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Completed project

HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness-building campaigns for artisanal gold miners and people living in auriferous areas

Burkina Faso
Women's and girls' rights
Date

January 2017 to December 2017

Financial contribution

CAD$ 200,000

Secrétariat Permanent du Conseil National de Lutte contre le Sida (SP/CNLS) / World Bank

Local partners

Regional health departments, Health districts, Health and social promotion centres, Gold washing offices, Local committees to combat HIV, community-based organizations.

Impact for

46,096 people

(55% men, 45% women)

For over a decade, Burkina Faso has witnessed an increase in the number of artisanal gold mines on its territory. Each year, an estimated 200,000 additional people migrate permanently to the country, hoping to find fortune.

Overcrowding, drug use, relations with multiple partners, unprotected sexual relations: several issues are developing in these areas, and the risk behaviours contributing to spreading HIV/AIDS and STIs (sexually transmitted infections) can be observed in the gold-bearing sites as well as in the nearby villages.

For its eleventh year, CECI is leading prevention and awareness-building activities across 11 gold mining sites and 11 neighbouring villages, throughout 4 of the country’s health regions (Boucle du Mouhoun, Cascades, Hauts-Bassins and Sud-Ouest).

Objectives

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Raising awareness

The project aims to raise awareness of the issue of HIV/AIDS and STIs among as many men and women as possible. The objective is to reduce transmission rates and to increase screening and prevention measures. The targeted areas are considered to be especially vulnerable: the living conditions of the miners, who continuously move from one site to the other throughout these regions, are very precarious. They know little about the risks of disease transmission, and the younger ones are usually not very responsive to awareness campaigns.

The interventions have taken different forms: debates organized around film screenings, talks, distribution of contraception (female and male) and info sessions on how to use them. Theatre forums specifically targeted at pregnant women from nearby communities provided a good medium to address the issue of preventing mother-to- child transmission. Other gatherings were organized around the topic of sexual and reproductive health.

Building skills

The project further aims to help build the skills of community partners as they lead IE/BCC (Information Education / Behaviour Change Communication) actions and look to improve the equipment available for medical consultations and proximity voluntary consultations and screening tests.

These objectives fall under the scope of Burkina Faso’s 2016–2020 Strategic Framework of Action Against HIV/AIDS and STIs.

Prevention and screening

The initiatives aim to communicate information about HIV/AIDS and STI, as well as prevention and screening methods. 

Beyond these special interventions, 11 mobile proximity information teams comprised of 44 people in total were permanently deployed on the gold-mining sites in order to ensure continuity in awareness-building initiatives surrounding HIV/AIDS and STIs. 

Eleven information centres promoting the use of and distributing contraception were also established. Since the project was launched, close to 34,000 people consulted the information centres. Over 4,000 miners were able to receive treatment in health facilities. 1,669 cases of STIs were reported (1,304 from women, 365 from men).

Results that count

9,434

people given contraception to and/or trained to use it, thus contributing to transmitting information and building awareness among the gold-mining communities and nearby villages

3,368

people screened for HIV/AIDS or informed of the screening process

76,000

female and male contraception distributed

Our partners

Thank you to our financial, consortium and implementation partners, without whom this project would not be possible.

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