December 1st was declared World AIDS Day by an international meeting of Health Ministers in the 1980's. It's stated aim was to "promote understanding about AIDS" - and that's about as specific as it got.
In consequence, World AIDS Day came as a bit of a mixed blessing for many health educators. Most of them would be in the middle of well planned programs and activities when they would have to drop everything to respond to the media's need for a local World AIDS Day event.
It certainly raised the profile of AIDS but not in a way that was either planned nor necessarily relevant to local communities. (Typical World Health Organisation/United Nations bureaucracy!)
In 1994, after running a very successful local WAD program, I was asked to take on the NSW World AIDS Day program. In response I put forward a particular set of objectives and strategies.The key elements of this program were:
- To ensure HIV/AIDS workers across the State were fully resourced for World AIDS Day. This meant everything from getting T-shirts,stickers and fridge magnets to them on time to organising a State-wide tour of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. As part of this strategy we developed our own logo which was adopted for the Commonwealth's World AIDS Day Program two years later.
- Establishing the World AIDS Day Awards to recognise the massive amount of time and effort given by people from all walks of life. We also felt this would be a useful strategy to maintain morale which, not surprisingly, had been flagging after years of sustained work. The Awards were presented by the NSW Health Minister at a 'glittering ceremony' at a prestige Sydney venue.
- Developing a State-wide schools competition to complement and support the Education Department's HIV/AIDS curriculum. For the first year we asked students to produce an artwork on the theme 'AIDS Affects Us All'. The topic, we hoped, would encourage students to think through the issues.
As with most things, success comes easiest when you have a good team working with you. In that respect I was particularly fortunate to have an exceptionally talented and committed team working for me in the formative stages of the program. Michael Reid was the Project Coordinator and Sue Clarke came on board as our Quilt Project Officer. Without them the program would not have been half as successful as it was.
AN EXTRACT FROM MY ORIGINAL WORLD AIDS DAY PROPOSAL, OUTLINING OBJECTIVES, STRATEGIES AND PERFORMANCE INDICATORS, IS DETAILED BELOW.
OBJECTIVES
Objective 1)
To sustain and increase HIV/AIDS awareness within the general community at a local and State level
Strategies
To provide centralised support for local World AIDS Day activities in the form of:
- Operational framework for activities across NSW
- Centralised co-ordination of activities across NSW (including newsletter and Media Strategy)
- Production and distribution of promotional resources (e.g. T-shirts, stickers, fridge magnets)
- Production of Educational Resources (e.g. Panels from the Australian AIDS Memorial Quilt, Quilt Education Package, Schools Competition)
- Consultancy on education/promotional/media issues.
Performance Indicators
Objective 2)
To sustain and increase the number of HIV/AIDS awareness activities undertaken in the period surrounding AIDS Awareness Week.
Objective 3)
To sustain and increase the number of organisations undertaking HIV/AIDS awareness activities in the period surrounding AIDS Awareness Week.
Objective 4)
To sustain and increase the number of individuals undertaking HIV/AIDS awareness activities in the period surrounding AIDS Awareness Week.
Strategies
Performance Indicators
- An increase in local HIV/AIDS awareness activities in the period surrounding AIDS Awareness Week.
- The number of key stakeholders participating in the NSW World AIDS Day Awards
- The number of nominations for the NSW World AIDS Day Awards
- The geographical distribution of nominations for the NSW World AIDS Day Awards
- The number of organisations putting forward nominations for the NSW World AIDS Day Awards
- Levels of participation of secondary stakeholders in World AIDS Day activities (i.e. those bodies for whom HIV/AIDS is not an integral part of their day-to-day activities).