Academy for Educational Development

This is especially true in sub-Saharan Africa, where the need for more testing is urgent. AED is answering this challenge with an innovative program that takes the tests to people and communities.











“Going to get testing for HIV is not always easy. Sometimes the clinic is too far away, transportation may be prohibitively expensive or not available, or sometimes stigma is too strong of a barrier,” said Frank Beadle de Palomo, senior vice president and director of the AED Center on AIDS & Community Health. “This unique approach transcends those issues and gives people every reason to take the test and take control of their lives.”










The Botswana Door-to-Door Testing project, which is funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is focused on the northeastern part of the country, in two districts where HIV/AIDS prevalence rates are particularly high.










As its name suggests, a key part of the project involves health professionals traveling to individual homes to administer the tests, provide counseling services, and conduct household surveys and education sessions.










This approach is possible because of AED’s partnership with local communities, the Government of Botswana, and two local organizations working on HIV testing and outreach: Tebelopele Voluntary Counseling and Testing and Humana People to People.










During the first phase of the project, which began in May 2007, more than 500 people received counseling and testing services.










Later this year, the intervention will be greatly expanded. AED staff set a goal of providing testing and counseling to 30,000 individuals in the two districts in Botswana. In addition to bringing testing services to communities that are severely affected by HIV/AIDS, the project intends to learn more about how to deliver better counseling and testing services throughout the country.










To that end, a household survey is conducted. Attitudes and beliefs about HIV/AIDS, individual sexual practices, HIV stigma and discrimination, and access to services are among the broad range of topics covered in the survey.










New technologies such as hand-held computers, rapid test kids, and global positioning systems are being used by the project to ensure that the data collected in these household surveys are current and correct.










“Using technology to gather data shaves weeks—if not months—off the time it takes to analyze the information,” said Holly Ladd, vice president and director of the AED SATELLIFE Center for Health Information and Technology. “As a result, we can respond more quickly to pressing needs.”










Another important benefit to using the electronic data capture, according to Ladd, is that during the trial period AED, staff could review the data every night and address issues with the surveyors if it appeared that a particular question was giving them a problem or was something people were not answering.










Data can be reviewed in the region as well as at the home office at the same time, she said. For more information, contact: Sarah Torrance, senior program associate, or Kirsten Weeks, director, HIV/AIDS programs, AED Botswana.