The Market Vendors AIDS project
The six women, in brightly coloured clothes, are pretending to sell their wares in the Ugandan Market set up in the Global Village of the AIDS 2006 conference. They are interrupted as one of collogues comes running through the centre being chased by the man playing her husband.
It is the beginning of the play by the Market Vendors AIDS project demonstrating the work they do in three markets in Kampala.
The project started out as a pilot at the St. Balikuddembre Market and then expanded. It was designed to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS to the 45,000 vendors through peer education as well as access to testing and medical facilities.
"The moment we brought the services to them it was an overwhelming response,” said Rosemary Nammyonba, 24, an organizer of pilot project.
In the beginning they were seeing about 50 clients a month in 2004 and now they are seeing upwards of 450 people monthly.
As the play at the AIDS conference continues, the man tells his wife he has contracted HIV. Then when it seems that all is lost, someone steps into explain what they can do.
The person is a peer educator. Peer educators are one of three aspects to the MAVAP project. They are specially trained vendors on the topic of HIV/AIDS. These people work in the market as well as answering questions and stopping myths about the disease.
For those people who want to be tested the educators send them to the Marie Stopes clinic.
In the play the woman is taken to the clinic, which is in the market, where she meets a doctor who further explains about HIV testing and provides counseling.
The play ended here, but there is another step in the MAVAP project. Uganda Cares medical clinics are where those who are HIV positive can go for treatments and ART.
Both clinics are in the markets because it increased the chance that people would leave work to be tested.
“Basically they are next door to each other,” said Nammyonba, for easy access. She explained that the vendors were business people and just as someone in Toronto wouldn’t leave work in the middle of the day, the vendors won’t either.
At this time 500 peer educators have been trained and thousands of materials have been distributed. There are pens, notebooks, leaflets, shopping bags and shirts with information on HIV/AIDS written in English and the local languages.
Nammyonba hopes to expand further and at the AIDS conference she has been speaking with people from neighboring countries who are interested in implementing a similar program.
“With more funds we could expand outside of Kampala and maybe outside Uganda,” she said.
But, funding is what is holding them to the three markets they are in now. All of their funding is received from the Norwegian Embassy and MAVAP is looking to find more donors.
It is the beginning of the play by the Market Vendors AIDS project demonstrating the work they do in three markets in Kampala.
The project started out as a pilot at the St. Balikuddembre Market and then expanded. It was designed to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS to the 45,000 vendors through peer education as well as access to testing and medical facilities.
"The moment we brought the services to them it was an overwhelming response,” said Rosemary Nammyonba, 24, an organizer of pilot project.
In the beginning they were seeing about 50 clients a month in 2004 and now they are seeing upwards of 450 people monthly.
As the play at the AIDS conference continues, the man tells his wife he has contracted HIV. Then when it seems that all is lost, someone steps into explain what they can do.The person is a peer educator. Peer educators are one of three aspects to the MAVAP project. They are specially trained vendors on the topic of HIV/AIDS. These people work in the market as well as answering questions and stopping myths about the disease.
For those people who want to be tested the educators send them to the Marie Stopes clinic.
In the play the woman is taken to the clinic, which is in the market, where she meets a doctor who further explains about HIV testing and provides counseling.
The play ended here, but there is another step in the MAVAP project. Uganda Cares medical clinics are where those who are HIV positive can go for treatments and ART.
Both clinics are in the markets because it increased the chance that people would leave work to be tested.
“Basically they are next door to each other,” said Nammyonba, for easy access. She explained that the vendors were business people and just as someone in Toronto wouldn’t leave work in the middle of the day, the vendors won’t either.
At this time 500 peer educators have been trained and thousands of materials have been distributed. There are pens, notebooks, leaflets, shopping bags and shirts with information on HIV/AIDS written in English and the local languages.
Nammyonba hopes to expand further and at the AIDS conference she has been speaking with people from neighboring countries who are interested in implementing a similar program.
“With more funds we could expand outside of Kampala and maybe outside Uganda,” she said.
But, funding is what is holding them to the three markets they are in now. All of their funding is received from the Norwegian Embassy and MAVAP is looking to find more donors.
posted by Angela at 5:10 AM
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