Uganda - To tackle the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS, IOM Uganda has developed a Behaviour Change Campaign (BCC) to raise awareness not only on HIV/AIDS, but also sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unplanned pregnancies.

The sites selected to launch this pilot campaign are the fishing villages of Kasensero, Lyantonde and a temporary site being utilized by migrants expelled from Tanzania at Sango Bay.

The slogan of the campaign is “You and I can prevent HIV/AIDS” and all activities have been implemented in close cooperation with district health officials.

At the temporary site of Sango Bay, IOM staff and Ugandan government medical staff organized a participatory activity on family planning, STIs and HIV/AIDS with migrants that were expelled from Tanzania in December 2013.

Dr. David Mudooba, the district health focal point, highlighted his concern on the need of reproductive health information at Sango Bay: “Since these migrants arrived, within 6 months there have been 98 newborns,” he noted.

Not far from Sango Bay is the village of Kasensero in south western Uganda on the shores of Lake Victoria. It has among the highest prevalence rates of HIV in Uganda, with up to 20 per cent of the population carrying the virus.

At Kasensero, the government and IOM have provided counselling and HIV testing, distributed information brochures and shown videos to promote safe sex and use of condoms to prevent the illness.

“We are working to dispel the idea that having sex with condoms is boring,” said a peer educator from neighbouring Lyantonde, which also has an above average prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS.

To tackle this, since 2012 IOM Uganda has implemented an HIV prevention project with a specific focus on migrant and mobile populations, as well as sex workers, truck assistants and truck drivers from Rakai, Lyantonde. Kiryandongo and Gulu districts.

Since January 2013, IOM has trained 350 sex workers as peer educators, who act as agents of behaviour change in selected hotspots that have high HIV prevalence.

The BCC campaign is a pilot project that has engaged truck drivers, fishermen, sex workers and migrants to promote the prevention of HIV/AIDS, STIs and unplanned pregnancies.

IOM Uganda’s project: “Health Promotion and Assistance to Migrant/Mobile Populations in Uganda,” is currently funded by the Joint UN Programme Support to AIDS in Uganda (JUPSA) and the Partnership for Health and Mobility in East and Southern Africa (PHAMESA).

For more information please contact

Patience Bulage
IOM Uganda
Email: pbulage@iom.int
Tel. +256 782305993.