Gambian Experiences with Stepping Stones: 1996-99

From the Introduction

"The Stepping Stones Gambia project was a collaboration between five organisations including government departments, academic institutions, International NGOs and local NGOs and was started because it was felt that the programme could help villagers develop their own sensitive solutions to the problems of HIV prevention. It was a programme of structured workshop sessions that encourage discussions on gender, HIV, communication and relationship skills.

Participants met in age-gender peer groups. This was the only forum in which sexual matters can be discussed relatively freely. These groups were then involved in workshops for about ten one-day sessions. This culminated in the final community workshop where each peer group made a special request to the whole-assembled village, participants and non-participants alike.

The Gambia is an Islamic country with a low HIV prevalence rate. HIV prevalence is quite low at about 2% of the population and as yet no one has publicly declared themselves to be HIV positive. Therefore many people are doubtful that HIV really exists. Men are generally very suspicious of family planning (including condom use) and this is supported by some Muslim clerics who believe it to be against the Koran."

The Medical Research Council (one of the collaborators) ran a pilot evaluation of the programme in the GFPA areas. This included a fieldwork report (process evaluation), interviews, focus groups and a KAP (Knowledge, Attitude, Practice) survey.

Six weeks after the programme finished, they returned and conducted 50 key informant interviews, seven focus groups and repeated the KAP survey (140 interviews) and secret ballot. These will be repeated when a year has passed since the original intervention. Comparison of the 'before and after' results showed that intervention villages had gained a good understanding of the issues...