Academy for Educational Development

More people became infected with HIV in 2003 than in any previous year—about five million. Ninety percent of them don’t know it because they haven’t been tested. Experts at the XV World Conference on AIDS in Bangkok, held last July, warned of the dangers of HIV-related stigma, which often keeps people from getting tested.

AED is working to provide greater access to voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) for HIV and has expanded its prevention activities overseas and in the United States.

Increasing VCT and Surveillance

AED has begun new VCT programs in Botswana, South Africa, Ghana and Honduras. In Botswana, which has the second highest prevalence of HIV in the world, the AED Center on AIDS and Community Health (COACH) is helping to transform a VCT program sponsored by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) into a self-sustaining, independent NGO which will ensure the long-term sustainability of VCT services there.

South Africa has the largest number of AIDS cases worldwide, and AED is assisting 100 NGOs in all of the country’s nine provinces to roll out VCT programs by training staff and supporting procurement and distribution of VCT kits.

The project is supported by the CDC. In Honduras, AED is adding a VCT component to its Comunicando Vida project, which provides NGOs with training and grants to help implement HIV-prevention strategies. COACH is also working on HIV prevention programs in Ghana, with a focus on high-risk populations.

Over the next five years, AED will conduct surveillance activities to determine who is at highest risk and develop appropriate interventions. While HIV prevalence in Ghana is relatively low compared with much of sub-Saharan Africa, understanding which communities are becoming infected is critical in stemming the continued spread of the virus to the broader population.

The AED Center for Global Health Communication and Marketing (CGHCM) is establishing three VCT demonstration sites that are independent from Ghana’s health system. That approach will help address issues of stigma and access which keep people from being tested.

The alternative VCT sites are being set up in areas where people are at greater risk for HIV infection, such as truck stops, bars and mines. They will be used to study what makes VCT centers work successfully and what hampers their operation.

“One of AED’s strengths has been to identify barriers to people’s behavior,” said Mark Rasmuson, vice president and director of CGHCM. “Now we are bringing our experience and expertise in understanding consumers to designing programs that will promote the benefits of HIV testing.”

Reaching Prevention Goals through Soccer

In Ethiopia, CGHCM is implementing the Sports for Life project, a regional health program that recruits prominent soccer players to become role models within their peer networks and communities and lead HIV/AIDS education efforts.

The Ministry of Youth Sports and Culture has invited Sports for Life to train physical education teachers nationwide to use its approach and curriculum to teach school children in grades 6-8 about HIV and AIDS prevention.

Combating Stigma

Having received the largest grant ever to study HIV/AIDS-related stigma in the United States, AED has been expanding its work to combat the spread of the disease domestically. Funding from the Ford Foundation enables AED to define stigma and understand it so “we can begin to intervene at the community level to address stigma and erode those things that help sustain isolation and fear among those people living with HIV/AIDS,” said Stacey Little, senior HIV/AIDS team manager in COACH.

To expand the body of knowledge on stigma, AED is hosting a two-day conference in December to discuss the latest findings and how that information can be applied to the real world. Attendees will include program staff from six anti-stigma grantee sites and leading researchers.

AED is also the lead coordinator for the Diffusion of Effective Behavioral Interventions (DEBI) project. AED trains community based organizations and organizes regional workshops throughout the country on how to implement effective, science-based HIV/STD prevention programs. The number of approved interventions covered by the trainings and thus eligible for federal funds has increased from eight to 12 during the past year.

“We now have new technologies for testing for HIV, new treatments and new ways to assess health that are all science-based,” said Frank Beadle de Palomo, senior vice president and director of COACH. “We must continue to focus on both the national level and the community   level to be most effective in stemming the spread of HIV and AIDS.”

Read More about our work in HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care.