Stop AIDS. Love Life.

• Project Overview
• Objectives and Strategies
• Activities and Highlights
• Outputs
• Impact
• Unique Features
• Future Plans

PROJECT OVERVIEW

This national HIV/AIDS campaign is implemented by JHU/PCS and its collaborating partners in Ghana. The main purposes of the campaign are to increase awareness about HIV/AIDS, to increase the adoption of safer sex behavior, to de-stigmatize HIV/AIDS, and to encourage compassion, care, and support for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWA). The campaign focuses on advocacy, community mobilization, and mass media. Mass media components include a music video, television, and radio spots featuring traditional and religious leaders and PLWAs, and a popular television drama. Community mobilization has included school activities, women's groups, community rallies, and the use of a participatory tool called Journey of Hope to teach abstinence, fidelity, and condom use.

The campaign will be implemented in phases over the life of the project, and each phase of the campaign has focused on one overall theme. Year one emphasized shattering the silence on HIV and AIDS, and the second year has focused on caring communities through an initiative with traditional leaders and use of community mobilization tools. The third phase, Compassion, began in early 2002 in collaboration with religious leaders and community groups throughout Ghana.

OBJECTIVES/STRATEGIES

The purpose of this campaign is to assist USAID in achieving its strategic objective of improved family health through increased use of reproductive health services related to HIV prevention. This intervention will increase awareness and knowledge about HIV/AIDS, contribute to more positive social norms concerning the disease and its prevention, and increase the use of condoms. Specific project objectives include the following:

• Sustain knowledge and awareness about HIV/AIDS in Ghana
• Promote and model HIV/AIDS prevention behaviors
• Increase adoption of safer sex behaviors
• Decrease the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS
• Encourage compassion, care, and support for PLWAs
• Strengthen the local and community NGO network
• Improve and increase community-based communication approaches in Ghana

ACTIVITIES AND HIGHLIGHTS

• Development and distribution of print materials.

• Production of an HIV/AIDS music video featuring Ghanaian hip-life, highlife, and gospel musicians with safer sex messages of abstinence, fidelity, and condom use
• Production of testimony spots, with HIV+ Ghanaians telling their stories.
• Peer counseling workshop for PLWAs with Wisdom Association support groups.

• Production of traditional rulers (local chiefs) spots for the caring communities phase.
• Launch of Journey of Hope campaign with the President of Ghana, John Agyekum Kufour, and cabinet members attending
• Training workshops on community mobilization and use of Journey of Hope
• Group Africa community rallies and school-based programs
• Development and production of compassion spots with religious leaders
• Provide input and messages to the script of Things We Do for Love television series

OUTPUTS

• Journey of Hope developed, reproduced, and distributed
• Things We Do for Love aired weekly on television
• HIV/AIDS music video
• Stop AIDS. Love Life. print materials
• TV and radio spots
• PLWA workshop print materials
• Community rallies and school-based activities
  
  

  Shifting from a Health-based Approach to a Social Normative Approach to HIV Prevention in Africa: The Case of the Stop Aids Love Life Campign in Ghana (1.2 MB)	The Complementary Roles of Mass Media and Community-level Communication Channels for Promoting Condom Use Among Men and Women in Ghana (1.1 MB)

IMPACT

JHU/PCS has completed an overall comparison between the 1998 Ghana DHS and the 2001 campaign impact survey. Findings include the following:

• High exposure to the communication activities:
• Nearly 60% of men and 55% of women interviewed were able to identify, without prompting, a slogan uniquely associated with the campaign.
• When including both spontaneous and prompted responses, approximately 80% of men and women surveyed reported having seen or heard some element of Stop AIDS, Love Life.
• Exposure to the communication activities was associated with more favorable attitudes among both young women and young men towards abstinence and delayed sexual debut.
• Condom sales from Ghana's largest manufacturer jumped from an average of 2.7 million every 6 months to a record 6.6 million in the 6 months ending June 1, 2001, an increase of 144%.

An additional survey in Spring 2003 is planned to measure the community-based elements of the campaign using individual in-depth interviews among youth and women to identify how Stop AIDS, Love Life activities contribute to the adoption of HIV-preventive behaviors.

UNIQUE FEATURES

• Government dignitaries present at the launches of Stop AIDS. Love Life. and Journey of Hope. Strong leadership support.
• Three news stories featured on GTV news about Journey of Hope.
• Things We Do for Love won an award for being voted the #1 television drama in Ghana.
• Mr. Douglas Sem, featured in the Stop AIDS. Love Life. testimonial spots, became Ghana's first spokesperson for PLWA and was very popular.
• The Government of Ghana/UNAIDS report titled "Response Analysis for Strategic Planning" stated that "the Stop AIDS, Love Life campaign shows a level of inter-sectoral co-operation that is not equaled in other areas of HIV/AIDS prevention. Here, NGOs, public and private sectors genuinely work together, each contributing towards a common goal."

FUTURE PLANS

• Stop AIDS. Love Life. will also focus on youth and children and will continue to produce and distribute communication materials on life skills, self-risk assessment, and facts about HIV/AIDS to be used by community groups.