Project Mampisaina Update 3: Voluntary Counselling and Testing

Posted on 22 March 2010

Whilst one of Project Mampisaina’s main goals is to educate and raise awareness of HIV/AIDS, the project ultimately aims to support and encourage young people to make informed decisions about their sexual health and adopt safer sexual health practices. Testing is a significant part of this process as individuals are encouraged to actively take responsibility by getting tested and knowing their status. Since 2008 Mampisaina has distributed free voluntary testing and counselling (VCT) tickets to young people that have participated in HIV information and education activities, whether in the form of a focus group, workshop, home visit or mass mobilisation. The HIV test is quick and simple requiring just a few drops of blood to be taken from the finger or the arm and results can be given between 30 minutes and a day depending on the test and the clinic.

In Fort Dauphin there are currently five places where young people can get tested, two top Reseau clinics partnered with Population Services International (PSI), a private Lutheran clinic, a local CSB clinic and the town’s hospital. In 2009 Mampisaina encouraged over a 1000 young people to get tested and has recently undertaken specific VCT research to further understand the psycho-social barriers to testing. The most common barriers were; fear of the testing process, discovering being positive and the social stigma, denial and refusal to take responsibility, lack of information and testing not being a priority because or economic and social difficulties. From this research new methods to engage and convince young people are being integrated into the Mampisaina project in the form of increased peer support, additional peer educator training, the development of new information tools, mass demonstrations of testing and open forums with opinion leaders. Even though Mampisaina faces major challenges imposed by the political crisis, hopes to raise levels of testing in 2010 are stronger than ever.