#iKnowKati 2015 WORLD AIDS DAY REPORT
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Introductions The iKnow concert World AIDS day Advocacy The #IKnowKati online campaign Challenges Lesons learnt Conclusion
Introduction December is particularly a special month for Reach A Hand, Uganda because we not only get to kickstart it with the commemoration of the World AIDS day, but also reflect on how far we’ve come in the year. This time round, we carried out community outreaches in three different locations of Kisenyi, Makindye and Kawempe as build up activities to the World AIDS day. These outreaches involved the sensitization on HIV of the people in the communities who are largely at risk of contraction given the nature of their communities (majorly slum areas of Kampala). The activities were carried out by the Peer Educators who also sensitized the communities about protection against contraction of HIV through the use of both male and female condoms for dual protection against unintended pregnancies as well. They distributed condoms and demonstrated to the unknowing masses how to correctly and effectively use them. Later in the day, HIV testing and counselling was done for the people in the communities who had been mobilized by the Peer Educators at a central location in the community.
an HIV test, and commit to be a part of the efforts to getting to ZERO - ZERO new infections, ZERO discrimination and ZERO AIDS related deaths. At the Cayenne lounge where the concert was held, HIV testing and counseling was carried out for the people who attended. These events are detailed below;
Community Outreaches Three community outreaches were conducted in Kawempe at Kawempe Muslim Primary School play grounds on November 26th, Makindye at Kikajo Zone, Makindye Sabagabo on November 30th and in Kisenyi at Nassozi Zone on December 1st. These outreaches involved the Peer Educators who carried out mass mobilization of the people within the communities through door-to-door engagements. During these engagements, they sensitized the people about HIV, it’s contraction, testing and counselling, protection as well as other reproductive Health issues. They distributed both male and female condoms to the communities and demonstrated how to properly use both condoms.
To commemorate the World AIDS day, we held a music concert dubbed the “I Know concert” which was targeted at the urban young people in Kampala, who are at risk of contracting HIV due to a generally lax sexual behavior, to take the initiative to find out what their HIV status is by taking
Kato Henry, a RAHU Peer Educator sensitizing the people in Makindye about proper condom use.
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Lucy Kajumba, a RAHU Peer Educator, demonstrating to a lady how to use a female condom The people in the community were particularly thrilled with the female condom as most of them had never seen it before. The women were keen and eager to try and use it, even though some were skeptical about it’s size and the risk of getting stuck in the body. All these queries and myths were answered by the Peer Educators while demonstrating on the proper use. A total number 66,640 condoms were distributed during the entire campaign. The distribution of condoms during the outreaches was followed by condom demonstrations of how the male and female condoms work. Some remarks from the people in the communities included; “I have never seen this condom. Won’t it get stuck in my body?” - a female market vendor in Makindye
“Why is it so big? Aren’t we at a risk of getting cancer?” - a
young lady in Kawempe.
“Please give me more of the female condoms so that I can give them to all my girlfriends” - a Boda boda cyclist in
Makindye
Mobilization of people This was done by the Peer Educators who moved household to household encouraging the people to go to the central locations for HIV testing and counselling. Together with our local partners DSW, some Peer Educators were driven in the DSW youth van to access wider areas of the communities to mobilize people to participate in the HCT services. During the door-to-door mobilization, the Peer Educators were able to reach 140 households in Kawempe, 187 households in Makindye and 220 households .
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HIV Testing and Counselling We partnered with different HCT service providers such as Marie Stopes International Uganda and Reproductive Health Uganda during these outreaches. We realized a big turn up for the testing services as shown below;
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The iKnow concert The aim of the concert, was to reach out to the urban youth with information on HIV/AIDS through edutainment using music, dance and comedy. Young people were encouraged to share a fact or opinion on HIV and to engage in the online conversation using the hashtag #IKnowKati for a chance to win a ticket to the concert. The musicians who were slated to perform at the concert were also encouraged to share with their followers the activity of HIV testing at the concert in an effort to use their platform as role models for young people to advocate for HCT service uptake by young people. These artistes included; East Africa’s R&B and Hip hop music group Swahili Nation with other Ugandan top musicians and comedians who included Navio, Keko
Maurice Hassa, Van DATA, Jody, Allan Toniks, Ray Signature, Pablo Kimuli, Ronnie van Mak and Prince Emma. There was a riveting performance from Lil Jay and Triple ‘S’, young people from DSW’s youth groups who composed and sang an inspirational song on HIV helping to further spread the message on HIV to the attendants at the concert. A total of 132 people were tested for HIV at the concert by Reproductive Health Uganda, with 127 being negative and 5 being positive.
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World AIDS day Advocacy We partnered with different local media houses to increase for the advocacy on HIV. It was an interesting and different phenomenon to have voluntary HIV testing and Counselling at a concert and this was largely picked up by the media houses. The main message of the concert being, “Know your Status and Let’s Get to Zero - Zero new infections, Zero discrimination and Zero AIDS related death!”, it made for valuable content for advocacy in making a call for everyone to play their part in ensuring that we all get to Zero. Prior to the concert, a team from Reach A Hand, Uganda appeared on the Hashtag show on Urban TV to talk about the event and create more awareness about the intent of the concert and get more people to attend and participate in the HIV testing and counseling.
Find some online articles on the World AIDS day concert here; New Vision - http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/676567-artistes-lure-urban-youth-into-hiv-testing-in-kampala.html
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Oops Uganda - http://oops.ug/2015/12/02/8595/
Ugo Uganda - http://news.ugo.co.ug/reach-a-handcommemorates-world-aids-day-with-i-know-kati-concert/
The #IKnowKati online campaign The online campaign, was conducted using the hashtag #iKnowkati as a way of increasing awareness about the concert and particularly the commemoration of the World AIDS day. Updates on the messages shared during the concert were constantly fed to the online community to keep track of the event and to also keep the online community engaged in the ongoing HIV conversation.
On Twitter; 410 users of the hashtag #IKnowKati on Twitter composed 3,355 tweets that reached to a direct audience of 881,060 Twitter users as detailed below;
Of the 410 users of the hashtag #iKnowkati on Twitter that shared the above tweets, 41.5% were male and 58.5% were female.
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Below are some of the tweets that were shared
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On Facebook; A post from Ray Signature, Ugandan musician and RAHU Cultural Icon, encouraging young people to attend the “I Know� concert and get tested for HIV
A Facebook post from RAHU encouraging to post something on HIV with the #IKnowKati hashtag to win tickets to the concert.
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Challenges encountered during the Community outreaches. Some community members did not want to be seen taking condoms lest they were perceived as promiscuous by their community. The unfavorable weather conditions impeded some activities. In Makindye, it rained for the better part of the day which affected the Peer Educators’ movements within the community due to a lot of mud and water. The people in the community were reluctant to move from their homes in such bad weather to go to the central HCT center that had been set up, to access services. Some of the Peer Educators could not make it for the outreaches due to the examination time table in their respective campuses that they had to adhere to thus reducing on the numbers in the teams. There was an underestimation of the Peer Educators’ mobilization capacity. In Kawempe, there was an overwhelming turn up of young people for the HCT services. The service providers ran out of testing kits and more had to be mobilized which stalled the activities for some time. Marie Stopes International Uganda that we partnered with to conduct HCT services in Makindye and Kisenyi had a focus on Family planning hence carrying out fewer HIV tests as compared to Kawempe where we partnered with Reproductive Health Uganda. The Peer Educators, together with staff from RAHU and DSW being the key mobilizers of people, got overwhelmed with the geographical scope of the communities. In Kawempe, the teams moved for over 3.8 kilometers calling on people to go access HCT services at the playground of Kawempe Muslim primary school. Due to the big turn up of people for the HCT services, particularly in Kawempe, some members of this community were discouraged from accessing the service due to the long queues. Many people in the communities were not receptive to taking their photos during the condom demos and distribution.
Lessons learned Going forward, we’ll liaise with service providers to have adequate HCT and IEC materials in anticipation of large turn ups for the services. Future planning will take into consideration the Peer Educators’ school schedule to determine a favorable time to have them all attend an activity. More detailed mapping of the geographical area to cover to clearly estimate the numbers of people that can potentially demand for the outreach services.
Conclusion December’s activities were very engaged with direct interactions with young people in the communities. Through the community outreaches carried out as build up activities to commemorate the World AIDS day, services such as HCT were extended to different communities with the help of local partners as well as condom distribution and demonstrations to educate the young people on how to efficiently prevent acquiring of HIV and/or further passing it on. Mobilising young people to attend the I know concert and extending to them HCT services during the show was a great achievement in getting more youth to know their HIV status and take a step closer to getting to ZERO.
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Plot 7502, Block 244, Kitaranga - Kansanga, Gabba Road. P.O.Box 21288 Kampala, Uganda Tel: +256 414 697037 Mob:+256 774 256 109 Email: info@reachahand.org
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