MOZAMBIQUE: Road show spreads the word about HIV

CHIMOIO, 9 May 2007 (PlusNews) - When the HIV/AIDS information truck shows up in a village in Mozambique's Manica Province, bordering Zimbabwe in the west of the country, dozens of children gather round in anticipation.

Workers unload the tents, speakers and video screen. By nightfall, hundreds of people have gathered and the programme begins. The master of ceremonies shouts into the microphone, "We are going to dance, we are going to joke around, we are going to talk about HIV! You've heard of it, no?" "Yes!" the crowd roars back.

HIV/AIDS has made its mark in every place the travelling info-truck visits. Manica is crisscrossed by two notorious 'AIDS corridors' and, with about one in five adults infected, has the second-highest HIV prevalence in Mozambique. Almost every family has felt the impact, but the causes of HIV are often a mystery, testing and treatment unheard of, and condoms unfamiliar.

Electricity is rare in the province, as are televisions and, to a lesser extent, radios. The only effective way to reach most residents is by going there.

GESOM (Manica Social Education Group in Portuguese) has been touring Manica since 2004 with a programme that includes lessons about HIV prevention, equality for girls and avoiding cholera.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the organisation's chief sponsor, helps support a number of mobile information units throughout Mozambique, but considers GESOM - with its mix of performance, entertainment, counselling, and audience interaction - the "Rolls Royce", said UNICEF's spokesperson in Mozambique, Thierry Delvigne-Jean.

The GESOM message is geared for children, particularly those aged 10 to 14, which is the "window of opportunity", as GESOM founder Sergio Silva put it.

A typical programme begins with a cartoon featuring 'Sara', a young girl whose uncle tries to keep her out of school. After the cartoon, young people from the audience are called to the front to discuss what they thought the story was about.

This is followed by a series of comic videos set in Manica, about a man who thinks he may have HIV and his eventual decision to be tested, and more discussion; then another video, this time of a puppet having the courage to tell another puppet that she is not ready for sex. Afterwards, contestants are picked from the audience for a mock quiz show about what they have seen.

A dance party caps the evening, often featuring the music of local artists recorded in the GESOM studios. "Our policy is to educate, to demonstrate how to prevent AIDS, but also to have fun," said Eugenio Fumane, who runs the GESOM mobile team.

Our policy is to educate, to demonstrate how to prevent AIDS, but also to have fun

GESOM "looks at things in an integrated manner, said UNICEF's Delvigne-Jean. "The real work is done after the movie, when we create a dialogue with the audience - you engage people in a debate." The Manica group's efforts are now being used as a model for mobile units elsewhere in the country.

The team might stay in a community for three or four days at a time and be available in the counselling tent, where anyone over 15 can speak confidentially to a GESOM volunteer.

Boys are much more likely than girls to visit the tent. The status of girls is often diminished in rural communities and reaching them is one of the group's chief objectives. At a recent event, just outside Chimoio, the provincial capital, one father felt he had to accompany his 19-year-old daughter to the show for her own protection. If there were not many women in the audience, he said, it was because "women had to stay home to guard against thieves".

Another obstacle is that it is sometimes difficult to speak bluntly about sex during shows, and GESOM may limit viewings of films involving sensitive subjects to select audiences of community leaders or teachers. "They may be shocked at first, but they disseminate the message," said Silva, adding, "This has much more impact than when we speak to the group at large."

Silva, 49, a photojournalist, founded GESOM in 1996 as a programme to get kids in Chimoio interested in photography, but the initiative has grown to incorporate a popular community radio station, a community centre with an internet café, and the mobile HIV/AIDS information unit.

The newly refurbished community centre hosts concerts and mounts art exhibitions. Radio programming mixes music with shows about HIV prevention, hygiene, and protecting the environment and is the station most listened to in its broadcast radius.

When GESOM's mobile-unit programme started a few years ago, HIV testing and treatment were unavailable in most places the group visited, but treatment and testing are now available in at least one health post in every one of the province's districts. However, the costs of travelling to them are often prohibitive and the stigma attached to having a positive rest result keeps many others away.

Even so, the prognosis for Manica is steadily improving. Based on official estimates, approximately 14,000 people are in need of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment and just over 4,000 are being treated, but four years ago only a few hundred, at most, were receiving ARVs.

Those on treatment provide clear testimony to its benefits. "There are stories of people on their deathbed, who then go on antiretrovirals," said Wendy Prosser, HIV/AIDS programme manager for Health Alliance International, a US-based health nongovernmental organisation, in Manica. "To see the demand here - it's impressive. GESOM is really good at getting information out there; the follow-up needs to be pushing for behaviour change."

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Theme (s): Prevention - PlusNews,

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]