COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOL FOR END-TO-AIDS GENERATION

A TEN STEP COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOL FOR END-TO-AIDS GENERATION TO BE USED BY AIDS-SERVICES ORGANISATIONS

1.       How many communities are empowered to identify people living with HIV with an unconditional positive regard?  Skills-set: Community mobilisation, Testing and less stigmatizing practices.

2.       What measures are in place to reduce on the numbers of infections? Skills-set: Know your Epidemic; Know your MARPs and prevention systems.

3.       What number of men, women and children died of AIDS in your vicinity? Skills-set: Know your community; Identified/empowered community Adherence support health workers and bereaved family support mechanism.

4.       How many community engagements has your organisation provided to highlight needs for less costly ARVs and other medications for treating OI’s? Skills-set: Know your Pharmaceutics, know your leaders and have civil engagement plans.

5.       How many opportunities to denounce corruption and embezzlement of Global Funds or other funds tagged for HIV Prevention and care has your organisation been involved in? Skills-set:  Have a strategic plan of your organisation in place; share your plans; join platforms that empower your communities to be transparent and; demand for accountability.

6.       How much does your organisation know about Global Fund plans for your community? Skills-set; Demand for transparency on ear-marked funding: linkage with international organisations providing information on funding getting into given countries and sticking to planned activities.

7.       How is your community using the knowledge that treatment with ARV’s is a prevention strategy? Skills-set: Empowered elite PLHIV; Empowered Adherence support persons and; empowered adherence community support safety nets.

8.       How many positive pregnant women are empowered to access HIV Prevention services for themselves and the expected babies? Skills-set: Male involvement in health issues of partners, Community leaders/Pre/Ante/post-Natal Delivery personnel/ Traditional Birth Attendants-TBA’s- involved in rolling out anti-HIV services and communities empowered to support expectant mothers.

9.     2015 is year when the World will have achieved the three Zero’s. Skills-set: Set up anti-discrimination spaces, set up anti stigmatization spaces and set up a prevention chain involving leaders in a community. Also get familiar with the 90:90:90 ( Encourage 90% testing; encourage 90% treatment with ARVs; encourage 90% adherence to ensure undetectable virus).

10.   Have bi-annual performance indicator plans in place: Skills-set: Generate plans with all ten points in mind; share plans with other organisations given a monitoring role and be frank with challenges and failures.

Ekitiibwa Kya Buganda mu Lungereza ( Buganda Anthem rendered in English)

By The Buganda Unity

Wondrous, beautiful is this land,

Divinely forged with a Mighty Hand,

humanity unified as a band,

Graciously bound by duty,

To own a land rich with bounty,

Buganda glows to infinity,

May I love thee with sincerity,

wondrous, beautiful is this land.

Long in the past,

Buganda stood steadfast,

known far and wide,

this I say with joy and pride.

Courageous and victorious,

were our fore-parents,

their sacrifices, love and pain,

in our march they are not in vain.

We are the duty bearers;

a noble heritage of which as custodians,

ours is to pass on a better

Buganda tomorrow.

My story and song,

however glorious and long,

will be out of rhyme and tune,

unless the Majesty has mention.

Mighty God, Merciful One,

You we beseech,

A mantle of refuge,

save the majesty and Buganda.

The Vowels of subsistence- An analysis of living life in today's independence leaning world

Vowels are those letters that together with consonants give words their force, sound, pronunciation and tone. Vowels give the words life. They are like the air that goes into the lungs. Life has its vowels, so to speak. The pain, the sorrow, the laughter, reward and recognition constitute the vowels of life. In life one seeks to be lively, productive, desires to experience the environment and improve on an individual world view. There are a few tips that we tend to overlook as we go through life. The tips are the life skills we need to negotiate, affirm, engage and tap into life to make it worthwhile. The tips are:

Attitude towards pressures; empowerment to analyze the pressures; independence of mind, soul and body; operational mode to contribute to solutions through linkages and partnerships; and understanding one's context.

Life has its pressures and these manifest in many forms: from where one will get the daily bread; where the next pay check will come from; up to being responsible. In order to enjoy life, one has to have good life preserving practices and responsibility towards oneself and society.

There are life skills that one needs to survive in life. These depend on one's ability to analyze the contexts in which one lives. This is when one gathers survival intelligence and what is needed to pursue a happy life.

Life progresses into ownership of skills, talents and abilities. This enables one to conduct independent conversations, thinking and execute actions whose outcomes are productive and promote sociable attachments. This is the basis of balanced mental health, high spirits and motivation.

It is never the best strategy to work in isolation. In whatever things we do in life, we seek to work as a community. One should endeavour to improve on one's people to people skills. This helps in breaking barriers and gives one confidence to progress in life.

One has to have the ability to note those experiences that range from being beneficial as well as those that caused harm through mistakes. One has to ruminate on what goes on in their conscience. This ability to face one's own flaws and decide to improve on oneself is a good practice. However, it only comes about when there is a will to do self accountability. The will to acknowledge limitations (note that I have said limitations and not limits. The distinction here is narrow I admit but it depends on readiness, resources and creativity). To know one's limitations and one's limits are two different things. The former is executed without factoring in potential, while the latter s executed with the knowledge that there are factors absent otherwise one would have performed even better.

As I conclude, effort, initiative, desire to learn, attitude towards team work, responsibility, self accountability and survival constitute the vowels of life. These are what improve on self esteem, self worth, personality, one's ability to relate and effectiveness.