The HEART (Helping Each Other Act Responsibly Together) Campaign

Project dates: 1999 - present

Themes: HIV/AIDS/Youth, Gender & Sexuality, Family Planning and Maternal Health

• Overview
• Objectives
• Activities
• Outputs
• Impact
• Future Plans
• Partners

Overview

This campaign promotes healthy sexual behaviors among young people, ages 15-19, both urban and rural. Using messages that convey energy and vibrancy and reflect youth culture, the campaign reinforces those sexual behaviors that are safe while aiming to change the unsafe ones. Television reaches urban youth and radio reaches both rural and urban youth; popular music reaches them all. The behavior change strategy is to encourage youth either to abstain from sexual intercourse or to use a condom every time they have sex with every partner in order to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS.

Objectives

The overall goal is to significantly reduce the sexual transmission of HIV among youth in Zambia through a nation-wide effort to spark changes in both social norms and individual sexual behavior. Among these changes:

• Get youth who are sexually active and sometimes use condoms to use them consistently.
• Get youth who are abstaining to continue abstaining.
• Help youth understand that even a person who looks healthy can be infected with HIV.
• Encourage the youth to view condoms as a hip and cool part of their sexual lives.
• Make abstinence cool, hip, and the in-thing.
  

Activities

Planning for Phase III of the campaign took place through focus group discussions, leading to development of the next round of television adverts and messages. Results of the campaign from 1999-2000 were compiled in a final document.

Outputs

• Rebroadcasting of Phase II campaign.
• Development of concepts for Phase III.

Impact

• Press release: Zambia’s HEART Program Evaluation Shows Youth Respond Positively to AIDS Prevention Plan Promoting Abstinence (July 11, 2002)
  
  Report: "Impact of the HEART Campaign: Findings from the Youth Surveys, 1999 and 2000."

Results from the TV component of the 1999-2000 campaign reveal the following trends:

• 74 % of male viewers and 68% of female viewers said they took at least one action as a result of having seen the campaign. The most commonly reported action was talking with others - friends, partners, spouses or parents - about the adverts. The decision to abstain was also frequently reported by viewers as a direct result of campaign exposure.
• Among both men and women, the perceived efficacy to use condoms was positively and significantly correlated with viewership. Young men as well as older and better-educated respondents who saw the campaign were significantly more likely to report a decision to use condoms than those who had not.
• Young men in the impact survey were significantly more likely to express fear of HIV as the major reason for their abstinence than were their counterparts in the baseline survey.
• Among women who are sexually experienced, 82% of campaign viewers reported that they can "say no to sex." This contrasts with 68% of baseline and 64% of non-viewers.
• Nearly 86% of viewers versus 72% of non-viewers responded "yes" to the query, "Do you think that a person who looks healthy could be infected with HIV?"

Sexual Activity Status of Male Respondents by Campaign Viewership	Self Efficacy Scale for Condom Use Among Viewers and Non-Viewers
Sexual Activity Status of Female Respondents by Campaign Viewership	Condom Use by Campaign Viewership

Future Plans

• Youth Advocacy Group (YAG) reviewing concepts for Phase III.

Partners

• Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ)
• AIDS Council and Secretariat
  

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