Community-led initiatives

Community act with a difference
The members of the Shakti Mahila Sangha and Sweekar, an MSM CBO organized an activity with a difference. They came together to clean up the graveyard in their town- Belgaum on the New Years Eve. The main objective was to engage in social work that will benefit not just their community members but the general population as well. They believe that taking initiative to organize such activities for the common good of all will help build the community strength and gather more support from the community members.

There were about 30 community persons who took part in this activity. Members from Shivaji Yuvak Mandal also participated. Media persons from Kasturi TV, TV 9 and E TV were also present. The community members worked diligently through the morning and cleaned up the place. They removed the thorns, twigs, dust, garbage and dirt and then sprinkled water and put Rangoli. This won them appreciation and encouragement from various quarters.

After lunch, they engaged in discussions about HIV AIDS, harmful effects of tobacco and gutkha use. The women then planted flower plants and made a kitchen garden. The media persons also encouraged the women to come forward and get recognized for their work. At the end they cut a cake and celebrated the completion of the day successfully.

Building Volunteerism among the community
After the PBS report last year, it came across that many people did not know about condoms and how to use it during the intercourse. And many even faced the problem of finding condoms when they needed. Therefore, the BIRDS team decided to identify a rural condom programme volunteer (non-peer). While the peer educator always travels and cannot be at one village on all the days, the condom programme volunteers are present in the village always. These volunteers have been identified for villages where there are no residential peers. The prerequisites for any person to be a volunteers is that -

• She has to be an FSW
• More than 50% of the FSWs need to know her
• Must share good rapport with FSWs
• Home-based
• Willingness to keep the condoms with her at home
• Consent to be a volunteer

Taluk level volunteers meeting is held whenever required. Last ear a sensitization programme for the volunteers was done which covered: programme component, condom distribution process, volunteerism and their role & importance in the programme.

The impact of this initiative has been tremendous. Volunteers stack up a minimum of 500 condoms each time they meet at the taluk office and take it home. Their distribution is ensured by the volunteers as they can be approached by anyone in the village, even those from the general public who do not want to be associated with the program in any way.

Therefore, this has proved to be useful not only for the FSWs but also the non community women who can approach the volunteers when they have multiple partners. This has aided the HIV prevention efforts in the villages. Those at BIRDS feel that it is a big step towards sustainability and building ownership. Through this initiative, the community monitoring process has been strengthened to a great extent. 450 volunteers have been identified within 3-4 months and it has not been a very easy task. Bagalkot has 150, Bijapur 111 and Belgaum 451 volunteers.