Africa Asia Interaction-

The Africa-Asia InterAction on HIV/AIDS was launched at the Global Village during the XV International AIDS Conference in Bangkok Thailand in July 2004.  Supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, the InterAction built two active learning networks-- one in Eastern Africa, and the other in the Greater Mekong Region of Asia. The East African network includes community organizations from Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya working in the field of HIV/AIDS related field. These organisations provide structural services in herbal and nutritional treatments, linking to anti-retroviral programs, taking care of orphans, offering voluntary testing and counseling, supporting income generation and savings schemes, providing group therapy, advocating for the rights of the infected and affected, and working with formal health service sectors. 

Project Objectives

The Africa- Asia InterAction on AIDS aims to foster exchange and common learning by linking the Africa organisations with their Asian counterparts working in HIV/AIDS management and prevention. The goal of this work is to build bridges across the geographical divide to stimulate cross learning; the sharing of strategies, operational challenges and solutions; the documentation of lessons of many years of experience; and the creation of a collective identity that communicates concerns at the local level to global policy processes.
 

The InterAction is powered by the theme ‘Closer to Home’. The theme recognizes the importance of family, kin and community to prevention, care and treatment and mitigation efforts. It provides a lense through which to explore cultural and structural factors contributing to HIV vulnerability; to identify sources of support and care; and to move forward in reconceptualising how to tap and strengthen this core social institution in creating more equitable and robust systems.
 

Asia and Africa are the continents hardest hit by the AIDS pandemic.  They are also the locations of some of the most creative and effective responses to HIV/AIDS.  Over the twenty years since HIV was identified, community organizations in these two continents have demonstrated remarkable skill, flexibility, and stamina in dealing with the many challenges that HIV/AIDS presents.  Much of this work takes place in community contexts, which are economically disadvantaged; where food, employment, water, and security are not assured, and where health systems are crumbling. This project seeks to document and share these sustainable methodologies not only with the two regions but with the whole world.
 

These experiences are being documented and are to be published in a book, which will be distributed to partners and public.

Partners in Africa Asia InterAction

Among the Kenya members are Kibera Community Self Help Programme (KICOSHEP), Women Fighting AIDS in Kenya (WOFAK), Trust For Indigenous Cultures and Health (TICAH), Society of Orphans Against AIDS Network(SOAAN), Shangilia Mtoto Wa Afrika and Grassroots Alliance for Community Education (GRACE). In Tanzania we are collaborating with Faraja Trust and Tanga AIDS Working Group (TAWG) and in Uganda we are working  with Traditional and Modern Health Practitioners Together Against  AIDS and Other Diseases (THETA) and The AIDS Support Organisation (TASO).   In South East Asia we are partnering with Raks Thai, Khemara, COHED, SHAPC, AIDSNet, Pattanarakand Yunan Institute of Family Women. These organisations are drawn from Thailand, Cambodia, Laos,Vietnam and China.

By linking these partners in learning exchanges, AHADI is opening avenues for important dialogue on HIV/AIDS in Africa and Asia

Proect Activities

The InterAction is running for the next two years with Satellite Meetings in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Asia. In these meetings, communities will share their experiences in helping infected households cope with AIDS-related illnesses and conditions.  Some of the topics for these gatherings include:

• Communication within the family
• Herbal Medicine
• Working Systems
• Challenges and solutions in HIV/AIDS Management.
• Policy and  implementation mechanisms
• Destigmatization and acceptance
• Care and Management
•  Children and HIV/AIDS

Satellite Meetings

The Satellite meetings are geared towards sharing and learning from each other. Over twenty participants from East Africa participated in the June Interaction held at KICOSHEP. The InterAction explored the impact of HIV/AIDS and the role of support groups in management of the scourge. Participants also toured KICOSHEP project areas.

Global Village

The Global Village ‘Learning from Those who are Living It’ was a community space  at XV International AIDS Conference in Thailand, Bangkok  where People Living With AIDS, AIDS activists, academics, scientists, policy makers, gays, lesbians, transgenders, traditional healers, drug users, migrants indigenous people, young people, old people, women and men all fighting AIDS across the world converged to share their experiences, success, challenges and visions. AHADI together with it partners from Africa was there to witness the birth of the greater Africa Asia InterAction.

Kimani Njogu of AHADI  and  Siripon  Yonpanichkul from Thailand facilitated  the five day high powered deliberations. This gathering identified poverty, stigma, gender inequality and migration as the four main obstacles to HIV/AIDS management and prevention.

East African artists were facilitated by AHADI and our partners Twaweza Communications to participate in the Silabha performances. Zamaleo Act, Shangilia Mtoto Wa Afrika, Meeting Point and Taso of Uganda staged spectacular performances during the InterAction sessions and in other venues.

The Art For Action on HIV/AIDS Project
 

The Art For Action festival will use art to create and disseminate positive messages, which can increase knowledge on HIV/AIDS prevention and encourage positive attitudes towards people living with AIDS and those affected by the disease.  This year’s theme is  ‘Women and Girls in the Face of HIV/AIDS’.
 

Festival Objectives

• Mobilise and engage urban youth from low-income communities on HIV/AIDS;
• Establish an innovative platform for the creation and dissemination of a broad range of ideas and experiences about HIV/AIDS, especially as it affects women and girls;
• Strengthen partnerships between youth, artists, people living with HIV/AIDS, government and non-government organisations working on HIV/AIDS, and bilateral and multilateral agencies fighting HIV/AIDS in order to pay particular attention to the informal settlements in cities and towns; and,
• Support contemporary art in Kenya and East Africa in general.

• Art For Action Activities
• Memory Boxes
•  Body Maps
• Photography Project
• Multi-Media Project
• Memory Boxes

This project resulted from the realization of the fact that many people in Africa die without a will. This renders the orphaned children vulnerable as relatives take away the property under the pretext they will take care of them. The Memory Box project encourages PLWAS to document their lives in form of narratives, songs and memory books.
 

Body Maps
 

In this, project participants work in pairs to trace their bodies into life-size canvas models and then paint representations of symbols of personal power, areas of emotional significance, ideas about their HIV status, and other narratives.

AHADI is working with Korogocho based AIDS support groups to ignite discourse on HIV/AIDS and acceptance at the community level. The body maps will be exhibited in the upcoming Art For Action on HIV/AIDS to be held in October 2005.

Community Murals

Artists, youth, people living with AIDS, and HIV/AIDS educators are creating large murals about their lives and HIV/AIDS. These murals will enable individuals to look at and represent their immediate surroundings. These murals will also be exhibited in public places and it is envisioned that they will ignite dialogue and understanding about HIV/AIDS increasing awareness and reducing stigma.

Photography Project
 

The photographic project aims at creating a visual space that bridges poverty, youth realities and aspirations, while speaking about HIV/AIDS.  A professional photographer will work with youth from the slums and informal settlements to take photographers that depict their situations, challenges and success interwoven by HIV/AIDS messages.  This project will create open dialogue on  youth sexuality and understanding on   HIV/AIDS prevention.

The outcome of these workshops will be two billboard size photographic collages, which will present positive messages about how people respond to the pandemic.

Multi-Media Project

In this project AHADI is working with Shangilia Mtoto Wa Afrika a rescue center for neglected and abused children to create  dances, songs and puppetry with a message on HIV/AIDS.  Two professional dancers and choreographers   will train the children to create powerful dances, which will later be performed in public spaces through a mobile installation.
 

These dances and puppetry  will form the basis for animations and Public Service Announcements (PSA) on HIV to be presented on national television.


Social Change Programming

In collaboration with United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), The Population Secretariat and Central Broadcasting Station (CBS), AHADI runs  radio soap opera ‘Banadda Twegande’ loosely translated to ‘Together We Will’ and broadcast in Central Uganda region. The soap opera seeks to increase knowledge and understanding on sexual and reproductive health issues including reproductive rights. The soap targets farmers, plantation and factory workers and bodabodas (community service motor cyclists). It is envisioned that the pilot program will start the process of policy advocacy in Buganda through an effective IEC, strategy to reduce STI/HIV, transmission and to promote condom programming. It is anticipated that the proportion of women who have the final say in decisions about their own health care will start increasing among the target population.

The soap is supported by a panel discussion of critical sexual reproductive issues  raised in the drama.
 

The soap is broadcast through Central Broadcasting Station (CBS FM) in Central Region: Masaka, Luwero, Wakiso and Mukono. In addition, AHADI is running a weekly comic strip in Bukedde, the Luganda newspaper. The graphic representation enhance the messages in the radio program.

AHADI provides technical support to Twende na Wakati and Mambo Bomba in Tanzania.

Kimani Njogu AHADI Regional Representative has also trained in Entertainment Education Strategy in   India, Peru, Laos, Mexico, Pakistan, Madagascar, Namibia, Palau, Malawi, Eritrea among other countries.

New Leadership Project

The New Leadership program is a partnership with Twaweza Communications Limited and is funded by Ford Foundation Eastern Africa Office. This project aims at redefining the concept of leadership and extending the leadership space from politics to other arenas.  The project seeks to curve out leadership spaces in business and entrepreneurship, volunteer movements, community initiatives and education sector and contribute in changing people’s perception of leadership.


Project Objectivest 

The project main goal is to diversify, demystify and realign the concept of leadership among the youth. The project also aims to:

 Explore meanings and inferences of leadership in East Africa. These explorations would give us an understanding of young people’s concepts of leadership and whether these change over time and how these affect society.

Initiate a process of empowerment for male and female young leaders on issues of democracy, human rights, and community mobilization through media and the arts, with the eventual aim of sustaining the nascent and fledgling democratic processes in the East African Region.

Improve the capacity of young leaders in Kenya and East Africa to continuously expand their cultural, social and political space.

Provide an opportunity for political and social networks and linkages towards positive collaboration, at both the lateral and vertical levels.

Enhance opportunities for younger people to sharpen their leadership skills in participatory democracy and governance.

Inculcate in young leaders the values and concepts of effective democratic leadership.

Project Activities

The project is creating spaces for propagation of alternative leadership ideas in the media. In 2004, we called on the public to nominate people in their communities who are doing work in leadership. We received over 100 nominees. From this number we selected 20 participants and facilitated them to Nairobi to share and exchange ideas on community work and influence.

 Here are some excerpts from the participants:

This program is ongoing with leaders workshops and seminars in Nairobi.