Guest of honour Rev. Benard Malango is also a NAC board member

The Malawian National AIDS Commission (NAC) in collaboration with various partners in the national response to HIV and AIDS launched the OneLove campaign on Wedneday 28th October 2009.

OneLove is a regional campaign which has already been rolled out in Lesotho,  Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Tanzania.

Why  regional campaign?

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region most affected by HIV. Of an estimated 33 million people living with HIV, 67% of them live in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Within the SADC region, Malawi is one the most affected countries with an estimated national adult HIV prevalence of 12% with women more affected by estimated at 13% compared to men whose HIV prevalence is estimated at 10%. In the country 1.6% adult population aged between 15-49 years get infected each year. The main mode of transmission in Sub-Saharan Africa and Malawi is unprotected heterosexual sex.

What causes this situation?

Does it mean that people in Sub-Saharan Africa and Malawi in particular are having too much sex than the rest of the world? The answer is no. Malawians are not having more sex that the rest of the world.

The problem is that most people in the country are having more sex with more than one sexual partner within the same period of time. This is what is making the virus spread more quickly among the people who are connected to this sexual network.

More details about the campaign in Malawi

Delegates viewing exhibitions at the launch

OneLove is a unique campaign which has rolled out across southern Africa. In Malawi, the  OneLove campaign is being rolled out with a number of partners including the faith community, private and public sector, NGOs and men and women in uniform.

Specifically, the campaign aims to:

• Raise awareness of risks of having multiple and concurrent sexual partnerships.
• Get us talking and thinking about our sex choices and practices that influence us to engage in multiple and concurrent sexual partnerships.
• Create public debate about how culture and gender impact on the HIV and AIDS epidemic.
• Challenge harmful cultural values and norms that put us at risk to HIV infection.

The campaign activities are to be implemented by a cross section of partners who will use social mobilisation and mass media. The media component will comprises television talk shows, radio drama series and talk shows, newspapers, public service announcements, music as well as relationship booklets. The social mobilisation will involve various interpersonal communication activities and community outreach activities.

Health education band performing OneLove song

The campaign message:

• Having multiple and concurrent sexual partnerships puts you and your loved one at risk of HIV infection. The more sexual partners you have the more the risk of HIV infection.
• Reduce the number of sexual partners that you have to reduce chances of getting HIV.
• Stick to and be faithful to your one and only sexual partner and be sure of less or no risk to HIV infection.
• If you are in a polygamous relationship, respect the founding principles of polygamy. Stick to the wives that you have. You should understand that if one person is infected, it means all of you will be infected.
• Above all, go for HIV testing and counseling so that you know your status and the status of your sexual partner before having unprotected sex to be sure that you are not at risk of HIV infection

For more information  about the OneLove campaign in Malawi, contact:

nac@aidsmalawi.org.mw

info@pakachere.orginfo@psimalawi.orggmkandawire@malawibridge.org

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