New Alliance programme to increase uptake of HIV services in Haiti

28 February 2008

In June 2008, the Alliance will start a project in Haiti to ensure that those who need HIV prevention, treatment, and care are able to access these services. The three-year project, supported by the Big Lottery Fund, will work with local leaders, health providers, and community members to increase their involvement in anti-stigma activities, increase the uptake of HIV-related health and support services, and decrease the stigma that people living with HIV face. The project also aims to reach over two million people with communication messages.

HIV-related stigma is a key barrier to HIV prevention, treatment and care. In Haiti, people who are HIV positive (or suspected of being positive) are routinely denied access to medical services and social support. They face human rights violations, abandonment by friends, family and neighbours, violence, and loss of livelihoods.

“Haiti has the highest HIV prevalence rate in Latin America and the Caribbean,” said Anamaria Bejar, the Alliance’s head of the Latin America and Caribbean team. “It is also the poorest country in the region, with an extremely fragile economy, chronic political unrest and very limited infrastructure. Haiti’s population relies heavily on interpersonal relationships for daily survival, so social isolation and exclusion from HIV-related stigma and discrimination has a devastating effect.”

The project aims to benefit more than 10,000 people living with HIV in the three project areas of Port-au-Prince, Cap Haïtien, and Jacmel, along with over 47,000 of their relatives, and 500 community leaders. Over two million people will be reached with communication messages.

The Alliance, in partnership with POZ (Promoteurs Objectif Zérosida, a Haitian non-governmental organisation), will train 100 local leaders from the three project areas to become “anti-discrimination champion leaders”. These leaders will develop local plans and conflict resolution strategies for reporting stigma and discrimination. They will also monitor a telephone helpline for people to report discrimination that will be set up with the project – meeting monthly to create a community watchdog system that will be sustainable after the project.

Other project activities will include:

  • work to improve the friendliness of HIV-related health services;
  • working with people living with HIV to identify stigma and discrimination;
  • leadership training for people living with HIV; and
  • a communication campaign, including billboards, flyers, and radio announcements.

To ensure ownership and sustainability of the project, three local associations of people living with HIV will actively participate in the design, implementation, and evaluation of all project activities.

Background to our work in Haiti

Following a scoping project in 2004, the Alliance started working in Haiti in October 2005 with a project to build the advocacy capacity of people living with HIV, and to increase their involvement in decision-making. The project worked with six associations of people living with HIV and its platform, PHAP+ (Plateforme Haïtien des Associations des Personnes Vivant avec le VIH). This led to the creation of a strategic plan for PHAP+, and capacity-building activities on organisational development, advocacy planning, and raising funds. The project will end in March 2008. A participatory review of the work will document the experience and recommend how to develop this work further.