Politics, People, Prevention and Planet Model to end HIV

- July 07, 2018

We improvised the Politics, People, Prevention and Planet Model to ensure LGBTIQQ are not left out. Our Four P's can be accessed freely by anyone. We are here to help end HIV.

The Politics:

We asked who is doing what? Then we found out, we continued asking what is the political threat to the work they are doing? We realized that for the LGBTIQQ to access services, the mindset of organizations has to move from mere labeling and reporting “ we work with LGBTIQQ” to ensuring that LGBTIQQ are trained to be part of the organization leadership.

At MARPS IN UGANDA, we have gone a step further and trained LGBTIQQ-led organizations in organization development and movement building. We have the track record since 2002.

Our rights-based approach ensured that associations formed had goals with emphasis on owning prevention and care skills. This then informed decisions for self care, seeking services and documenting.

The People:

We made sure LGBTIQQ is positioned and was mobilized as Prevention and care promoters as far as HIV and STIs went. They were provided the language to improve safer negotiations skills. They were introduced to social mapping planning skills to ensure they had an understanding of the prevention and care institutions or ecosystems or ecology. We promoted administrative narratives and discouraged deficit narratives.

The Prevention:

We made sure we cascaded everything we did to fit into the National HIV/AIDS missions. We operationalized everything to run parallel or mainstreamed according to what works. LGBTIQQ living with HIV can achieve optimal ARV Adherence too like anybody else. This constituted our evidence-based approach.

The Planet:

One cannot talk of optimal ARV Adherence without talking of housing, food, economic self determination and livelihoods. One cannot talk about these without talking about the environment, air, nature and eco-conservation. This is how interconnected everything is.

When we talk about HIV/AIDS, let us genuinely mention the different facets we have to bring into the picture.