December 2006
GABORONE - The scene opens in a familiar setting: two Batswana men
sitting outside in their yard, drinking beers and having a discussion.
"Do you know so many people have been killed by alcohol?" one man asks the
other. "If it's not by contracting the deadly HIV disease then it's all
accidents - either you are too drunk to know what you are doing or you end
up cheating on your wife."
It may not be your typical backyard discussion over a couple of beers, but
behavior change specialists working to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS in
Botswana hope it becomes just that.
A new video entitled, "A re Chencheng" (Setswana for "Let's Change") is the
latest attempt by BOTUSA - the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) partnership with Botswana - to create behavior change in
ordinary people threatened in their everyday lives by the virus.
The video, produced with support from the President's Emergency Plan for
AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), was released at an official launch in August 2006 to
various organizations in government, non-government and the private sectors.
The prevalence of HIV among pregnant women in Botswana last year was
estimated at 33.4 percent, down from the 37.4 percent estimated in 2003, but
still "unacceptably high," according to Minister of Health Professor Sheila
Tlou. Time and again, behavior change has been cited as the greatest
challenge to Botswana in reducing the number of new infections.
The 26-minute video opens with the commentator acknowledging the high
prevalence, but adding that infection and death have become so commonplace
that Batswana are becoming apathetic to the subject.
"We have become numb to the horrors of HIV and AIDS. Whether society has
become complacent or simply unconcerned, we still need to address this
issue," he says.
The video first grabs the viewers' attention with familiar images from
Botswana's capital city: the parliament building, the bustling bus rank, a
woman shucking corn and other vendors selling their wares at the outdoor
mall.
Between the scenes are interviews with people on the street, HIV positive
people, couples, counselors and caretakers, mixed with short skits that
address issues of faithfulness, abstinence, and testing, among other things.
The video is an interactive tool developed to stimulate discussion among the
viewers, said Prisca Tembo, an Information, Education and Communication (IEC)
specialist at BOTUSA.
"There's quite a lot of IEC materials already out there dealing with these
issues, but very few audio visuals," Tembo said. "BOTUSA wanted to develop
something different and this one allows for interaction and discussions." |