HEALTH

Lira HIV/ AIDS awareness Campaign

Nothern Uganda, 2010

The overall objective of this campaign was to improve HIV/AIDS awareness and to increase the number of people going for HCT (HIV Counselling and Testing) services in Lira, in order to increase the awareness of one’s HIV status and to encourage people to seek early treatment and care in order to decrease further HIV transmission.

To accomplish this goal, an audience of approximately 145,000 people in the North Western region of Uganda was asked through radio commercials to subscribe to the Text to Change HIV/ AIDS SMS Quiz. The quiz consisted of 19 questions both testing the respondents knowledge of HIV/ AIDS as well as retrieving background information like sex and location.
Additionally, Text to Change targeted a group of 7,000 people in Lira with SMS questions regarding HIV/ AIDS awareness and messages to encourage people to go for free HIV testing – provided by the Aids Information Centre.

Results and conclusions

• The majority of participants had been tested for HIV at least once, however, only 44% had been tested in the past year. HIV testing at the Lira AIDS Information Centre increased considerably following an SMS reminder of the free service; infact test uptake doubled
• Response rate of the SMS survey was high, with more men participating than women
• 96% Of all participants stated that the survey had helped them to gain new knowledge
• The average age of participants was 28
• On average, 74% of all questions sent via SMS were answered correctly
• Women were better informed about family planning issues than men

Most importantly, during the survey, free testing was provided at the AIDS Information Centre in Lira and as a result, a high number of people came to the centre to be tested. This could suggest that by reducing the financial burden, even more people would be likely to come forward for testing in the future.