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Venue: Kalukundi Site Meeting Shed
Participants: Swanmines, AMOCONGO-NGO and Kisankala Community
As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility, Swanmines has a dedicated programme that deals with community health. Swanmines worked with the Kisankala Village Health Committee to discuss the importance of raising HIV/AIDS awareness and, after consultation with the KVDC, the date for the event was set for 5th December.
About 75% of the Kisankala village population consists of transient inhabitants, the majority of whom are artisanal miners. The risk of having casual partners is evident and even with poorly resourced health facilities, one of the more common infections reported monthly are Sexually Transmitted Infections. The need to urgently address the HIV prevention awareness was thus identified. The Kisankala Village Dev. Committee was in full support of the program. Swanmines also involved all its site employees, several of whom are resident in the village.
Swanmines thus engaged AMOCONGO, an NGO based in Lubumbashi dealing with People Living With HIV/AIDS to be the facilitators for this campaign, and this was complemented by an excellent theatre performance from Groupe-Nzembela which stole the show.
Swanmines also organised to have IEC (educational) materials which included T-shirts, posters and brochures which were used to emphasize the theme messages.
The topics covered included: defining HIV/AIDS, modes of transmission, the ABCD of HIV prevention, knowing ones HIV status and Living Positively with a sero-positive status. Emphasis was also placed on the role the community has to support people living with HIV and that Swanmines will adopt a non-discriminatory policy with regard to HIV. Employees found to be HIV-positive will still retain their employment. The key speakers were:
One of the key topics was Condom Education and Promotion. The Groupe-Nzembela did an exemplary education skit and demonstration on the subject. A total of 1220 contraceptives were distributed to the participants.
There was a question and answer session which kept the crowd attentive and encouraged their participation. Participants giving the correct response were awarded a T-shirt and a gift pack of cards.
A few participants came forth and did a Voluntary HIV Test which was very encouraging; however due to time limitations we could not test the crowd. Future arrangements will be made to enable this service.
