Tanzania HIV/AIDS Interfaith Partnership

Major Accomplishments of the Our Church/Mosque Lights the Way Campaign in Tanzania

Background

The Balm In Gilead-Tanzania successfully adapted its US domestic program Our Church Lights the Way! The Black Church HIV/AIDS Testing Campaign for Christian and Muslim faith communities in Tanzania. As in the African American community, Our Church/Mosque Lights the Way Campaign in Tanzania (OCMLW) was created to demand for HIV counseling and testing within faith communities and to increase interest, acceptability and utilization of HIV testing facilities.

The Tanzania Interfaith Partnership (TIP) partners: The National Muslim Council of Tanzania (BAKWATA); The Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT) and the Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC) led the campaign through their churches and mosques in a pilot study to mobilize people to get tested for HIV. The pilot included six mobile and static testing centers in Shinyanga rural and urban areas.

The results of the campaign's pilot as been hailed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others as an exceptional success of engaging people of Tanzania to get tested for the HIV virus. Our Church/Our Mosque Lights the Way Campaign (OCMLW) is in the process of being launched throughout the Republic of Tanzania.

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Strengths of the OCMLW Campaign

Major Accomplishments of the Campaign

  1. Faith leaders played a leading role in mobilizing communities to come forward for counseling and testing

    The large turn-out of clients during the OCMLW campaign was a result of the active role that faith leaders had taken in the mobilization process. Announcements about the campaign were made in churches and mosques. Hence, congregations were mobilized to come forward. In some settings, such as the African Inland Church of Tanzania (AICT), faith leaders led by example by lining up first to get tested. This set the tone of the exercise and tens of hundreds of people turned up. There is also more willingness among faith based institutions and faith leaders to participate in the fight against HIV/AIDS. More and more they feel their role is being recognized and appreciated.

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  2. Reinforced efforts of the national testing campaign initiated by the President

    A few months before the OCMLW campaign was launched, the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, H.E. Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, had initiated a national testing campaign which was officially launched in Dar es Salaam and later rolled out to other regions countrywide. However, the campaign did not reach some of the remote communities as counseling and testing was done in static centers. The mobile clinics conducted during the OCMLW campaign was highly appreciated particularly in rural communities that were not reached by the national testing campaign and have never been reached through any other intervention.

  3. Stirred up a positive response including from students in secondary schools within the campaign area

    During one of the mobile clinics conducted by staff from Nindo Health Center in Mwang'osha, out of 52 clients who were tested, 47 (90%) were students aged between 15 and 18 years from Mwantini Secondary School, a nearby secondary school. None of these students tested positive. In another incident, the Head Master of Ilola Secondary school, on hearing about the OCMLW campaign, invited staff from Bugisi dispensary to conduct Counseling and Testing at the school, during which about 100 students volunteered to test.

  4. Contributed to a significant increase in people who turned up for counseling and tested

    The OCMLW Campaign contributed to a significant increase in the number of clients that came for voluntary HIV counseling and testing. The static VCT sites, both existing and new ones set up in different settings were highly appreciated by the surrounding communities. By providing both static and outreach services many people were reached. Some outreach sites counseled and tested up to 200 people in a day. Between August and September, a total of 6,549 clients were counseled and tested in all the static and mobile sites.

  5. A larger number of couples tested

    The OCMLW Campaign witnessed a lot of couples who came forward to test. When interviewed a number of respondents, both counselors and members of the different congregations said it was a direct impact of the involvement of faith leaders whose teachings encouraged openness among couples.

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Two Significant Lessons Learned from the OCMLW Campaign

The results of the OCMLW campaign, especially the high numbers of people who came for testing as a result of mobile clinics strongly suggested that outreach services are an effective way of reaching large numbers of people with HIV/AIDS interventions. They are also more favored than static sites as they are less costly to the beneficiaries both in terms of time (to travel to the static site) and money (for transport and food).

Another major observation made during the OCMLW campaign is that there is a positive change in mindset towards HIV/AIDS and in individual health seeking behavior among the different congregations. People are more informed about HIV/AIDS, more courageous to get tested and know their status, and more hopeful due to expanded services.