Blantyre Urban, Malawi

The ADP is addressing the problem in several ways. These include education, counselling, training for volunteer health care workers, establishment of a ‘drug revolving fund’, and emergency assistance for families who have lost either one or both parents or where the sole remaining parent is too ill to provide for family needs.

Education
More than 40 teachers from all eight primary schools in Blantyre Urban ADP have been trained in how to present disease-prevention messages to their students, establish ‘anti-AIDS clubs’ in their schools, and counsel those affected by HIV/AIDS. The teachers have found peer education effective, so they invite HIV-infected teenagers to come and talk to the students about the dangers of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. There has been a noticeable improvement in the students’ confidence to openly discuss sexual issues and to warn peers who are sexually active.

Counselling, home-based care & drugs
At least two volunteers from each Village Health Committee have trained to become home-based ‘caretakers’. The volunteers, seven men and 36 women, counsel guardians and relatives looking after sick family members, refer patients to hospital if needed, and run a community-owned ‘drug revolving fund’.

Local health centres do not have enough medical supplies to meet demand, so the ADP distributed to each community an initial stock of items such as anti-malarial drugs, mild analgesics, cough lozenges, eye ointment, bandages and cotton wool. It then helped the Village Health Committees set up a bank account. The caretakers sell the discounted medical supplies to the people and the Health Committees deposit the profits to pay for restocking, making the revolving fund sustainable for the future.

Cycling to prevent AIDS
Blantyre Urban ADP was involved in World Vision’s ‘AIDS Cycle Relay’, which began in Malawi in May 2001 before winding its way through several other African countries and ending in early June. The relay was an international event, aimed at drawing public attention to the AIDS issue. World Vision New Zealand Marketing Assistant, Sarah Webb, was one of the overseas cyclists who participated in the relay.

Schoolchildren and Village Health Committee members from Blantyre Urban ADP used drama and songs to carry AIDS-awareness messages to the assembled throngs that watched the cyclists pass through Blantyre City. The event left such a deep impression in the minds of the locals that they have urged ADP staff to organise a similar event for the whole of Blantyre City.

“People are actually talking about the seriousness of the disease, because they see that if people are sacrificing themselves to cycle long distances just to raise AIDS awareness, then there must be a need to change their lifestyle,” says Helen Dzoole, Blantyre Urban ADP ‘s Co-ordinator.