AIDS Management Team
launches ‘Red’ Campaign
PHILIPSBURG--The HIV/AIDS Programme Management Team launched its first ever yearlong “Red” Campaign during this year’s official World AIDS Day Ceremony yesterday morning.
The campaign is a strategy designed to foster and broaden private sector and community-based involvement in the island’s HIV/AIDS programme, as well as raise public awareness and education about the issues related to HIV/AIDS in St. Maarten. It is the brainchild of HIV/AIDS Programme Manager Suzette Moses-Burton.
In the first year of the campaign, under the theme “Talk Red,” the emphasis will be placed on encouraging dialogue in the community by involving primarily the private sector in outreach activities.
Representatives of the various businesses in the private sector that had agreed to participate in the campaign signed a memorandum of understanding during the official ceremony. The idea is that every month of the year will be adopted by a member of the business community. These businesses will be given the designation of official “Red” business of the month.
The business will then designate every Friday of that month as Red Day. On Red Day, all employees will sport the signature campaign T-shirt and during selected hours certain employees who have been previously trained in community outreach will conduct activities targeted at raising awareness and educating their customers about HIV/AIDS, using innovative new approaches that engage the customer’s interest in a fun and interactive manner.
These activities have been specially designed for the “Red” campaign by Salorne McDonald, a Behaviour Change Communications Specialist, who has been working with the HIV/AIDS programme throughout the year to develop a Behaviour Change Communication Strategy and has conducted a number of trainings with the various HIV/AIDS Coordinators and representatives of the Education Sector.
The campaign, which spans the entire four years of the remainder of the revised HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan 2007-2011, puts a spin on the overall theme of the programme “Let’s Talk About AIDS … St. Maarten Cares” and aligns itself with the global focus to go “Red.”
Once the dialogue has begun, subsequent years will shift the focus from the dialogue to incorporating the “information” gained into one’s daily thought process and into action through encouraging changes in behaviour based on lessons previously learned, focusing on encouraging regular testing and reducing stigma and discrimination. The themes for 2009 through 2011 will be “Think Red,” “Do Safe,” “Act Red,” “Go Test” and finally, “Act Red, Show Love.”
