Community Mobilization Strategy to empower communities to fight HIV
Botswana has formulated the National Community Mobilization Strategy to empower and strengthen community and individual-level responsibility to eradicate HIV transmission.
The adoption of the strategy will result in community members bearing the responsibility to identify the drivers of HIV transmission among their communities, come up with alternative mitigating strategies, isolate the best strategies for implementation and monitor the outcome.
Speaking at the launch of the strategy in Ramotswa, the chairperson of Ntlo ya Dikgosi, Kgosi Puso Gaborone said community initiatives require streamlining to attain a felt impact on HIV prevention, especially behavior change, hence the development of the national community mobilization strategy.
He said the National Community Mobilization Strategy was conceived as a way of providing platform for community members to interact with key people in the implementation of the strategy and make note of available resources and structures that will support and facilitate the use of the strategy.
Kgosi Gaborone said community involvement is a prerequisite in any service provision and it is also important as the process adopts participative and all embracing techniques that focus on recipients being the major role players in solving their problems. He said for the country to fulfill its vision of ‘zero new infections by 2016’ everyone has to have a role to play in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
Ntlo ya Dikgosi chairperson appealed to all community leaders from various structures to take the lead in ensuring the success of the process. He said young people should be brought aboard to take the strategy from generation to generation, hence the need to provide them with the necessary information and skills for survival.
The launch and roll out exercise of the strategy is intended to create awareness among stakeholders, community leaders and communities of the existence of the strategy as a way of advocacy and lobbying for support towards implementation of the strategy. Such awareness will underscore the central role of all key players to enforce the National Community Mobilization Strategy and make an HIV prevention impact that is relevant to their specific needs.