CEYOHO

CEYOHO carries out a number of programs targeting adolescents and young adults aged 10-35, with a focus on prevention of HIV transmission and support for those living with the virus. These programs include:

Little CEYOHO Abstinence Club

The Little CEYOHO Abstinence Club is a forum for adolescents aged 10-19 to come together to discuss a range of topics related to healthy living. Club members have made a commitment to abstain from not only early sex debut, but also from alcohol and substance abuse. CEYOHO Abstinence Club members are adolescent peer educators reaching out to their peers through community panel discussions, symposiums, peer counseling, edutainment and drama.

CEYOHO Football Club

As part of the Peer Outreach component of the Abstinence Club, CEYOHO has created a football league as a mode of teaching youth ways to live healthy lives, while also providing them with a fun recreational activity. Team members have matches in the community and during halftime, they take the opportunity to pass on their knowledge of positive life skills to their peers, both male and female. Team involvement assists participants in delaying sexual debut, helps to keep them fit and healthy, and allows youth to share and learn from one another.

MCP – Multiple Concurrent Partnerships

The practice of having two or more sexual partners within a given period of time, or Multiple Concurrent Partnerships, results in the formation of complex sexual networks which facilitate the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) while also contributing to a number of other problems including unwanted pregnancy and family breakdown. The risk of infection is higher when a person is taking part in MCP because viral load and ‘infectivity’ are much higher during the 3- to 4-week ‘acute infection’ window that initially follows infection. The combined effects of sexual networking and the acute infection spike in viral load means that as soon as one person in a network of concurrent relationships contracts HIV everyone else in the network is placed at risk.
CEYOHO is undertaking efforts to educate young adults on the risks of participating in MCP and to reduce the number of people engaging in MCP. A symposium targeting young women was held on 16th and 17th September 2011 with a number of community leaders delivering discussions regarding MCP. In addition, CEYOHO Community Mobilisers educate individuals on why MCP is risky and why it is important not to have more than one sexual partner at a time.

Miss HIV Stigma Free Pageant

The Miss HIV Stigma Free Pageant is an event that has been taking place annually since 2002. The goal of the pageant is to tackle stigma and discrimination of HIV-Positive individuals. The competition is open to women living openly with HIV who play an active role in fighting stigma in their community. The objectives of the pageant are to: 1) help fight stigma through visibility, involvement, and empowerment of PLWHA; 2) provide a role model for positive living; and 3) help identify HIV-Positive ambassadors in the community.

Women+

The goal of this project is to curb stigma, intensify sensitization on sexual reproductive health advocacy and HIV prevention among women living with HIV/AIDS.

The ability of young women to find confidential sensitive care from providers and support in their communities when they access AIDS services is challenged by community stigma. Our interaction with HIV positive women has also revealed to us that some women living with HIV have been pressured to get pregnant by their male partners. This has resulted in most women having repeated unwanted pregnancies.

With our experience in community mobilization and interaction with HIV positive women, we have realized that this is a problem that needs urgent intervention. In order to encouraged and support women in their pursuit of treatment and protect their infants, the organization address serious barriers and minimize consequences for women going through programmes such as PMTCT in Gaborone and Tlokweng Village.

Community Dialogues

Community Dialogues bring young people together to discuss issues affecting them in an informal and safe setting. Large group dialogues take place once per month, while smaller groups of adolescents come together multiple times per week for short discussions. Through these dialogues, youth are able to examine issues in their wider social and cultural contexts, and to identify their problems and ways to overcome them.