SWAK recognises the importance
of empowering people infected and affected with
HIV/AIDS at all levels of the community to enable
them cope.
To accomplish this, SWAK implements the following
strategies under the following priority areas 1. Prevention of new
infections
SWAK aims to reduce new infections among women
and girls by addressing the underlying gender
factors putting women and girls at risk. This
is achieved through using strategies sensitive
to the social and cultural factors determining
the gender relations in the target communities.
The major strategy that SWAK uses is the involvement
of men through the Male initiative.
2.
Improvement of the quality of life for people
infected and affected by HIV/AIDS
The main important strategies for improving
the quality of life of people infected and affected
by HIV/AIDS are by protection of their human
rights and fighting stigma and discrimination.
SWAK does this through:
• Paralegal
program where SWAK members have
been trained as paralegals to offer linkages
between the legal profession, human rights organisations,
and the community.
• Ambassadors
Of Hope Initiative that involves
training of PLWHA on going Public about their
HIV status and living positively with HIV/AIDS
3.
Mitigation of social impact of HIV/AIDS
HIV/AIDS has profound negative impact on all
aspects of the community. The capacity of communities
to cope with the rapid increase of orphans and
child-headed families is overstretched. SWAK’s
has prioritised the social impact of HIV/AIDS
on families and seeks to improve the coping
mechanisms of PLWHA and affected families through;
• The
memory book project: The memory
project aims to enhance parents living with
HIV/AIDS to acquire knowledge and skills in
developing supportive strategies to help children
affected cope with the effects of AIDS in their
families.
• Systemic
Child counselling and children’s clubs:
Systemic Child counselling training equips people
with necessary knowledge and skills to offer
counselling to distressed children. The clubs
enable orphaned children of support group members
to interact, share ideas, open up to the counsellors,
receive education on reproductive health, and
on how to provide care and support for the ailing
parents.
• Community
and bereavement counselling:
SWAK members are empowered with knowledge and
skills to provide psychosocial support and Referral
for the infected and affected in their communities
Prevention
of new infections: SWAK aims to reduce
new infections among women and girls by addressing
the underlying gender factors putting women and
girls at risk
Improvement of the quality
of life of people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS:
There are two important strategies for improving
the quality of life of people infected and affected
by HIV/AIDS: provision of treatment and care services
and protection of their human rights.
Mitigation
of the social impact of HIV/AIDS:
HIV/AIDS has profound
negative impact on all aspects of the community.
The capacity of communities to cope with the rapid
increase of orphans and child-headed families
is overstretched.
SWAK
capacity development:
SWAK’s capacity gaps have been identified
in the previous sections. SWAK has identified
the specific capacity building initiatives that
will be undertaken to address the challenges identified.
