Nigeria: Taking HIV/Aids Campaigns to FCET Gusau
Gusau, a quiet town in Zamfara State, habours one of the Federal Government Colleges of Education in the country. Like many other towns in the country, Gusau does not show any sign of HIV/AIDS written on the ancient town. However, due to the various social, cultural, economic and political factors that have made many other communities affected, Gusau too, has not been given a clean bill in the spread and impact of HIV/AIDS. This might
have been heightened by risky sexual behaviours that students and residents of the community may
indulge in the absence of appropriate HIV/AIDS education in the community.
In the same vain, as the HIV/AIDS pandemic extends to new boundaries, efforts to contain it too have continued to extend to new areas that were hitherto left out in the national response. The Federal College of Education, Gusau, Zamfara, like any other higher institution of learning was established to produce competent workforce for the nation, especially in the areas of teaching.
The authorities of both colleges in Plateau and Zamfara states, working under the auspices of the Millennium Development Goals, with Heavenly Twins Communications as the project consultant, have put together series of activities meant to help in the prevention, care and mitigation of the impact of the epidemic in the schools and its host community.
The Governing Council of Federal College of Education, Gusau, led by Chief Ifeanyi Elejeh, the management of the institution and College AIDS Committee, in acknowledgement of its responsibilities to the students, teachers and members of the community entered into collaboration with the Millennium Development Goals Office with Heavenly Twins Communication aon HIV/AIDS. This is designed to initiate responses that are meant to nip the upward rise of infection in the school as well as the community in the bud. This included advocacy to different groups that were important in the well being of the community, soliciting for their cooperation and participation in an aggressive HIV/AIDS enlightenment activities in the town; training of students in HIV/AIDS interventions; sensitization workshops for all the members of the academic community; mobilization of neighbouring communities to join in the fight against HIV/AIDS; and promotion of behaviour change among the members of the community.
Other activities included participation in the world AIDS Day; furnishing the college clinic to provide voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) services; opening of youth friendly center; training of peer educators among the students; formation of HIV/AIDS Free Club; and introducing the religious perspectives of HIV/AIDS to students.
For a programme of less than a year, the lecturers, students and members of the community have started counting their gains in terms of improved knowledge on HIV/AIDS, uptake of VCT, disclosure of status, and general reduction in risky sexual behaviours in the area. Members of the community expressed their optimisms that the spread and impact of the epidemic would eventually decline if the programmes were sustained.
The core of the programmes is the promotion of abstinence whenever and wherever possible; mutual fidelity for those who are already sexually active; and the correct and consistent use of condom for those who cannot adhere to the first two options. Information on non-sexual modes of transmission such as through transfusion of contaminated blood and blood products, sharing of skin piercing instruments and mother to child transmission of HIV were also provided to the members of the community. Promotion of VCT uptake by everyone at risk, care and support of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and elimination of stigma were also emphasized in all the aspects of the programme.
Participants in the various programmes expressed their desire to be involved in other trainings in order for them to be adequately equipped to carry on with the various HIV/AIDS interventions that may be necessary from time to time in their community. They also wish that the authorities of the school and the government would continue to make resources avialable for them to help themselves and other people in preventing and mitigating the impact of HIV/AIDS. Visits to selected colleges of education in Nasarawa and Kogi states, mounting of billboards in strategic areas of the state are next on the list of projects being carried out currently.
In Zamfara, the story was not different. Departing from a point where ignorance and denial of HIV/AIDS were prevalent, participatory forums in forms of workshops with potpourri of activities such as presentations, documentary film shows, narration by PLWHAs, drama sketches, questions and answers, distribution of information and behaviour change communication materials, and distribution of sourvenirs that will keep the memories of the event alive in the minds of the participants, etc, were embarked upon. Assessing the responses of the participants after the workshops, many admitted that the programme has opened their minds to the reality of HIV/AIDS and has given them the first impetus to contemplate a positive change in their behaviour in all the aspects of HIV/AIDS interventions that were dealt with at the workshop.
To sustain the information and knowledge given during the workshop, sensitization rallies were held in and around the school to pass the HIV/AIDS information to students and other people that may have missed the workshop. With everybody dressed in T-shirts, Fez caps, and carrying different information materials for dissemination, along the streets the attention of the public was clearly diverted to the rally. Several thousands of passers-by were met with this strategy as a good number of people also later joined in the rally. The motor parks, markets, major streets and other important places in Gusau were covered with this activity that turned out to be more relevant to the out-of-school population, who were not less vulnerable to the transmission and impacts of the epidemic.
Realizing the importance of peer education in HIV/AIDS interventions, some students were trained for the purpose as a way of reinforcing the information among their peers and also providing a means of sustaining the process after the expiration of the programme in the school. These students were later constituted into what is referred to as HIV/AIDS club. Also, in order not to deprive the women in purdah the benefit of knowledge about HIV/AIDS, home education in local languages and information materials were given to them. The women in purdah expressed intense appreciation for this show of love and care as they admitted that their minds had been riddled with half-truths and outright misconception about the epidemic before the programme was brought to them.
Other activities such as making of billboards with captivating HIV/AIDS information; colourful paintings on the walls in strategic locations around the school; sit out gardens with HIV/AIDS messages and information around the popular students' bus stops; construction of traffic warden stands with HIV/AIDS messages; and establishment of schools community project to facilitate regular HIV/AIDS quizzes sessions were all aimed at constantly reminding the students as well as lecturers and other people in the academic community and its environ about the facts and realities of HIV/AIDS in the society.
It is believed that when students of Federal Colleges of Education across the country are well educated about HIV/AIDS they will not only help themselves in terms of avoiding infection and providing care as may be necessary but also assist immensely in educating several other students that they will still come in contact with in the course of their training and after graduating from the school. The entire Gusau college community led by the chairman, Governing Council, Barrister Tanimu Sarkin Panda Adabson and the acting provost of the college, Dr. Bello Shella are putting all efforts to ensure the successful implementation of all outstanding AIDS programme under the MDG sponsored Project.
