HIV and AIDS - Communicating about HIV and AIDS in Brazil and Peru
Overview
Accurate and easy-to-communicate information is a vital tool for the health workers, activists, volunteers and policy makers who are working to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS and improve care for people living with it.
In October 2002, Healthlink Worldwide started a new project with two organisations in Latin America to improve HIV and AIDS communication.
The two partner organisations are the Brazilian Interdisciplinary Association on AIDS (ABIA) and Calandria, a social communication organisation in Peru. The project is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID).
Healthlink Worldwide has already worked with ABIA and Calandria for three years producing AIDS Action newsletters in Latin American Spanish and Portuguese.
Each year ABIA produces four issues of Ação Anti AIDS, the Portuguese language edition of AIDS Action. It reaches over 20,000 health workers and is also available on ABIA's website www.abiaids.org.br. The newsletter focuses on prevention and treatment initiatives relevant to the Brazilian context.
Acción en SIDA, the Spanish language edition of AIDS Action, has been published since 1980. In 1998, Calandria took over the newsletter from Colectivo Sol, a community-based organisation in Mexico. Acción en SIDA is now published once a year and reaches over 5,000 people.
Acción en SIDA has become much more than just a newsletter, however, as part of the new project, Calandria has started to develop alternative ways to reach a wider range of audiences. These include initiatives such as:
- regular seminars that are attended by health professionals, policy makers, sex workers and gay rights activists;
- the Acción en SIDA website, which has a feedback section so that readers can contribute their knowledge and practical experiences;
- a database of individuals and organisations that are working in the HIV and AIDS field in Peru;
- an image bank made up entries to a photography competition. Calandria specialises in this sort of innovative approach to encourage audiences to take part in projects; and
- radio programmes broadcast in partnership with radio stations.
Raising awareness through such initiatives challenges the stigma associated with HIV and AIDS, can lower transmission, and improve the care available to people living with HIV and AIDS.
Healthlink Worldwide has facilitated a mututally-beneficial relationship between ABIA and Calandria to share their knowledge and expertise.