03 Mar 2015

In an effort to promote HIV Testing and Counselling Campaign, National Aids Coordinating Agency (NACA) has come up with a new initiative dubbed ‘CATCH model’ which aims to develop a comprehensive HIV prevention delivery plan.

This comes after Botswana failed in its attempt to reach the set target of testing 6 000 people to beat the Guinness World Record (GWR) on “Most HIV Tests Given in One City in Multiple Venues in 8 hours in One Day”.

The eight hours HIV Testing and Counselling Campaign was launched in Maun in November, last year to mobilise individuals and their families to know their HIV status and seek prevention and treatment services.

In an interview with NACA deputy coordinator, Mr Fraizer Tlhoiwe said the new model would stimulate communities to become agents of change in their own locations.

He said all along the communities were not involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS hence the new model which would promote bottom-up approach to face the enemy squarely as compared to the up-bottom approach in which initiatives were imposed on the communities.

“We believe that the new initiative would work because we would mobilise leadership to drive it and come up with ideas basing on their culture which could work best to fight the spread of the virus,” he added.

Mr Tlhoiwe revealed that they had already sold the initiative to some areas like Tlokweng, Ramotswa and Maun and the leadership showed a lot of interest in implementing it.

He said as a coordinating agency, all they have to do was to monitor the program, take statistics and welcome and assess the new ideas to see if they would produce expected results.

An official from Information Education Communication unit under NACA, Ms Chanana Gaboiphiwe said the planning process was on-going noting that their intention was to kick start the initiative beginning of April this year.

She said the new model would be piloted in three districts which would be identified after mobilisation, adding that they would start with resources available in the identified communities.

The initiative would be sponsored by UNAIDS, she said.

Giving the results of the Maun eight hours Testing Campaign, the deputy coordinator, Mr Tlhoiwe said the government has done a lot to fight HIV/AIDS.

He hailed all those who participated in the campaign for a job well done noting that 2419 people tested of which 57 per cent were females and 42.1 per cent were males.

He said 92.7 per cent tested negative while 7.8 per cent were positive.

For her part, UNAIDS representative, Ms Irene Maina revealed that Botswana participated in a multi-country Guinness World Record (GWR) Competition on Most Tested in 8 Hours and that the event was guided by strict rules and guidelines from GWR .

She said Botswana managed to beat South Africa and Tanzania while Ethiopia was announced winner under different category.

She also revealed that a total of P960 000 was estimated as direct expenditure of the campaign.

Ms Maina stated that some of the lessons they learnt from the campaign such as partnerships and team effort were keys in successful planning and implementation of campaigns.

She also indicated that coordination, leadership and communication, accountability, role clarity between partners and service providers, use of technology and mobilisation of sufficient resources were vital elements. ENDS