Responses of civil society organisations to HIV and AIDS in Nelson Mandela Bay metro

[摘要] The objective of this research was to describe what the civil society organisations were doing to respond to HIV and AIDS in Nelson Mandela Bay Metro with a purpose of scaling up the response. A cross-sectional descriptive study using the one group post test only pre-experimental design was used. The setting was in Nelson Mandela Bay Metro in the Eastern Cape. The subjects were the forty two civil society organisations. The measurement instruments used were structured self administered questionnaires. The results revealed that of the forty two organisations studied 59% were Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs), 31% were Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and 10% were Faith Based Organisations (FBOs). Civil society organisations offered adequate care and support (88%) (95% CI 78-98, p = 0.0000028), prevention and education (76%) (95% CI 63-89, p = 0.001) and training (57%) (95% CI 42-72, p = 0.05). An inadequate response was found in rights and legal assistance (26%) (95% CI 13-39, p = 0.97), treatment (24%) (95% CI 11-37, p = 0.98) and research (17%) (95% CI 6-28, p = 1).Civil society organisations targeted fifteen different groups for prevention education and focused on eighteen areas of prevention, twenty four areas of care and support and five types of treatment. The 42 organisations employed 1251 workers who were not adequately trained. Few organisations (33%) had HIV/AIDS policies for their employees. Sixty nine percent of the organisations had regular contact with other organisations. Clients were referred by telephone (71%), writing (60%), fax (38%), email (26%) and other methods (19%) including own transport. Obstacles experienced were lack of finance (79%), lack of staff (69%), lack of training for staff (62%), lack of transport (50%), lack of educational materials (48%), lack of office equipment (43%), lack of office space (43%) and others (19%). The main conclusion was that organisations did not offer a comprehensive response to HIV and AIDS. The response could be scaled up by adequate financing and reprioritization of focus of the civil society organisations and the employment of the AIDS Coordinator by the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University