New Start - Zimbabwe

Launched in the spring of 1999, New Start integrates voluntary counseling and testing services into existing health service delivery institutions, such as public clinics and hospitals, NGOs, and private health facilities. Voluntary Counseling and Training (VCT) uses customised risk-reduction strategies to motivate behaviour change. New Start VCT services are targeted to specific groups, including young couples, adolescents, commercial sex workers, transport industry workers, and other "mobile" populations and are offered at prices the target populations can afford. In addition to marketing of VCT services on television, radio and print mass media advertising, New Start spreads the word about the services and the benefits of knowing one's HIV status through an organised interpersonal communications strategy that includes drama groups in each community hosting a New Start center.

HIV/AIDS

Estimates from 1998 show that every week in Zimbabwe, 2000 adults are infected with the AIDS virus and about 1,200 people die from AIDS-related causes. 25% of the country's 11 million people are HIV positive. Potentially 9 New Start sites will have opened by the end of 1999. By mid-2002, the network is expected to serve 72,000 clients at the 9 sites around the country. Social marketing strengthens the VCT model and results in a dynamic programme that works to destigmatise HIV testing and encourages people to communicate about HIV/AIDS.