HIV/AIDS: The Creative Challenge
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Engaging culture and creativity in HIV/AIDS prevention
In the battle against HIV/AIDS, communication programmes for be-
haviour change are a frontline: informing, sensitising and in-
volving communities in a dialogue about prevention and care.
HIV/AIDS communication has often focused on giving information,
rather than building dialogue and sharing knowledge; on influ-
encing attitudes and behaviour through telling, rather than by
engaging and empowering people. Little attention has been paid
to the crucial role of local cultures, and to the benefits of
working creatively with them, as an important part of communica-
tion programmes addressing HIV/AIDS.
Recent research has found that culture operates at three differ-
ent levels in development :
* as a context in which development takes place,
* as a rich source of locally appropriate content for communica
tion programmes, and
* as a method of building dialogue, enabling expression and pro-
moting participation by beneficiaries.
HIV/AIDS - The Creative Challenge is a process which aims to
build Internet-based dialogue and gather data on best practice
in using cultural and creative approaches to HIV/AIDS prevention
and care. As a result of this process we aim to develop a set of
guiding principles and practical reference materials for devel-
opment practitioners. We will identify a set of exemplary pro-
jects and disseminate lessons learned from these projects.
The first phase of the project is being launched in June 2004.
As a starting point we are distributing this summary information
and a questionnaire (also available from the Creative Exchange
website at http://www.creativexchange.org).
We want to hear from you if:
* You have a project which is using cultural or creative ap-
proaches to HIV/AIDS
* You are a donor, NGO or community-based programme manager who
is involved in managing such projects
* You are an academic/institute with research or resources to
share
* You are a policy-maker who has expertise/primary responsibil-
ity for this field
Please complete the attached electronic questionnaire (it will
take about 10 minutes?) Return it to Creative Exchange at
mailto:info@creativexchange.org. Deadline is 31 July 2004. On
the basis of these results, exemplary projects will be selected
and a contact group will be formed to take forward more detailed
research and analysis of this field of work.
Contact:
Creative Exchange
Office 1, East London Centre
64 Broadway
London E15 1NT, UK
Tel: +44-208-432-0550
mailto:info@creativexchange.org
http://www.creativexchange.org
Creative Exchange will be delivering the project in partnership
with, and with the support of, Exchange and the UNESCO programme
on A Cultural Approach to HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care.
EXCHANGE Learning Coordinator Dr Rob Vincent will be holding a
session on the cultural dimensions of HIVAIDS at the Fifteenth
International Aids Conference in Bangkok, Thailand from 11 - 16
July, 2004. His session is on Monday 12 July from 12.00-14.00 at
the IMPACT Exhibition centre, Hall 3 - Track D, Poster number
3951. Conference participants who are interested in participat-
ing in an informal discussion on the cultural dimensions of
HIV/AIDS should contact Dr Vincent at robinvincent13@hotmail.com
(no attachments to this address) or vincent.r@healthlink.org.uk
You can use this form to send details about your own project or
nominate a project in which you have been involved as a donor or
beneficiary group.
About your organisation:
Name of Organisation:
Contact Name:
Address:
Phone number:
Email address:
Web address:
Name of project:
Location of project:
Project contact details (if different to above):
About your project:
Aims of project:
Project start date and end date:
Brief description of project (including how and why it came
about):
Who were the participants? (Please give numbers and rough gen-
der/age breakdown if possible):
Brief description of other beneficiaries and/or stakeholders of
the project (if any):
Brief description of how a cultural approach was used in the
project:
Why did you decide to use a cultural approach for this project?
Please give the total budget for the project. (If it is not
wholly cultural, what was the budget for the cultural component?
Who were your donors for this project?
Evaluating your project:
How has the project been evaluated? (Please include details of
how the cultural approach was evaluated)
What results have you achieved?
Which of these results could be attributed to the cultural ap-
proach.
What evidence is available to researchers (e.g. evaluation re-
ports, project reports, videos etc)?
What are some of the good things that have come from using a
cultural approach?
What are some of the problems you've experienced in using a cul-
tural approach?
How did you overcome some of those problems?
Thank you for completing this questionnaire
PLEASE SEND BY POST OR EMAIL by 31 July 2004 to:
CREATIVE EXCHANGE
Business Office 1
East London Centre
64 Broadway, London, E15 1NT, UK
Tel: +44-208-432-0550
mailto:info@creativexchange.org