DECEMBER 2001

Ministry of Public Health and THP-Benin Collaborate on Stopping HIV/AIDS, including Song Contests in Epicenter

Report from Dr. Pascal Djohossou, THP-Benin Country Director

To mark World AIDS Day on 1 December, The Hunger Project-Benin was invited by the partner authorities of the Ministry of Public Health to participate in the launching ceremony. This ceremony included several nongovernmental organizations and actors involved in the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic along with several government ministers. The government ministers included: the Minister of Public Health, the Minister of Family, the Minister of Communications, the Minister of Technical and Vocational Education, the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, the Minister of Public Works and the Minister of Sports and Leisure.

THP-Benin accepted the invitation and participated in many ways including the bicycle race through the town of Cotonou, over a 4 kilometre circuit. This race, which is considered the highlight of the celebrations, marked the official launch of the campaign.

Dr. Pascal Djohossou, THP-Benin Country Director, participates in AIDS Day bicycle race.

Awareness-raising took place in Adohoun (Sub-Prefecture of Athiémé) where some 500 people – women and men as well as youth – gathered for a video program on preventing HIV/AIDS, with experts present to answer questions.

Video shown on preventing HIV/AIDS in community of Adohoun.

Song competition "Undeniably Successful"

A song competition to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS was strategically included because singing is an important part of life in Benin. Song marks the major events in life, times of joy or great rejoicing (birth, wedding, etc.) as well as times of sadness. Song also can set the mood, maintain humour and provide support for work. It is, therefore, a powerful tool to internalize messages and thus influences behaviour. Song also provides a means to break the silence, without excessive embarrassment, on the HIV/AIDS issue, which can no longer be denied or surrounded with secret.

The Hunger Project's Wawata Epicenter, was selected to experiment with this type of awareness-raising using songs.

In mid-November, singers from nine different villages of the epicentre of Wawata attended a training/briefing session on HIV/AIDS, so that they would be well prepared and able to compose relevant songs. The best of these songs, as determined by a competition, will be used as materials or support to raise awareness among the population of the epicentre about the scourge of HIV/AIDS.

"Family photo" of everyone participating in HIV/AIDS training in preparation for singing competition.

This training was provided within the framework of the partnership between the Ministry of Public Health and THP-Benin, by Dr. Josiane Awounou, Head of the Information, Education and Communication (IEC) Department of the Departmental Health Directorate for the Atlantic Region, and her collaborator, Thomas Goutondji.

Dr. Josiane Awounou leads the training.

Thomas Goutondji explains how HIV/AIDS is transmitted.

The song competition took place on 6 December at the Wawata Epicentre with participation from all 14 villages in the epicentre.

Eight groups (each averaging 30 in number) of trained singers took part in the competition. In addition more than 1,000 people came either as supporters of the competing groups or as spectators.

One of the performing groups demonstrating how to protect oneself.

The songs focused on various aspects of the issue, including:

Why is it necessary that THP enter the fight against HIV/AIDS?
What is HIV/AIDS?
How does one catch the disease?
How does that destroy our health and our lives?
How must we protect ourselves?

The Kpanougbe Group was one of the winning groups.

The competing singers commented on the various aspects of these questions in the songs they presented to their audience.

A jury, headed by Dr. Josiane Awounou, evaluated the performance of the groups based on the following criteria:

Relevance of the message
Orchestration
Spectators’ reactions to the performance

The jury included an additional four people including:

A collaborator of the Head of the IEC Department of the Departmental Health Directorate for the Atlantic Region
The Chief Medical Officer of the Sub-Prefecture of Abomey-Calavi
The Chief Medical Officer of the Sub-Prefecture of Zè
A representative of THP-Benin

The principal singer of the winning group, Ekpinzin.

The winners, who were awarded significant prizes, were:

No.	Name of the Group	Village	Prize
1	The EKPINZIN (toba hanyé) Group of Fandji	Fandji	One Tito kerosene lamp + cash prize of CFAF 20,000 + 2 boxes of condoms
2	The KPANOUGBE Group of the Women of Fanmin	Fanmin	One radio-cassette player + cash prize of CFAF 10,000 + 2 boxes of condoms
3	The LINGJA ZOMAYI Group of Dangbodji	Dangbodji	One tam-tam + Two gongs + CFAF 5,000 + 2 boxes of condoms

All other singers who entered the competition were awarded a consolation prize of CFAF 5,000 and two boxes of condoms.

The initiative was deemed "undeniably successful."

Winning songs to be recorded and disseminated

Recordings will be made of the best compositions, and they will be put onto audio cassettes which THP-Benin will then be able to use as support to ensure dissemination of the messages on a broader scale.

For this purpose, the collaboration between THP-Benin and other government and non-government entities working to stem the propagation of HIV/AIDS will continue.