Overview

Launched in December 2002, the AIDS Resource Center (ARC) in Addis Ababa is Ethiopia's premier source of HIV/AIDS information. The center (referred to as CCP/ARC) serves as a hub for a host of user-driven resources and services, such as a comprehensive multimedia reference collection, high-speed computer terminals with Internet access, audiovisual equipment, databases of information pertaining to HIV/AIDS, and a toll-free HIV/AIDS telephone hotline. In addition to its user services, the CCP/ARC also develops and supports local partners in developing strategic, targeted behavior change communication (BCC) tools and approaches. Through both its user services and BCC activities, the CCP/ARC strives to build the capacity of its partners, with a particular emphasis on the Ethiopian government’s HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office (HAPCO).

The CCP/ARC was created through a multi-dimensional public/private partnership and is managed by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Center for Communication Programs (CCP) with funding from the U.S. PEPFAR program through CDC. CCP/ARC is now in its seventh year of operation and is expanding user services to regional sites, and as well as increasing the scope of its BCC activities.

Accomplishments

• The ARC houses over 3,500 titles on HIV and AIDS, VCT, STD and TB and titles that span a huge range of topics from medical/scientific research to BCC. The ARC library is regularly stocked via shipments of books and resources from CCP, purchasing of books and journals, solicitation of resources free of charge from relevant local and international organizations and publishers, and downloading new and relevant publications from the Internet.

• Produces and broadcasts the Betengna Radio Diaries program, winner of an AfriCommNet Award. This is an innovative and practical way of addressing the issues of stigmatization and marginalization that many people living with HIV/AIDS face. These diaries are short, intimate, and honest day-in-the-life stories self narrated by people living with HIV/AIDS, which allow listeners to live vicariously through the diarists.

• Implemented the DAGU Youth Media Program. This school program aims to decrease the level of unprotected sex among sexually active students and delay sex for those who are not. DAGU utilizes school mini-medias, competitions and media capacity building to reach young people

• ARC hosts a state-of-the-art HIV and AIDS hotline system that provides callers with quality HIV and AIDS information, counseling and referrals on everything from PMTCT to ART to care and support for PLWHA. The hotline - named the 'Wegen AIDS Talkline' - currently receives an average of between 3,000-4,000 phone calls per day. It is accessible free-of-charge from any landline or mobile telephone in Ethiopia by dialing 952.
• Developed The Fitun Warmline. This call-in center provides health care providers with up-to date HIV/AIDS clinical information and expert case consultation with immediate response to problems and constraints they encounter while providing services. The call-in center also works with callers and partners to address their HIV/AIDS-related service gaps.