Funded by Oxfam Novib, this project was started in June 2007. Its purpose is to educate and train 288 low-income, high-risk women and men of reproductive age as peer educators in HIV/AIDS prevention. As a secondary target group, a further 11,520 will be mobilized in HIV/AIDS prevention activities.

All this is done through community clubs, called Kulan clubs; by 2008 nine such clubs have been established in Hargeisa and Gabiely districts. The project incorporates a rights-based approach, and focuses on the realisation of economic and social rights.

Kulan clubs are initiated when a core group of beneficiaries are able to identify sixteen potential club members (the TOTs) and petitions Doses of Hope to establish a club in their area. DOH then provides assistance to the board members of the clubs: development of objectives, management and training the club members in HIV/AIDS and STI prevention.

The mobilization of both genders as peer educators and as outreach workers to the broader community ensures their full participation and ownership of the project. The project draws upon the skills, talents, and leadership of the primary target group to spearhead the proposed activities as change agents in their communities, and to make informed choices concerning their own health, sexuality and protection.

Central to the project strategy is the use of a behaviour change communication (BCC) process. The objective of this is two-fold: to inter-link the various elements of the project; and, more importantly, to promote and sustain healthy changes of behaviour, through appropriately tailored health messages and approaches. The project focuses on building the knowledge, and skills necessary for the community to successfully prevent HIV infection without stigma, myths and discrimination, and to do so in an environment of support from all key stakeholders. The base is found among the low-income self-employed of Somaliland.

For more information, contact Doses of Hope.