Mobilising for Life: Protecting Papua (MFL)

As part of this interpersonal, participatory initiative, 100 WR-trained local people walked for as long as 3 days through the highlands to reach each of the 100 peer education groups. The sessions were held with groups of 8-15 participants. The content was structured around 12 lessons contained in the "Choose Life" education resource package, developed by WR after 13 years experience in HIV/AIDS education programmes.

WR wanted to introduce a media element to the health communication strategy and so requested the assistance of Health Communication Resources (HCR), an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) specialising in using community radio for health communication purposes. Because of difficulties of access to the highlands terrain, no radio stations effectively covered the whole region. To overcome this problem, HCR designed a strategy and established a production studio in the main township. Hour-long audio programmes modelled on a radio programme format incorporated community radio and health communication principles to support the peer education sessions. Programmes were recorded to MP3 files and distributed to the communities to be played on solar-powered MP3 players by 50 peer educators who were trained to operate the audio players during their sessions. This provided people in the community with access to a form of media that was previously not available to communities with limited electricity supplies or no electricity at all. In addition, the audio programmes were part of a strategy for ensuring that those with low literacy rates would have increased access to information.

HIV/AIDS.

According to organisers, whereas in Indonesia generally, new transmissions of HIV have been concentrated in high-risk populations, in Papua and West Papua, HIV prevalence has become a fact in the general population. In 2006, adult HIV prevalence was estimated at 2.4% and reached 3.2% in the remote highlands (Ministry of Health, 2007). In 2009, Papua faced a case rate (the number of cases/total population times 100,000) of 133.7 per 100,000 which is 15 times higher than the national average (8.15 / 100,000) (Ministry of Health, 2009). According to a recent epidemiological modelling and impact report by AusAID, HIV/AIDS rates in Papua are on the rise. By 2025 the rates are expected to equal those currently seen in Kenya and Haiti - almost 7% of the adult population (AusAid, 2006).

In 2006, 48% of the Papuan population had never heard of HIV/AIDS (Statistics Indonesia & Ministry of Health, 2006). 74% of population groups with lower levels of education had never heard of HIV/AIDS, compared to 20% of those who had graduated from senior high school or university (Statistics Indonesia & Ministry of Health, 2006). The main sources of information about HIV for people in Papua are radio and television (Ministry of Health, 2007).

In January 2010, an evaluation was conducted to determine the impact of the pilot project. People contributing stories of significant change told of individuals and communities who had gained newfound knowledge and were turning away from risky behaviour. Furthermore, the MSC evaluation found that pastors from Christian churches had unexpectedly extended the education materials beyond the original intended audience of peer education groups.

WR is planning to strengthen the HIV/AIDS programme in the Tolikara region and extend it to other Papuan regions.