The Communication Initiative

[scarlett]

Hi Warren,
 
I am reading with great interest the various messages that are being sent to you. In many of them there is a mention of the importance of understanding the culture of the people among whom we want to raise HIV/AIDS awareness. However, I have not seen anyone suggesting that to ensure the success of  any  HIV/AIDS  communication strategy  it must based of an in depth understanding of the target society’s traditional system of belief  and their mind frame. Many traditional belief systems do not have the notion that accidents, diseases etc can be prevented. Instead they explain these events post facto in terms of witchcraft or  sorcerer’ spells.
 
 In Papua New Guinea (PNG)  the traditional  beliefs in witchcraft and sorcery are accompanied by  a traditional culture of promiscuity. These two traditional cultural features are reflected now  not only  in an increasing AIDS death rate  but also in  increasing numbers of elderly men and women being found  brutally murdered because they were blamed for having caused these AIDS death. These “witches” and “sorcerers” are usually tortured until they confess and are then brutally murdered.  Almost all PNG citizens still try to identify the witch or the sorcerer after something bad happens to them or their kin.  This is so in spite of  the fact that 97 per cent of  PNG citizens are devout Christians, who over many years now have been subjected to different kinds of HIV/AIDS awareness-raising communications. These strategies failed to take into account that the traditional culture of the  target population  did not include the possibility of using protective measures to prevent the occurrence  of   accidents, disease or death. If these are the pre-conditions to receiving messages that stress the importance of having  protected sex it becomes obvious that different communication strategies will have to be developed to get the target population begin being prepared to accept the possibility of protection against disease when this means a change of sexual relations, which are after all the most sensitive human relations.  What I am trying to explain here is the importance of basing communication strategies on a sound understanding of the relevant aspects of the target population’s traditional culture that will affect how the messages are perceived by the recipients.
As ever,

Scarlett

Dr. T. Scarlett Epstein OBE
Director: PEGS (Practical Education & Gender Support)
5, Viceroy Lodge, Kingsway, HOVE BN3 4RA England
Tel: +44 (0)1273-735151
e-mail:
www.pegs.org.uk