Transcript
Dr. Koffi
Executive Secretary
Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Organization |
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School children perform in Nigeria.
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In Nigeria, the day of the launching we all gathered at the Lagos State University and the Caravan was launched by the Governor of the Lagos State himself and all the stakeholders in the fight against HIV in Nigeria were there. We also had all the NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) - the big NGOs societies for women against AIDS, Stop AIDS, all the community leaders were there. We played, we sang, we danced and it was very popular it was very colorful and people liked it a lot.
I can say that the parade where messages were sent out and condoms and other BCC (Behavior Change Communication) materials were distributed worked well because you see Nigeria has the highest population among the member countries and we took opportunity of markets and other gatherings to really reach out to the maximum of the population and that was very popular.
The Nigerians, the crowds, everybody came and we stopped in markets to sensitize the people using peer educators, using local NGOs and that was fabulous.
For the three stops in Lagos, Badagri and semi-border: in Lagos we reached around 3 million people on site, but through the parade more than, lets say, 18 million were reached.
Correct condom application is shown in Benin.
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What we liked in Benin was the high level commitment because the first site in Benin - the border between Benin and Nigeria and it’s around 40km from the capital city, all the health minister and his cabinet, the NAC (National AIDS Council) Director, the CCM (Country Coordinating Mechanism) Chairman, everybody went there to join the local population to welcome the caravan. What was key there is that that the Minister of Health himself gave the sensitization messages. He went on stage to talk about HIV/AIDS to the kids. The first site the audience was mostly youth so we really emphasized messages on abstinence and the value of staying in school.
For Benin the first step was really this high level commitment but the remaining stages for Benin was the involvement of local artists. We had a group of artists called H2O like the water in chemistry. This group was very popular during this caravan and really helped us deliver the messages on abstinence and voluntary counseling and testing.
All together in Benin with only the one site we reached 8,517 people.
Bikers go on parade in Lome, Togo.
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Togo has the setting in Lome is very appropriate for those mass rallies and the parade inside Lome is so far the best that people have seen because it was made of mainly 50 cars and hundreds of motorcycles and all those people in the gathering but also the content of the sketches that the population put together – the songs and games those are really the seeds we can take from Lome.
It was using local artists, local youth to make sketches on HIV/AIDS on how to prevent HIV/AIDS how to boost voluntary counseling and testing. That was the added value for the Togo site.
In Togo we doubled the number that we reached in Benin - more than 120,000 people were reached in Togo.
Painted men in Ghana spread AIDS awareness.
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In Ghana we liked the Masquerades. These are the comedians that paint themselves they will say “AIDS Knows No Border”. One will paint himself with this message. Another will say “Use Condoms”. They will paint themselves using the Global Fund colors or the Ghana flag. It’s excellent because during the parade they will be on top of some of the cars and they display the message painted on their body. Each of them was wearing a sensitization message and it was very good and also we liked the way the parade was colorful. In Ghana there were different types of flags and sensitization messages and the involvement of the NGOs, that was good.
In Ghana we reached 200,752 people. We visited Aflao, which is [on] the border between Ghana and Togo, then Accra which is the capital city, Takoradi which is between Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire and Elubu which is [on] the border between Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, so all together we visited four sites in Ghana.
The First Lady of Côte d’Ivoire talks with a person living with AIDS.
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Ivory Coast was very successful because we had a very high level of involvement of the local population but also of the authorities. For example in a city called Bonoua, about 70 km from the capital city, the First Lady of Côte d’Ivoire came to especially meet the caravan. That was very good and she visited the mobile laboratory for the VCT Voluntary Counseling and Testing and she used that in her speech. She said to the people that that the Global Fund and the Corridor Project has brought services close to the population. When the First Lady came and said “Go and do your test” all the population rushed to the van and we had to go to Abidjan for the closing ceremony so we referred all of them to the local VCT centers.
The last stop it was in Abidjan which is the capital city of Côte d’Ivoire. We started at nine o’clock and we visited all the big districts of Abidjan, they have ten districts, we visited all of them. In the afternoon at three o’clock we gathered at the palace for the closing ceremony chaired by the Special Advisor of the Prime Minister of Côte d’Ivoire. It was also a big success.
For the concept in Côte d’Ivoire we reached around 1,000,200 people on site.
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