Tsima Community Mobilisation Materials

Sonke Gender Justice produced this three part package of materials comprising of a handbook, workshop manual, and toolkit, which are designed to support community mobilisation activities around the issue of treatment as prevention. The materials were produced to support the Tsima Community Mobilisation Programme, which aims to "mobilise communities to "Activate HIV Treatment as Prevention"by dramatically increasing community uptake of HIV testing and antiretroviral treatment (ART)."
As stated in the materials, "research shows that ART protects the health of someone living with HIV and greatly reduces the chance that that person will transmit HIV to an uninfected partner. When taken correctly and consistently, ART reduces the amount of virus (or the "viral load") in a person's body so much that it becomes undetectable (i.e. very small numbers of the virus), so there is little virus that can be passed on to an uninfected partner. If a large enough proportion of people get tested, start treatment as soon as they are eligible, and stay on treatment for HIV in our communities, very few people will become infected."
The three Tsima booklets are:

• Tsima Booklet 1: Community Mobiliser's Handbook - This handbook is intended to be a resource for community mobilisers working with Sonke's community action teams (CAT) to engage men and women on issues of gender, HIV prevention, care and treatment, violence, and human rights.
• Tsima Booklet 2: Community Mobilisation Workshop Manual - This manual is intended as a resource for community mobilisers and CAT members to guide a series of five two-day workshops. Each workshop has a different set of activities, but many of the same themes around social justice, gender equality, and engaged citizen activism are addressed in all of the workshops.
• Tsima Booklet 3: Community Mobilisation Toolkit - This toolkit is intended to be used by community mobilisers and CAT members to undertake community-based activities such as street soccer, community theatre, digital stories and engaging community leaders. Some activities may be undertaken in teams or as a group, understanding that the widest input leads to the best result. Mobilisers/CATs can implement only one activity at a time, or combine them to form a larger campaign.

To produce these booklets, Sonke Gender Justice partnered with Wits University, Agincourt, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) AIDS Research Institute, University of North Carolina, Right to Care, Project SOAR, and the Population Council.