AIDS Competence in Thailand, Papua New Guinea, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia

Asian NGOs adopt a strength-based approach to let community take the issue of HIV in their

own hands

Project with the Asian Development Bank (mid-2007 to mid-2009)

In 6 Asian countries (Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Thailand) 437 NGO and CBO facilitators 543 communities

The Constellation

Build capacity of NGO facilitators on the AIDS Competence Process (ACP) NGO facilitators facilitate the process with their communities to become AIDS competent

What happened?

Prevention

Care

Mitigation

Ownership

Another way of thinking

Community has problems, needs help

Community has capacity to

respond

We help, teach, and provide to the community

We listen and learn tounderstand the

communitybetter, and facilitateresponsesWe identify problems and

respond to needsWe reveal strengths

Community does not feel ownership

Community feels ownership

Another way of working

We build on the strengths of communities

We work as a SALT team

S : Stimulate, Support

A : Appreciate

L : Listen, Learn, Link

T : Transfer, Team

We support communities to become AIDS

Competent

Methods and tools

Promote and facilitate local ownership:

– SALT visits– Dream building– Self-assessment– Self-measurement – ….

« Projects will come and go but I’m confident that this approach will last. » (Father Joe, India)

“ACP helped destroy the old way of working, especially among those working in various agencies and helped them open up more”.

“It promotes tremendous sharing and learning in communities”“ACP helps people see their own capacities. They no longer need anyone to tell them who should do what. It stimulates people to want to improve themselves”.

“The villagers told me I’d changed. I used to work the sausage way: trying to stuff all kinds of things into the community. And I used to talk a lot. Now, I am listening more, reflect more, and encourage the villagers to reflect and to express themselves more” (Anuwat, Thailand)

What NGOs think about the AIDS Competence Process

Open discussions

Community self assess their own strengths and what to improve in their response to HIV/AIDS, develop their own action plans, measure their own progress

Change in their way of working

Communities mobilize their own and external resources

People identify and address their vulnerabilities

Community owns the issue and the response

Results in communities

Thank you Thank you

for your attentionfor your attention

our website www.aidscompetence.orgour community www.aidscompetence.ning.com