NEWS
NEWS
ENZO: Your HIV Combination Prevention expert written by Diego Rozul
Safe Spaces PH launches a new way to access peer-led sexual health information. Meet Enzo, your friendly sexual health chatbot. Prepared with quips, gifs, and tips, Enzo has got you covered in preventing HIV transmission (m.me/safespacesph).
When Enzo was conceptualized, one of the top priorities was giving him a personality. Unlike other automated messaging systems, the Safe Spaces PH team wanted to make the user experience as close to how you’d talk to a friend as possible. A conversational tone mixed in with fun gifs, videos, and credible information.
“We wanted to make Safe Spaces PH a gateway for information and access to HIV Combination Prevention methods, and since we are often on our social media, we went for a chatbot for people to easier navigate and access the information that they need, instead of searching for specific posts,” said Chatbot Developer Paul Junio.
Enzo also customizes its responses based on your given demographics and need. With a few simple questions, Enzo can recommend courses of action that are best for you. So whether you’re a man having sex with men who is living with HIV, a transgender woman, or cisgender heterosexual, Enzo knows what is just right for you, and gives you a directory of where to Peer-level information sharing is still an in- access these services. tegral part of how people access information. We sometimes find ourselves look- Launched as part of the National HIV Preing towards them in verifying what we’ve vention Month celebration, Enzo is availlearned from our internet search. This may able on Facebook Messenger under the be through our friends, community lead- Safe Spaces PH page. ers, or even your trusted community based organizations. While the current pandemic If all goes well with his pilot run, we may protocols limit the reach of traditional peer be seeing him on other platforms as well. educators, Enzo was made to bridge the Translations into Tagalog and Cebuano are gap. also in development, and the team is more than willing to make Enzo accessible in “Matching the programmatic part, medical other Philippine languages. To collaborate, facts, and the relatable tone of messaging send an email to info@loveyourself.ph. was definitely a challenge,” told Junio.
Amos Tara holds CBS Training in Palawan
written by Lans Caputilla
AMOS TARA Community Center organized a three-day Community-based Screening (CBS) Training among its volunteers from August 11 to 13 at Astoria Resort in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan.
Portuguesa elaborates how the training is aimed to entice more trained volunteers to cater to the young key populations in the city. The manager also pointed that there is an alarming increase in reactive cases in the recent months.
"It is alarming to witness an increase in the number of new cases of HIV infections in Puerto Princesa City [and Palawan], and one way to curb down the spread of HIV is to mobilize more trained volunteers who will help our community-based organizations reach out the key affected 0opulation [in the area]," said Dixy Portuguesa, Amos Tara Community Center Manager.
Topics discussed includes: HIV & STI 101, Introduction to CBS, CBS Motivational Dialogue and Practices, CBS Safety, Finger Pricking & Interpretation, Consolidation of the Steps in CBS-Workflow Process.
The participants did a CBS demonstration during the training. Photo by LCaputilla
Ten (10) participants who came from different parts of the city and province participated in the said training. To date, Amos Tara Community Center has a roster of 16 CBS Motivators. The three-day training was endorsed by the Department of Health, and organized in collaboration with Pilipinas Shell Foundation, Inc. and LoveYourself, Inc.
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