In South Africa, an HIV campaign with a personal touch struggles to show its relevance

A Banake field worker talks to a family in Khayelitsha. Photo by Nicole Safker.

NOTE: This was originally published on the Knowledge4Health Blog on March 5, 2013.

Residents of Khayelitsha worry about a neighbour’s daughter who is only 13 but does not go to school because she cannot afford transport. She was raped by an old man. Her mother does not care and drinks a lot, swears at her about the rape and hits her. The child wants to go to school, so she went to stay in a neighbour’s home. The neighbour is also struggling and cannot afford the transport and school fees. – Banake Initiative Field Worker Diary

This is only one of many heart-breaking stories from the notes of field workers involved in an effort to improve communication among families affected by HIV/AIDS and encourage them to use HIV prevention services in Khayelitsha, the largest township of Cape Town, South Africa. The notes reveal shocking callousness and indifference on the part of township residents, but also compassion, like the neighbor who gave shelter to the 13-year-old girl.

The Banake Initiative was started in 2009 by DKT South Africa, an affiliate of DKT International, whose normal approach is focused on getting affordable health products and services to low-income people through the private sector. However, DKT decided that a different approach was required in South Africa, where HIV prevalence of people 15-49 has been stuck at around 17% since 2003 (the fourth highest rate in the world) despite years of work by many well-financed programs and the excellent availability of condoms (In November 2012, UNAIDS announced that the rate of new infections in South Africa had been reduced by 41% between 2001 and 2011).

In Costa Rica, strengthening health systems has a human side

A lab technician at the blood bank of Hospital de los Niños in San Jose.

NOTE: This originally appeared on the Impatient Optimists blog on February 28, 2013.
 
SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica — Until I came here, I thought of “health system strengthening” strictly in clinical, technical terms – as a set of procedures for improving HIV testing, disposal of bio-waste, and health data management.

It is indeed all of those things, as I learned during a visit to a program working to improve care for people living with HIV led by IntraHealth International , a non-profit organization that empowers health workers to serve better communities in need,  but it also has a more human side.

Over two days, I spoke with a dozen health workers and managers about IntraHealth’s Central America Capacity Project. Several of them referred to these technical improvements as the calidad (or quality) side of health system strengthening, but they seemed to place equal emphasis on calidez (warmth). Many of the calidez changes can be made without incurring much, if any, financial cost. Virtually all of the health workers I talked to gave me examples of calidad and calidez:

• A lab technician at Hospital Dr. Max Peralta in Cartago, about 20 kilometers from downtown San José, emphasized improved procedures in handling of bio-wastes (calidad).
• The head of the blood bank at the Hospital de los Niños (Children’s Hospital) said that one of Capacity’s most important changes was simply securing a room where blood bank staff could talk to blood donors in private (calidez).
• Dr. Luis Ledesma, former director of Hospital de las Mujeres (Women’s Hospital), says Capacity has improved both types of health care, and he gave an example of each. Calidad: Improving and increasing HIV testing. Calidez: Calling a person by their name.

In Brazil, using Carnaval to fight HIV

A dancer at the World AIDS Day rehearsal I attended.

This piece was originally published by the ONE Campaign on Feb. 8, 2013.

SAO PAULO, Brazil — Brazilians are bracing for the six days of Carnaval. The annual bacchanalian festival held 40 days before Easter, begins this weekend across this country of almost 200 million people. Many will participate directly as musicians, dancers and support staff. Millions will watch the parades, in person or by television. Companies sponsoring Carnaval see it as an opportunity for promoting their brand and selling their products, and many will use Carnaval as a license to engage in worldly pleasures of all kinds before the deprivations of Lent.

But one company, DKT Brazil, is taking a different approach and using Carnaval to promote responsible behavior — using condoms, specifically its Prudence brand, to prevent HIV infection. Typical Carnaval sponsors are companies like Mercedes Benz, Cacau Show (chocolate), Bombril (cleaning products) and beer companies. This is apparently the first time a company has sponsored Carnaval for a social purpose.

Taking HIV prevention to the streets, and cyberspace, in Brazil

A DKT promoter hands out a condom sample on the streets of São Paulo.

This piece was originally published on the Huffington Post on Jan. 25, 2013.

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — On Dec. 1, World AIDS Day, "Prudence Trooper" repeatedly battled it out with HIV on the streets of downtown São Paulo. HIV was trying to infect pedestrians but Prudence Trooper defended them, because he had Prudence, one of the leading condom brands in Brazil, in his arsenal.

The two characters were mascots created by DKT Brazil, a social marketing enterprise that distributes Prudence condoms for HIV prevention and family planning, and are an example of the creative, in-your-face methods it uses to encourage young Brazilians to protect themselves against HIV, which currently affects more than 600,000 Brazilians.

My top 10 communications stories in global health and poverty in 2012

Melinda Gates, Andrew Mitchell and three African heads of state welcome British Prime Minister David Cameron to the podium of the London Family Planning Summit.

This piece was originally published on the Impatient Optimists blog on Dec. 21, 2012.
 
In 2012, global development communication trends continued as in recent years: Non-profits increased their reliance on social media, decreased it on traditional media and looked for creative ways to call attention to their issues, change policy and raise money. Several global events provided unique opportunities to cast a spotlight on food security, family planning, and AIDS.

As a global development communicator, I track trends in development communication. For the last two years I have shared my personal, subjective take on what I consider the top global development communication stories of the year. Here’s my take on 2012, in no particular order:

In Alsace, land of my ancestors, people still live off the land to surprising degree

This was originally published on The Huffington Post on Nov. 13, 2012.
 

Germaine cooking in her kitchen

HOUSSEN, Alsace, France -- Here in the village from where my great-great grandparents emigrated to America, in the former province known as Alsace, those who derive their living from the land are now a fraction of what they were at the time my ancestors left in 1872. But many, including the Eckerlens, my modern-day relatives that I know best, still live off the land to a surprising degree -- especially in the late summer and early fall.

During a visit here in September, I had a dinner and two lunches at the home of Germaine Eckerlen who lives in the village of Houssen, where my great grandfather Eugene was born in 1867. And yet everything, or nearly everything, I ate came directly from her backyard in the village. Germaine, 80 years old, is the widow of my father's third cousin. She treats me like a long-lost relative which, in fact, I am: I only discovered this village in 2000 after many years of genealogical research.

Using technology to talk to Ethiopian university students about HIV

The home page of Temarinet.com.

This article originally appeared on The ONE Blog on Oct. 26, 2012.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — The most dramatic demographic divergence in Ethiopia in recent years has been an explosion in the number of young adults enrolled in post-secondary education. Ten years ago, there were 15,000. In 2012, that has risen to 380,000 students attending state universities — a 25-fold increase. Most of them moved out of their family homes and also from the protective shields of their parents, with all the implications that has for their sexual and reproductive health.

To reach them in the most effective way with information about protecting themselves from HIV and other sexually-transmitted infections, health programs in Africa are increasingly turning to technology — digital, mobile and social. In Ethiopia, for example, DKT Ethiopia, an affiliate of the non-profit organization DKT International, launched the Higher Education Initiative in 2009 in an effort to get on top of this demographic trend and the potential negative health consequences it portends.