Program period 19 planning meeting
KAALO organized and conducted a one day program planning meeting attended by HIV/AIDs stakeholders including UNICEF, PAC and KAALO and other Partners. The aim of the meeting was to discussion past lessons learnt and planning the implementation of period 19 awareness training outreaches. The agreed outcomes of the meeting were that the trainings were to focus on urban-rural districts, coastal communities and inclusion of security institutions in the target MARPS.
Information Education and Communication Materials
KAALO printed stickers and distributed in each district participants. In the period 20, we planned to stickers leaflet into the VCT centers.
Outreach Sessions
Targets of Period 19 were 240 Most At Risk Persons (MARPs). In this period Qardho, Banderbayla, Iskushuban and Presidential Palace (Garowe) were areas covered for the HIV/AIDS awareness trainingd Out of the 240 MARPs reached, 65 were female while 175 were male.
On 7th of October, a team of two trainers from KAALO travelled to reach 200 MARPS in the districts of Banderbayla, Iskushuban and Qardho targeting communities living far from tarmac road linking Bosaso and Garowe, and coastal communities.
The targets for the outreach sessions in respect to districts include Garowe (40), Qardho (40), Iskushuban (80), and Banderbayla (80). Targets within MARPS were included khat sellers, Khat chewers, fishers, Puntland Marine Forces, religious leaders and fishers.
The table below shows number of participants reached disaggregated by gender
| District | Male | Female | Total |
| Garowe | 38 | 2 | 40 |
| Qardho | 25 | 15 | 40 |
| Iskushuban | 59 | 21 | 80 |
| Banderbayla | 53 | 27 | 80 |
| TOTAL | 175 | 65 | 240 |
In Qardho, different social groups targeted to benefit from the outreaches were combined and 40 were reached including Khat sellers and chewers, drivers among others. In Garowe the target was the presidential palace security guards which had also been identified as MARPs. The social groups targeted and reached in Banderbayla and Iskushuban included the fishers, Puntland Marine Police Force (PMPF), tea sellers, khat sellers, elders and religious leaders.
Banderbayla (80 participants)
Banderbayla district is located far along the Puntland’s coastal line on the Indian ocean. It’s a place where fishers particularly locals and Yemeni meet to fish. From 8th to 11th September, two sessions, each with 40 participants were held to which the khat sellers, Chewers, former pirates, tea sellers, and fishers were invited. On the first day, the team met district officials and community elders to discuss about the program and the reasons of their arrivalIn day one, the Deputy Mayor opened and welcomed the participants. Participants received pre test form to evaluate their understanding of the subject. The facilitator started the presentations through participatory discussions, and later in the day group discussions were formed.
Groups discussed the questions of What do you know about STIs? What actions to be taken if you find yourself with symptoms of STIs? And How to prevent STIs. After their discussions, the following is a summary of their presentations; Severe back pain , highly temperature, inside pain, none stopped itching , pimples on the genitals of both male and female , pain during passing of urine, penhersia disabled child abnormality or syndrome and deafness menopause with child, ectopic pregnancy. Actions to do; First we visit to health facilities , abstain from sexy, second taking the consultation of the doctor and using the dosage of the treatment as directly, and when the dosage ended we back to the doctor in order to know if we are fine about the disease. Prevention ways presented were; close to health service places, faithful to only one partner, use of protected sex with condom if it is available in the in area, use carefully with the health equipment.
According to the analysis of the pre-training and post training evaluations, the participants shared that they were not knowing anything about STIs before but contended that they do suffer from e such infectious diseases. 22% of the participants showed that they know something about HIV/AIDs, while majority 88% had no knowledge about information regarding HIV/AIDs. The eighty participants of the two consecutive outreaches 27 were female, while 53 were male.
During the outreach, participants shared their stories, and the team realized that the coastal communities are really at high risk of being infected with HIV/AIDs due to the integration of many foreign people involved in fishing activities along the coast.
Iskushuban sessions
Iskushuban is a district in Bari region and it is one of the places where Puntland has a base for Puntland Marine Police Force (PMPF). The PMPF interact in a normal way with the local populations. In this region, 80 people were targeted in the district; comprising 40 PMPF and the other 40 participants comprised of tea seller, khat sellers and chewers, traditional and religious leadersThe duration of each session was 2 days.
The team reached in the area on 12th of October, and within the day of arrival they started with a meeting with district administrations, elders and PMPF officers to discuss about the program and their purpose.
On 13th October, the team started the first session with 40 participants who included the khat sellers, chewers, elders, religious leaders, tea sellers. The district officials opened and urged the participants to effectively participate in all the sessions and transfer the knowledge into the district populations at large.
At the beginning of the session, the Facilitators made a presentation and later engaged the participants into group work. The groups were told to answer questions related to HIV symptoms. The groups presented the following as symptoms of HIV/AIDS
Malnutrition, vomiting, immediate weight loss, luck of hair, shock , none stop diarrhea, appetite loss.
The second session was held from 15th to 16th of October targeting PMPF. Fourty (40) PMPF participated 6 of which were female while 34 were male. The Commander of the PMPF said that “most of PMPF are soldiers in the age between 30 to 40 years, and demand highly for sex which exposes them vulnerable to this disease”. The evaluation of the training also indicated that only 15% of them have some knowledge of HIV/AIDs while 85% never had any knowledge on STIs.
Qardho Session
On 19th of October, the team reached Qardho, the regional capital of Karkaar. The target for this was 40 participants composing drivers, women, elders, khat sellers, tea sellers and religious leaders. 15 out of the 40 were female, of which majority were khat and tea sellers.
The session lasted two days in Qardho from 20th to 21st of October. In day one district officials attended and participated in the opening of the sessions and made remarks to the participants. Presentations and group discussions were used, participants were divided into groups of which each group discussed and later made presentations in the plenary.
^� i!� X�� on with 40 participants who included the khat sellers, chewers, elders, religious leaders, tea sellers. The district officials opened and urged the participants to effectively participate in all the sessions and transfer the knowledge into the district populations at large.
At the beginning of the session, the Facilitators made a presentation and later engaged the participants into group work. The groups were told to answer questions related to HIV symptoms. The groups presented the following as symptoms of HIV/AIDS
Malnutrition, vomiting, immediate weight loss, luck of hair, shock , none stop diarrhea, appetite loss.
The second session was held from 15th to 16th of October targeting PMPF. Fourty (40) PMPF participated 6 of which were female while 34 were male. The Commander of the PMPF said that “most of PMPF are soldiers in the age between 30 to 40 years, and demand highly for sex which exposes them vulnerable to this disease”. The evaluation of the training also indicated that only 15% of them have some knowledge of HIV/AIDs while 85% never had any knowledge on STIs.
Garowe; Puntland Presidential Palace
Fourty (40) presidential palace security guards were targeted as MARPs. Out of the 40 participants, 38 were male and only 2 were female. The session was opened by officials from Puntland Aids Commision (PAC), KAALO and a commander of the guards. PAC director Dr. Abdirahman thanked KAALO for reaching to the unreached MARPs.
Presentations and group discussions were performed. Groups presented how in old days Somali communities treated STIs, and the commander said “we do treat STIs using substances from plants, animal products like butter, camel milk, camel meat, and camel urine
Planned Activities for the next quarter/period
In Period 20, the project shall target 240 MARPs, particularly in coastal communities and border villages.
Coordination, monitoring and evaluation
KAALO held a planning meeting onward the implementation that brought together representatives from PAC, UNICEF and other sub-recipient partners. The Project team participated in the review and coordination meetings organized by PAC. KAALO also participated in a Global Fund Steering Committee meeting held in Uganda as we represented local partners from Somalia, and attended as member of the committee.
Impact
- As the project targeted military personnel, they realized that the knowledge they gained from KAALO outreaches made them to identify existence of many STIs in their camps. Chief Commander of Puntland arms, Mr. Said Dhere requested to PAC, training of 40 TOTs to all army sites, and his office will cover transport costs, while PAC and its partners would make contribution to his request. Therefore, partners meet in PUNCHAT office and budget was developed.
- About 1200 MARPS were directly reached through awareness rising, and more MARPS through indirect on IEC materials.
- After the training sessions, participants requested testing services like VCT, and there were no available centers in the areas we reached.
Constrains and recommendations
- It’s hard among the participants to provide full information about what they know HIV/AIDS.
- There is need to introduce a voluntary counseling and testing component in the outreaches since some participants have always expressed interest in VCT during the sessions to understand their status. Focus of rural communities is important. We learnt that the rural and coastal communities have no knowledge of STIs
Annexes
Training in pictorial
