Outreach Guides: HIV/AIDS Prevention Programmes

Pact Botswana has developed a series of 10 Outreach Guides to assist HIV/AIDS programme implementers working in HIV prevention interventions. The Guides utilise participatory methodologies and intend to underline approaches that promote behaviour change, especially for the most-at-risk groups, taking co-factors such as alcohol abuse, sexual violence, and intergenerational sex into consideration. Each Guide focuses on a particular aspect of HIV prevention.

The Guides include the following:

• Organising and Conducting Outreach: This first guide is an introduction to the Outreach Guides series and the accompanying Picture Codes. This guide makes suggestions on how to organise and conduct outreach, including how to make it attractive and encourage participation.
• Abstinence Promotion: Developed for use with young people who have not yet had their first sexual experience, the goal of this guide is to encourage the delay of individual’s first sexual encounter, including helping to prepare young people for pressures to have sex.
• Assertiveness and Peer Pressure: This manual covers building up self-confidence and learning how to be firm and strong without being overly aggressive. An understanding of the influence of peer pressure to have sex is included.
• Values and Goal Setting: This guide deals with looking at the future and what can be achieved in life by setting goals, as well as deciding and living by moral values. The idea is that people make better behaviour choices today if they set their own standards and future goals. Choosing moral values and living by them is also covered.
• Sexual Behaviour Changes: Since HIV is very likely going to be transmitted sexually, this guide says that working on making good decisions about sexual behaviour is essential to avoiding becoming infected. Different kinds of sexual behaviour that put people at risk are examined.
• Alcohol Abuse Reduction: According to the guide, alcohol abuse contributes to HIV infection by increasing the desire to have sex and affecting judgment. The guide deals with understanding the link between alcohol abuse and sexual risk, as well as different ways to control alcohol abuse.
• Gender Roles and Sexual Abuse Reduction: According to this manual, inequality of the sexes contributes to HIV infection. When women have less power and resources than men, they become vulnerable to being abused and are forced to have sex. This guide explores the link between gender inequalities and HIV/AIDS.
• Better Couple Communication: Improving couple communication and avoiding infidelity is the focus of this guide. The author says that when couples, whether married or not, are not listening to and understanding each other, they can end up disrespecting and not trusting each other.
• Enhancing Parent-Child Communication: According to the guide, parents often have difficulty guiding their teenagers towards making good decisions about avoiding HIV. This guide focuses on building parents’ communication skills and ability to communicate with teenagers without alienating them.
• Partner Reduction and Protection: This guide is for conducting outreach with those who practice "risky sexual behaviour." It recommends reducing the number of partners and includes content on how to promote condom use, including how to overcome obstacles to use.

This publication was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Regional HIV/AIDS Program (RHAP).