07 Sep 2018

African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnership (ACHAP) together with stakeholders have embarked on an outreach programme to sensitise Palapye community on HIV and AIDS and Tuberculosis (TB) related issues. 

Speaking in an interview, TB/HIV facilitator at ACHAP Ms Chandida Nthobatsang said ACHAP had adopted a community system strengthening, which was a strategy geared towards the reduction of HIV infection and the spread of TB through mobilisation.

She said the wave of community mobilisation was a system where the community comes together to collectively identify the range of issues that arise from society and agree on solutions to address those using locally available resources.

She further said the approach was to boost the capacity of the community to identify concerns and solutions pertaining to HIV/AIDS issues. 

“The approach creates an atmosphere for discussion based on relationships of trust and mutual respect,” she said.

Ms Nthobatsang noted that their objective as ACHAP was to support the development of self-confidence, trust and accountability to the community, build a pool of resource persons with transformative leadership abilities and facilitation skills.

She said their guiding principle was to also form teams at a community level to help address problems that contributed to high HIV infections.

She urged the community to join hands with ACHAP and other stakeholders in the fight against the HIV and AIDS.

Assistant district AIDS coordinator (DAC), Ms Docus Matsetse informed Palapye community to strive towards reducing HIV infections and other sexually transmitted infections (STI)’s. 

She said her office had observed an increase in STIs in Palapye, encouraging the community to know their HIV status. Ends