World AIDS Day 2022 – LeMSIC Lebanon

Name of the activity: World AIDS Day 2022

Country/NMO: LeMSIC Lebanon

Program: HIV, AIDS and other STIs

Contact information: contact [email protected] to get in touch with the Activity Coordinator

Type of the activity: Continuous Activity

Category: Campaign

Focus area: Prevention of all STIs or are specific STIs, STI testing, Removing stigmatization and empowering people living with HIV, Raising awareness among the general public about STIs, STI education or training for future health-care professions, Ensuring access to treatment for people living with HIV or other STIs

Sustainable Development Goals addressed: SDG 3 (Good health and Well-Being), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities)

General description:

Each year, on December 1st ,the world commemorates World AIDS Day. People around the world unite to show support for people living with HIV and to remember those who have died from AIDS-related illnesses. This year in LeMSIC we have decided to unite and organize a walk together to share awareness, knowledge and support people living with HIV all around Lebanon.

Problem statement:

People living with HIV/AIDS and other STIs are often stigmatized and denied access to healthcare, as well as they don’t feel comfortable enough to fight and advocate for their health and rights especially in the EMR region. In collaboration with the National AIDS program in Lebanon they have provided us with statistics concerning HIV patients in Lebanon, stating that most of them feel ashamed of telling their friends and family, as well as they do their screening and check ups anonymously.

Target groups:

• General population
• Medical students
• Healthcare Students
• Youth
• Women
• Refugees
• LGBTQIA+ community

Beneficiaries:

• General population
• Medical students
• Healthcare Students
• Youth
• Women
• Refugees
• LGBTQIA+ community

Objectives:

– In the EMR, we are still facing alot of stigma concerning the topic of HIV and AIDS, our campaigns goal was to raise awareness, educate people and do free testing for HIV.

– Educate people about the topic of HIV and AIDS

– Sessions with speciality doctors and NGOs for eduction prior to the volunteering and awareness 

– Free testing in the streets in a collaboration with NAP ( national aids program)

– Educational booths in several universities and in the streets

– Distributing condoms and flyers in the streets and at the pubs

– Encourage HIV patients to talk more about their experience, not to feel ashamed 

– Educate future doctors about treating HIV patients as any other patients and not to discriminate or to judge anyone’s orientation

Indicators of Success:

– 80% of medical students attended the educational sessions in order to volunteer in the WAD walk and booth

– 80% of the people who passed by the booth was interested in the topic

– 15 free HIV testing for 10 men and 5 women

–  50% of the citizens had misconceptions that was corrected

Methodology:

– The first step is sending a call for coordinators, and then we chose the a talented and experienced OC together, after that we started preparing our social media content of the 1st of December, we had a video where we ask students all over campus if they know what day it is today and what do we celebrate and raise awareness for( 1st of December ), the next thing we did is start working on the posters , the location set up and all the games we will implement in the booth and WAD walk , we collaborated with NAP for giving us free condoms, testing kits , flyers and posters. Before the WAD booth and walk we had 2 sessions given: one by NAP for epidemiology and statistics and the second with an OBGYN concerning everything related to HIV, our goal was to prepare our volunteers before them giving the awareness in the streets, and lastly we did our event on the 23rd of December,  where we did 15 free testings and we had a couple of volunteers helping as well

Plans for evaluation:

We have an evaluation team currently working on the evaluation process concerning everything related to the event, we will send the evaluation form for all the medical students that attended the session , the walk and the booths at different universities .

We will check how beneficial our campaign was, in fact we did send a pre and post evaluation form before each session .

External collaborations:

We have collaborated with the national AIDS program in Lebanon for this event, where they provided us with brochures, flyers, condoms and HIV testing kits . They also gave a session about the updated statistics and data concerning HIV patients in Lebanon.