Chronicle Editor
Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, Online Reporter
THE National Aids Council has rolled out a peer-led mentorship programme at Gwanda Prison in order to encourage inmates to seek HIV-related services.
Speaking last week at the Gwanda Prison during a media tour, Matabeleland South Provincial Aids Matabeleland South National Aids Council (NAC) provincial manager, Mr Mgcini Sibanda said prison officers have been trained as mentors and they have gone further to train some prisoners as peer educators. He said the aim of the programme was to reach out to prisoners using their peers.
“We have noticed that someone is likely to be influenced by his or her peer more than an external person. The peer mentorship programme is a behaviour change strategy that seeks to change and maintain certain behaviours. We target individuals within a certain key population as peer educators to facilitate an initiative.
“In this case our key population is prisoners. We identified some prisoners and we trained them. In order to sustain this programme we have also identified prison officers who received training and then their task is to train inmates. Prisoners come and go hence we noticed that training them only won’t sustain the programme,” he said.
Mr Sibanda said peer-led mentorship programme is guided by a module which contains the sessions which have to be covered. He said the programme also seeks to encourage clients to access HIV-related services such as HIV testing, STI screening and treatment, and prostate cancer screening among others.
Mr Sibanda said peer-led mentorship is also a platform for the prisoners to encourage one another to adhere to their medication. He said once the prisoners are released the desired outcome is for them to influence behaviour change within their communities.
“Our target is to change the behaviours and mindset of prisoners during their stay in prison. Once they are out we wish that they can go on to influence other people in their communities. We expect the prisoners to maintain this new standard of living even when outside such as going for regular testing, adhering to treatment among others,” he said.
He said the peer-led mentorship programme is also being implemented in tertiary institutions, artisanal miners and other workplaces.
@DubeMatutu
Online Reporter