Jali Watoto (Care for Children) Anti-Stigma and Discrimination Campaign

The programme’s focus was training and educating young people. Organisers held workshops for children and youth to raise awareness on different topics to promote peaceful communities, healthy environments and reasons for positive living. The programme trained young people to be peer educators, providing them with skills, techniques, resources and messages to teach youth and children about HIV/AIDS. The organisers believe children are great communicators. "We know that the anti-stigma messages that are given to our young people will be spread to their families, their friends and throughout the community."

During each training, participants were facilitated to choose at least two topics from the handbook for the day. The chosen two topics were taught, and then participants were provided with an opportunity to discuss and exchange their ideas, views, and experiences on the chosen topics. According to the organisers , the training showed that discussions among children give them courage to talk and actively participate in the training sessions.

Pact Tanzania, through the Jali Watoto Initiative, funded Roots and Shoots/Jane Goodall Institute to implement the Anti-Stigma campaign in Dar es Salaam, Kigoma, Kagera, Mara and Coast regions. Some of the issues that came up from children who participated in the project were the following:

• Reasons for stigmatisation in their communities were due to "selfishness", high poverty levels, crime, "loose" sexual behaviour, drug abuse, robbery, poor understanding, and some traditional beliefs.
• The effects of stigmatisation include disintegration of the family web, unwanted pregnancies, high levels of abuse, and increased infection of HIV/AIDS.
• All human beings are in danger of being affected by HIV/AIDS, therefore there is no need to stigmatise those who are already suffering from it.
• Children and young people are very happy when they are involved in important issues, and this involvement helps them to become informed and caring citizens as adults.
• All people living with HIV/AIDS must enjoy their basic human rights, e.g. the right to be educated, to be employed, to be loved, to contribute in community development initiatives, and to have access to a balanced diet.

At the end of each workshop, children were encouraged and helped to establish action plans, with the intention that they would follow this up on return to their communities. Most of these plans had the following components:

• introducing themselves to their local government authorities, and sharing with them the contents of the training they have under went;
• conducting special Roots and Shoots meetings in order to share the contents of the anti-stigma training with other members in their villages;
• training other willing members in the community on how to deal with stigma issues;
• mobilising local resources in order to assist the infected and affected members of the community; and
• reporting club activities to regional coordinators and national office periodically.

Youth, Children, HIV/AIDS, Stigma.

Roots and Shoots is a national programme with clubs in more than 600 schools in Tanzania. Pact is an international non-governmental organisation based in the United States, with offices in 20 countries around the world. Pact Tanzania aims to build the capacity of local groups and provide them with resources so that they are better able to serve their communities.

This programme was created because the organisers found that HIV/AIDS orphans frequently experience stigma at school. They can be teased or bullied by other children, denied participation in games, or prevented from participating in lessons. In certain instances this abuse keeps HIV/AIDS orphans from attending school altogether out of fear of abuse or discrimination. Many children who are orphaned by HIV/AIDS often say they would rather stay at home then go to school. The results of such stigma can be devastating to families of HIV-positive individuals who try to keep the HIV-status of relatives a secret. This can cause children to withdraw from much-needed social support systems while only perpetuating a cycle of silence that encourages the spread of the virus.

It was planned that 23 training sessions would be conducted, to reach 690 children; but according to the organisers, the project managed to reach 891,201 children more than the anticipated number.