Extract from the UNAIDS Middle Est and North Africa Regional Report on AIDS 2011
In Djibouti, the Community Intervention Support Unit (CISU), or Unité d’Appui aux Interventions Communautaires, is part of the national AIDS control programme. CISU is widely recognized as having done remarkable work in reducing the stigma of HIV and mobilizing community support for the HIV response.
One of its most impressive initiatives is the Soeur-à-Soeur, or Sister-to-Sister, project. The goal of the project was to reduce the vulnerability of women working in the sex work to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
The project has helped women better understand these issues; it enhanced their knowledge on how to reduce their own risk and got them directly involved in helping other sex workers reduce their risk of HIV infection. It also included a number of focused activities around condoms, including increased availability and education on proper use. Women participating in the project were engaged in advocacy and focus group sessions to better understand the dynamics of their work and how to reduce their risk. Even the name of the project served a specific purpose: Soeur-à-Soeur was selected to eliminate the stigma associated with the term “sex worker”.
The project has also helped establish a network through which distribution of condoms for sex workers and their clients, referral for voluntary counselling and testing, STI and treatment, care and support all became easier. The ongoing mapping and size estimation of sex workers and men who have sex with men is using this network to generate strategic information for interventions that engage key populations.
