amelie Sow
Program Officer
asow@jhuccp.org
OR
Fannie Fonseca-Becker, DrPH
Senior Research and Evaluation Officer
ffbecker@jhuccp.org
OR
Guillaume Bakadi
Guinea Country Representative
gbakadi@biasy.net
OR
Kim Martin
Johns Hopkins University
Bloomberg School of Public Health
Center for Communication Programs
111 Market Place, Suite 310
Baltimore, Maryland 21202, USA
Tel.: (410) 659-6140
Fax: (410) 659-6266
Communication Impact! [PDF] June 2003, Number 16

Source

Communication Impact! [PDF] June 2003, Number 16; and letter sent from Kim Martin to The Communication Initiative on June 27 2003.


Placed on the Soul Beat Africa site September 18 2003
Last Updated June 27 2006

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