Building Skills to Prevent HIV Infection

Our HIV prevention programmes enable individuals to develop the skills to protect themselves and/or others from HIV infection.

Information, education and communication (IEC) programmes can comprise a range of approaches, including:

  • mass media to inform and establish positive community norms for sustaining safer behaviours for prevention of HIV transmission
  • intensive, interactive and personalised counselling, and
  • discussion groups and peer support.

We need to address the needs of PLHIV and people vulnerable to HIV infection by providing IEC programmes that:

  • establish positive community norms for sustaining safer behaviours
  • equip people with the necessary understanding and skills to reduce their risk of infection and reduce the risk of transmitting HIV by adopting and sustaining safer sex, safer injecting practices and/or making informed decisions about treatment, birthing and feeding practices to reduce mother to child transmission
  • provide information, support and strategies to cope with sustaining safer behaviours
  • enable discussion of problems and issues people may encounter in sexual and emotional relationships, including the real-life difficulties of sero-discordant relationships, disclosure to sexual partners and the risks of re-infection with different strains of virus where relevant because of the availability of ARV therapies, and cover household hygiene and infection precautions.