Starting work...

I’ve spent the past week trying to get to grips with what it is I‘ve been employed to do here. My official job title is Peer Education Coordinator, working with behaviour change programmes attached to two home based care organisations – Chisomo and Tikondane (the offices in the picture). In addition, I’m told I’ll be working with Kwacha Ku’mawa another organisation concentrating on peer education but more media focused.

It seems that my role will be to inject some new energy into the peer education projects. Many of the peer educators and staff at these organisations are slowly running out of steam – as dedicated and enthusiastic as they are – many haven’t been paid for months but continue to turn up and work for free.

At the moment the behaviour change programmes use dance, drama, sport and peer-to-peer counselling to get across their messages on HIV prevention, care and treatment, the stigmatisation of people living with HIV, child abuse and the promotion of gender equality. The problem here appears to be that people know about HIV, and how the virus is transmitted but people are slow to change their behaviour.

I’ve been disappointed to learn that the HIV prevention messages in Chipata focus largely, or even solely, on promoting abstinence rather than safe sex. Whenever I tentatively begin to challenge such an approach staff at one of the organisations just repeat ‘but we’re a faith-based organisation.’ There could be a steep hill ahead! Abstinence only programmes just aren’t working. I spent one morning last week at an antenatal clinic in one of the poorest areas in Chipata – the number of young, single mothers-to-be there just helps to prove my point.

It’s not all so bad though, the peer educators seem really open to new ideas, in fact one group in particular seem to think I have all the answers to their problems – they even said I’m here to show them the way forward! I’ve had to repeat a few times that I’m a volunteer and not a funder.

So to sum up it seems that I’ll be wearing a few different hats over the next year, fundraiser, drama coach, peer educator, project development officer, facilitator, boat shaker, trouble maker!….