AIDS Competence Going to Supiori.

[Gracia Augusta Temongmere]

From 3-7 November later, there will be a training to the Peer Educator in Supiori ( a small town in Papua). The training it self is held by Health Department Kabupaten Supiori and Unicef. The good news is I got the chance to share the AIDS Competemce Process with the participant, and they are also want to have SALT team in their place. I am still thinking of the good way to do it, because this means that the KPA and Health Department in there have to be more intensive in doing the monitoring of the process it self.
well I will see the progress, what can I do to them. Hoping for all the support.

[Rituu B. Nanda]

An excellent learning. Thanks to all- Gracia, Laurence and Gaston. ACP can be an effective strategy in peer education. Peer educators do not work in isolation but respond to prevailing social norms and community contexts.

Gracia will wait to know how the training event. Good luck

[Gracia Augusta Temongmere]

Dear Gaston.
Thank you very much for the share...
I got a new strategy in doing the self assessment from your share. I think I'm going to let the peer educator choose what the target they want to do first. So, they could do the self assessment with their peer step by step.
I'll see the progress and I'll let you know if I need more information.

Regards,
Gracia

[Gaston]

Dear Gracia.

RDCCompetence, a member organization of the Constellation in DR-Congo are supporting Cordaid in DR-Congo in strengthening peer educators with SALT/ ACP. This is not an easy task. Although the peer educators were very enthusiastic and understood the SALT principles, they were draw towards the traditional way of working by other trainings and targets. They also received a separate training on peer education, focused on providing information to their peers with more of a 'push-strategy' instead of the facilitating mindset of SALT.

On the other hand, I have found cases (in Papua New Guinea) where facilitators of SALT lacked the basic knowledge on HIV, which also led to an untapped potential.

My view is that the combination peer-educator & SALT facilitator can really work if implemented well. I'll try to phrase how:

- The starting point. . For a good synergy, SALT and facilitation should be the starting point, the core of the peer educators work. The belief in people's capacity to respond to HIV is important. The peer educator can play an amazing role in revealing this capacity of their peers. So the behavior of the peer educator includes Stimulating peers through asking Appreciative questions, Listening and Learning from the peers instead of 'dumping information' and Transferring their experience in their own context, recognizing that even as peer educators they need to respond themselves to HIV.
- HIV Knowledge. The peer educator training is beneficial as it increases the knowledge on HIV of the facilitators. In this way, when peers demand (!) certain basic information, the peer educator can provide this.
- Targets. This is important. The peer educators should set targets and indicators for them, not for the community or their peers. For example, a target could be: 50 SALT visits conducted with at least 5 peers attending. Or 25 self-assessments facilitated. It's good to avoid targets such as: '# HIV awareness sessions conducted' as this already assumes that every peer puts this as a priority. It's up to the peers/ community to decide where they need to work on first. Perhaps awareness is not their priority now, but more the increase of inclusion of HIV. So be cautious about the monitoring & Evaluation indicators of peer educators.
- Timing. When during the AIDS Competence Process, it turns out that the peers really want more information, it is best that the peer educator sets a new 'appointment' to provide an awareness session tailored to their needs. In this way, his/ her role as a facilitator is not jeopardized by 'providing solutions' during the facilitation. The outcome will be peers/ communities that start taking ownership of HIV (instead of seeing it as the peer educator's problem, because he is talking about it!). They will request certain information IF they see they need it and the peer education becomes more effective.

Does this help? Let me know if you need more information.

Regards,
Gaston

[Laurence Gilliot]

Here a message from Toussaint from DR-Congo send by email in response to your blog:

Merçi pour l'interêt que vous accordiez à mon expérience sur la pair éducation.
Au fait, c'est une approche communautaire qui consiste à organiser des causéries éducatives avec les groupes des gens ou des formations, içi l'animateur est consider comme un spécialiste, professeur ou quelqu'un qui connait tout.
C'est une approche qui n'a pas d'impact visible et durable parceque la communauté ne s'approprie pas de l'approche et à l'absence du pair educateur rien ne se faira donc moi personnellement je n'encourages pas cette approche , je souhaite plus notre approche salt où la communauté elle - même prends les choses en main.
Voilà ma pétite contribution et restant ouvert et dispos pour d'éventuelles questions.

Translation:
Thank you for your interest in my experience on peer education.
In fact, it is a community approach that consists in organizing educational conversations with groups of people or formations, where the animator is considered as a specialist, professor or someone who knows everything.
It is an approach that doesn't have a clear and lasting impact because the community does not own the approach and in the absence of the peer educator nothing will happen so personally I do not encourage this approach, I prefer our SALT approach where the community it-self takes things in its own hands.
Here is my small contribution and I am available and open for any questions.

Thank you Toussaint for your contribution. Merci Toussaint pour ta contribution.

[Laurence Gilliot]

Hi Gracia,

Excellent news! ACP is spreading in Indonesia thanks to your efforts as well as the whole IndoCompetence team.

Will the peer educators have a chance to do a SALT visit during the training? If not, is there any chance that you can do a support visit to help the local team implement the approach in the field? Or maybe you can invite some team members to visit your team and join some activities to learn more about how you use the approach in the field?

I always have to think of my good friend Toussaint from RD-Congo when I hear that peer educators use the AIDS Competence Process. He shared in an interview (in french) how much the approach changed his way of working. Before, he would arrive in a group with his material and display everything on the table. Then he would start: blablabla... in the end there would be some time for questions.
Now, he stimulates a discussion from the start. He lets people reflect and most importantly he helps them discover their own strengths. He uses the dream and self-assessment so that people can (if they want) build a common vision, assess the situation and make an action plan. "Before, people thought: this issue of HIV, it is Toussaint's issue. Now they understand that it is everyone's issue."

Good luck my friend and please let us know how it went ;-)

Laurence