Digital Pulse - Ch 3 - Sec 3 - Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS)

Development Issues: HIV/AIDS

Programme Summary

Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS) Nigeria is a media-based non-governmental organisation in Nigeria working in the field of HIV/AIDS and development. Their mission is to contribute to the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria by improving the quality of HIV/AIDS communication messages and by strengthening the quality of policy response and interventions. Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS) Nigeria has won several accolades for its innovative programming and approaches to the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Summary of ICT Initiatives

JAAIDS has developed a host of innovative approaches to awareness and prevention activities including these past and ongoing projects:

Monthly Media Roundtable

As part of efforts to build partnership between HIV/AIDS activists and the media, JAAIDS convenes a Monthly Media Roundtable to facilitate easy access to the media by activists and NGOs as well as provide a forum for journalists to update themselves on current issues in the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Topics discussed at past Roundtables include Islamic Responses to HIV/AIDS, Facts about HIV/AIDS Statistics, Face-to-face with People Living with HIV/AIDS, Locally-available Herbal Remedies for HIV-related Opportunistic Infections etc.

Training Workshops & Seminars

JAAIDS develops seminars in response to the needs of Nigerian journalists to fill their skills gaps in HIV/AIDS reporting. In 1998, six HIV reporting seminars for print journalists were held, in collaboration with the local chapels of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ). In 2001, in response to a survey that identified HIV-related training needs of the media, JAAIDS organized three workshops focusing on Effective HIV/AIDS Reporting; Advocacy Skills; and the Science of HIV/AIDS. Over 80 journalists were trained at these workshops. At the December 2001 International Conference on AIDS/STDs in Africa in Africa (ICASA) in Burkina Faso, JAAIDS in partnership with Internews Network-USA, conducted an intensive training programme for radio journalists from Nigeria and Kenya covering the conference.

Advocacy Campaign On Access To Treatment

A two-year advocacy campaign to support access to affordable treatment and care for Nigerians living with HIV/AIDS is currently underway. The project aims to empower a wide body of stakeholders (PLWHA, the media, care providers, activists, government officials etc) with the skills and knowledge to advocate on issues of access to HIV-related care and treatment. Specific activities under the project include consultative meetings and roundtables with stakeholders throughout Nigeria, capacity-building workshops, production and circulation of a bi-monthly newsletter as well as the creation of a website and listserv that will collate, store and distribute critical information and updates on access to treatment issues.

AIDS News Service Monthly Bulletin

One of the constraints facing Nigerian journalists in reporting HIV/AIDS is the lack of easy access to new resources. To address this gap, JAAIDS publishes AIDS News Service, a 16-page monthly bulletin of HIV/AIDS and reproductive health issues for the Nigerian media. 4000 copies of this bulletin are produced and distributed free to reporters, editors and media managers every month, thus guaranteeing continuous reportage of quality HIV-related news in the media

The Nigeria-AIDS eForum

JAAIDS has also worked in the area of opening up discussions on the HIV/AIDS situation in Nigeria, through the Nigeria-AIDS eForum a email/web-based discussion forum on AIDS in Nigeria The eForum currently has over 1000 direct subscribers and at least 500 secondary readers, who are mainly activists, journalists, people living with HIV/AIDS, policymakers and donor staff working in the area of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria and across Africa. An average of five email messages are distributed in the forum everyday and many members report that the forum is their main source of information on HIV/AIDS in Nigeria and globally. Increasingly quoted on HIV-related news sites across the world, the Nigeria-AIDS eForum has been made even more popular by the hosting of the first Open Electronic Conference on HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, which is a six-months-long structured conference-on-the-Net, lasting between August 2001 and January 2002.

The Nigeria-AIDS website

The JAAIDS website , launched May 30 2001, has become an important reference site on HIV-related information and resources in Nigeria and West Africa. The site features most policy documents, research reports, studies and news relevant to the HIV/AIDS situation in Nigeria. Other features include an online survey, statistics on HIV/AIDS in 16 countries of West Africa as well as archives of the Nigeria-AIDS eForum. The website is updated regularly and is designed to serve as the online resource centre on HIV/AIDS for the sub-region.

Observations

Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS) Nigeria has won several accolades for its innovative programming and approaches to the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS in Africa. In addition the JAAIDS project director has been seconded to the board of several other HIV/AIDS prevention NGOs to assist in the development and strengthening of communication programmes.

Partners: The Futures Group International/Policy Project Nigeria, The Ford Foundation (Office for West Africa), the Elton John AIDS Foundation/Family Health International, The Panos Institute London as well as the National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA). Association of Alternative Newspapers and the African American AIDS Policy and Training Institute, USA as well as the Society for Family Health (SFH).

Source:JAAIDS website

For More Information Contact:

Project Director
Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS)
Nigeria
jaaidsng@nigeria-aids.org