Coordinator declares 'o icheke project' a success

| Monday April 18, 2011 00:00

'The goal of this project was to decrease the incidents of Multi-Concurrent Partnerships (MCP) among the targeted audience aged 15-49 years from 25 percent to 15 percent by the end of year 2011, by reaching 5,500 youth and 1800 Adults,' said Mononyane, the project coordinator at Bopaganang Basha and Ghetto Artists. She explained that the first thing that was done on the project was community research leading to the development of a baseline that was assessed in three phases of indicators.

She said the first baseline outcome indicator focused on the percentage of people aged 15-49 who agreed that having more than one sexual partner at the same time increases the spread of HIV. The baseline value was 93.3 percent by April 2010 against a target of 96 percent by March 2010. The actual results were 94.7 percent - 93.4 percent males and 95.7 females. The findings prove that even though the exact target was not met, the results indicate that more females are involved with more than one sexual partner than men.

'The second indicator was all about behavioural change. Still on the reached age focusing on those who reduced the number of sex partners in the last 12 months. The baseline value was 83.3 percent April 2010. The target was 88 percent by March 2010 and the actual reach was 79 percent. Males were 79.4 percent and females 78.7 percent. In this phase of the indicator, the outcomes of the findings proved that men were able to reduce the number of sexual partners in 12 months more than women. The third and last indicator focused on those who thought that their partners have MCP, the baseline value was 23 percent April 2010, the target was 15 percent and the reach was 21.7 percent. Males were 21.1 percent and females 23.2 percent,' she said.

The project summary indicates that it was realised that the wide spread of MCP is among  both youth and adults, rich and poor. The objectives of the project were to increase knowledge of the risks of MCP and HIV infection among the youth aged 15-29 and churchgoing adults aged 25-49 in Monarch. It was meant to empower the target audience (youth ages 15-29 and church going adults ages 25-49) with skills to discuss sex openly and advocate for their sexual rights.