Launch of AIDS Competence Process in 3 health districts in DR-Congo

More on the process in 3 health districts

From the 24th of May until the 1st of June, the basic concepts and ways-of-working of the process have been introduced by Constellation coaches and RDC Competence (the National Facilitation Team), during SALT visits in local communities. Members from the PNLS (National AIDS Programme) were present throughout the visit. RDC Competence will further support the new facilitators of these health districts on their way to AIDS Competence.

Working with the health staff in these districts is relevant for several reasons.

• By putting the responsibility of the fight against AIDS in the hands of the communities, the approach put an end at the illusion that the health workers are the ones who can control the disease and are alone to carry that heavy burden.
• « Understand yourself in order to understand others » says a billboard of the Provincial Health Office in Phayao, Thailand. Indeed, staff members sometimes provoke stigma and discrimination in society, because of their own behaviour. By showing the example, they can be powerful actors of development of AIDS Competence in society.
• « What is not said, does not exist". By opening the dialogue at the community level, the self-assessment allows to talk about AIDS and to act upon it. The communities will then demand and use the service they have right to. Moreover, these communities will act upon their own vulnerabilities that can not be controlled by the health sector.
• AIDS allows us to question the responsibility in terms of health and development. The health or development agencies participate at the action of the community, for its own development, when the community owns the issue of HIV/AIDS and responds to it. The participation of the community is no longer participation to the project of these agencies but it is the other way around.