STOP AIDS/LOVE LIFE Ghana Study Tours

Burkina Faso and Cote d'Ivoire's SantéFamiliale et Prévention du SIDA (SFPS) team took a study trip to Ghana to visit and learn from their STOP AIDS/LOVE LIFE campaign in preparation of its Youth/HIV/AIDS Campaign. The aim of the campaign was to promote safe sexual behavior among youth and the use of HIV/AIDS/RH resources developed by SFPS through mass media.

STOP AIDS/LOVE LIFE CONCEPT OVERVIEW

At the time the STOP AIDS/LOVE LIFE was being launched, the HIV prevalence in Ghana was approaching the serious threshold of 5%. Ghanaian organizations decided to bring HIV/AIDS issues to the public forefront with the STOP AIDS/LOVE LIFE campaign, utilizing and synthesizing lessons learned in the fight against AIDS throughout Africa.

Former First Lady of Ghana launched the campaign with great fan-fare in February 2000; it was sponsored by USAID and UNAIDS in collaboration with the Ghana Ministry of Communications, The Ghana Ministry of Health, and the Ghana Social Marketing Foundation as key partners.

The campaign programme consisted of three phases: information and awareness raising through mass media focusing on Abstinence, Being faithful and Condom Use (ABC); personal risk assessment through community-based programs; and compassion for people living with HIV/AIDS. These threefold activities went on in parallel at all stages of the campaign with a view of:

• Increasing people's sense of personal risk of getting HIV. The challenge was tomake people aware of their risk before they see many people dying from thedisease;
• Beginning to remove stigma of PLWA's through testimonials. It has been welldefined that when the stigma is reduced, the number of positive effects increasesexponentially: better flow of information, greater motivation in getting each oneto be tested, greater social support for those affected;
• Starting to remove the social stigma attached with preventive behaviors: mostpeople perceive the social risks of using condoms or abstaining from sex as morethreatening than are the health risks of not using condoms or abstaining from sex.
• Raising the profile of the fight against the disease to the highest levels of the government.

Approaching the communities

One aspect of the success of the STOP AIDS/LOVE LIFE campaign has been its capacity to mobilize communities and involve them in the process of reaching over the populations. Apart from the very broad information campaign carried out approximately a year before the campaign itself, communities have not been approached as a whole but in their specific field of expertise and through exemplifying the social, economic and affective impact of HIV/AIDS disease in the community.

Hence, as an example, approaching traditional leaders has been an easier step to reach once they had been informed on current status of HIV/AIDS throughout the nation and involved in the process of informing their peers.

They decided to speak out about HIV/AIDS on TV, radio and in their communities. Ashanti, Heve, Nzima and Ga Chiefs and Queen mothers high level of endorsement represented an important catalyst on the issue and significantly reduced people's skepticism on HIV/AIDS.

THE CAMPAIGN COMMUNITY EVENTS

The campaign used a wide range of communication channels and tools including television, radio, print materials, music and community events. Most of these have been broadcasted nation-wide in a variety of home languages.

STOP AIDS/LOVE LIFE Campaign has purposefully been that of empowering, uplifting messages in order to achieve positive behavior change. The actual challenge carried out was to equally balance between rendering positive and optimistic messages while understanding the seriousness of the situation.

Candles spot: This spot designed to get the stark statistics of the HIV/AIDS epidemic out to people in a way that they can imagine and understand. 200 candles were supposed to represent the frightening statistic of 200 people dying a day.

Testimonials: A number of courageous people and their families afflicted by the HIV/AIDS have decided to let their stories be told publicly and share their daily experience of being infected/affected by the HIV/AIDS virus. Some were willing to go on television, others on radio.

Print materials: Many posters, stickers, leaflets and booklets have been designed under the campaign ABC theme: " Abstinence, Be faithful, Use a Condom". All throughout the nation the yellow opened hand, with a lifted thumb has been adopted as the STOPAIDS/LOVE LIFE reaching communities symbol. One million of leaflets have been printed for distribution to health facilities, schools, youth groups, church groups and other organizations in communities.

Road show: A traveling road show visited 120 towns in all ten regions of the country over the course of the campaign year. The show was both entertaining and educational, reaching between 3000-4000 people at each of the 9 shows carried out during the year. This channel of communication has revealed to be unique in such it reached the grassroots and offered the opportunity for people to ask questions about the topic.

THE CAMPAIGN RESULTS

According to UNAIDS report published in Ghana, the STOP AIDS/LOVE LIFE campaign "slows a level of inter-sectoral co-operation that is not equaled in other areas ofHIV/AIDS prevention. This collaborative approach has proven to be highly productive." Preliminary results show very high exposure levels and tremendous increases in condomIndeed, a survey in Ghana has indicated a high level of exposure to the campaign throughout the country. There is high media recall in all the regions sampled, forexample:

- 92% males and 98% females have seen the yellow hand and readily associate it with the campaign;

- 80-90% of people interviewed reported having seen or heard the campaign.

As regard condom sales, The Ghana Social Marketing Foundation is now selling approximately 1,000,000 condoms a month, as compared to 300,000 per month before the campaign began.