Communicating care & confidence

SPIRIT OF LIFE

A communication campaign teaches HIV/AIDS victims to live a normal life in Maharashtra.

We were not born for this, this stainless steel, this sanitary lack of love, this medicine-vacuum.

That's what Tory Dent wrote of the dreaded disease in her poem Black Milk, before she succumbed to AIDS in 2005, 17 years after she was diagnosed with HIV.

Dent's lines don't speak only about herself but for the millions suffering from the dreaded disease worldwide. And it is perhaps to dispel such feelings among the afflicted that Avert Society, Health Communication Partners (John Hopkins University) and USAID India have come together with the campaign, "Ektay naahi tumhi, saath aahot aamhi (You are not alone, we are with you).

Care and nutrition are the main regimen prescribed under the support communication campaign for the HIV+. "Ektay naahi... " demonstrates how those living with HIV can live a normal life "" all they need is confidence, a stringent medical routine, healthy food and lots of exercise.

The integral communication package consists of two films, along with a resource guide, posters, a flip-chart, a music kit (including a CD, a song booklet and audio cassettes), television spots and a take-away booklet. The package tries to soothe the personal angst and rejection that those with HIV/AIDS often suffer. In assuring them that they are not alone, the communication package also attempts to provide the sufferers comfort and security and also instill hope in them.

Apart from that "Ektay nahi..." system gives the victims of AIDS detailed information about how to live with "it", manage the various stages of infection and improve their individual quality of life.

"While at one level the package reaches out to the HIV positive individual and his family with guidelines for manageability and ways to live a productive and healthy life, a range of products have been developed that equip the care-giver in sending out messages of hope and reassurance," says Anna Joy, Project Director at the Avert Society.

The campaign aims at creating an enabling environment for the HIV/AIDS victims, by moving from a stigma-to-a-care paradigm through a series of TV and radio spots in a range of settings "" the workplace, family, social interaction and healthcare facilities, Joy said..

Sonalini Mirchandani, Country Head India for Health Communication Partners (Johns Hopkins University) said the communication package would be distributed as a specially designed kit to the HIV+ patients through a network of centres.

On the other hand, the putting together of this kit has thrown up an earning opportunity for the HIV+ women. Mirchandani said, the first set of 250 kits has been made by these women who worked with the Salvation Army in Mumbai.

Each kit costs about Rs 215 and is distributed free to the afflicted persons. "There is no estimate of how many such kits will be distributed, but looking at the high number of HIV affected, the requirement is huge," Mirchandani said, adding that there is an option for the HIV+ women to form self-help groups who can undertake to stitch the kit bags and earn to support themselves.

Joy said the care campaign has emerged as a result of extensive involvement of the networks of people living with HIV/AIDS. "Positive people helped prioritise the messages and suggest appropriate communication tools; they brought sensitivity and simplicity to the content. In fact, some of them have featured in the communication material itself, sharing stories of their journey from despair to hope."

According to Robert Clay, USAID India has allocated $22 million for HIV/ AIDS-related projects in the country, of which $8 million comes to Maharashtra. "The allocation may see a rise as the fight against AIDS has entered the stage of care and support after the first two, including awareness and prevention. The three, however, must be seen as a continuum, as we have to follow up the first two simultaneously," he said.