Helping refugees to spread HIV/AIDS information

The National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) is teaching residents in northwestern Kenya's Kakuma refugee camp about HIV/AIDS, so that they will spread the knowledge when they return to their home countries.

Although HIV prevalence in the camp was estimated at two percent, it had the potential to increase dramatically, warned Raphael Nyabala, field coordinator for NCCK, because refugees' knowledge about HIV was "very poor upon arrival".

Kakuma, a dusty, sprawling place with approximately 95,000 people, receives refugees from areas where HIV prevalence is low and education about the virus is poor: 79.4 percent come from Sudan, where a 2005 survey by the Sudanese National AIDS Control Programme and UN agencies found that less than 10 percent of youth had an understanding of how to prevent HIV or knew what a condom was; others are from Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia.

30 men and 15 women aged between 18 and 25 participated in the most recent three-day course on HIV prevention messages and dispelling myths in the camp - such as that HIV cannot be spread by sharing water or eating from the same plate - and disseminating the information by means of drama, music and poetry.

"Many [in southern Sudan] feel that if someone cares for someone who is HIV positive they will be HIV positive as well. I now know that this is not true," said Daniel Ruach, 20, who hoped the facts would help reduce stigma in his home community.

A young Sudanese, Junior Dav, 18, commented, "Before I came to the camp I heard there was something killing people, but I didn't know what it was. My knowledge will be very useful when I go back to my home country because there is no knowledge in my country ... I am the right age to carry the message back."

The NCCK has been targeting community leaders and especially young people, who make up most of the camp's population. "They are mostly idle, and in the camp situation the traditional values of the society are weakened," he said. "Many of the youth engage in drinking, drug-taking and other risky behaviour."

Participants are taught that although HIV cannot be cured it can be managed, and that HIV-positive people should not be stigmatised. Nyabala tells them there is hope for all HIV positive people, who could be "your brothers or sisters, and so you must love them all".

Abstinence is the NCCK's key prevention message, and although John Dhieu, 20, admitted that it was not always easy to say 'no', he had learnt that "if you want to save your life you have to use a condom".