Advocacy in Action @ Makerere!!!

HIV/AIDS is a worldwide crisis that never fails to affect our lives in one form or another. Its not only a health issue, but a social, political, and economic issue. At times, one cannot help but feel overwhelmed with the devastation that HIV/AIDS has caused in the recent years. As a result, we find that most people have a "tired resignation" towards HIV/AIDS because they feel they cannot do anything to stop its spread.

Yet, interestingly enough, a humble group of medical students decided not to be defeated by the enormity of HIV/AIDS and resolved to play their role in increasing awareness and advocacy about this pandemic.

During the week of March 14-19th 2005, Makerere University Medical Students Association (MUMSA) became the first group of medical students in Uganda to come together in an organized way to advocate for HIV/AIDS by having an AIDS Action Week. The theme of the event was "HIV/AIDS Crisis: Are you playing your role?". The Action week objectives was to encourage participants to:

*Appreciate the magnitude of global HIV/AIDS
*Discover their role in the fight against HIV.AIDS
*Learn more about prevention and commit to "Abstinence Being faithful Condoms" (ABC)
*Learn more about Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) and advocate for universal accessibility
*Get involved with student advocacy.

The program for the Action Week was very diverse and interesting in nature. There was a mixture of talks, discussions, showing of documentaries, and interactive sessions. Most notetably, was the student advocacy discussion called "Advocacy in Action: How Medical Students Can Take Action on AIDS" which was presented by Sarah Kalloch (Health Action AIDS Africa Coordinator for Physicians for Human Rights). In this presentation, Kalloch discussed what advocacy is, steps in preparing for advocacy, advocacy methods and more. Essentially, this particular session aimed at teaching the participants how they can empower themselves by becoming "informed" advocates of HIV/AIDS. Furthermore, the discussion had a brainstorming session where participants discussed the potential of student advocacy in Uganda.

What I enjoyed most about this particular session is that Ms. Kalloch carefully explained how we as medical students must create an overall goal that is important to us. Furthermore, she encouraged us to create objectives that were realistic, achievable, and manageable and applicable to our setting at medical school and in Uganda at large. Another interesting feature of Kalloch's presentation was her explanation of the "Eight Key Steps in Advocacy".

Using the knowledge that we gathered during the week, at the closing ceremonies of the Action Week, participants became active in brainstorming priority challenges that MUMSA needed to address. The following challenges were addressed:

* Networking
* Equitable distribution of Resources
* Protection of Health Workers
* AIDS Education
* Protection of Human Rights

Groups were created to discuss each of the priority challenges by proposing what they felt MUMSA could do to overcome the challenges. As such, participants created goals, objectives, offered insight as to who they wanted to target, which influential people they needed to talk to, and how we can create strategies to get the word out and our voices heard.

I must say that I was very impressed with the ideas and innovations the participants had during the brainstorm session. Everyone was motivated, enthusiac, and filled with a sense of confidence that they too can play a role in the education of HIV/AIDS. Furthermore, it was also fulfilling to discover that one of the main objectives of the Action Week - To learn more about Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) and advocate for universal accessibility - was achieved when a doctor from Mulago mentioned that PEP is in fact available for medical students in sick bay (6th floor Mulago Hospital).

This example demonstrates that when a group of people have an interest in an idea and create strategies in which that idea will be actualized, it will eventually be implemented. As such, it is my hope that the participants of the Action Week will continue to hold the torch of advocacy and put their thougts and ideas into practice.

In closing, I personally left the Action Week with new found skills of making advocacy work and it has actually motivated me to get involved with HIV/AIDS related activities in Uganda.

Thanks to MUMSA, The Action Group for Helath, Human Rights and HIV/AIDS (AGHA), and the US based Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), for a job well done !!!