AFRO-NETS> First Aids Hotline To Be Launched In Nigeria

[Akin Jimoh <devcoms@yahoo.com>]

First Aids Hotline To Be Launched In Nigeria
--------------------------------------------

Press release

Contact person:

Clement Akintimi
Media Resource and Advocacy Centre
Tel:+234-1-774-8397
mailto:mracnigeria@yahoo.com

First 24-Hour HIV/AIDS Hotlines to be launched in Nigeria

The first 24-Hour HIV/AIDS Telephone Hotlines will be launched next
Tuesday Au- gust 14, 2001 at the National Arts Theatre Iganmu Lagos.
There are seven phone lines to be managed by five youth serving or-
ganizations and a tertiary institution. The project is being imple-
mented by the Youth Empowerment Foundation (YEF), a youth serving not
for profit organisation. Two of the phone lines will be designated
YEF HIV/AIDS HOTLINE while the other five will serve as referral
points. No fewer than 30 other health service organizations and hos-
pitals will also serve as referral points to the Hotlines. At a press
briefing in Lagos YEF Executive Secretary Mrs. Iwalola Akin-Jimoh
said the project was aimed at reaching young persons with credible
information thereby empowering them to make sound decisions on acts
that could predispose them to HIV/AIDS.

According to her, AIDS Hotlines are effective components of various
information and behavior change programs. They help increase HIV/AIDS
awareness and knowledge and reduce AIDS myths, reinforce mass media
messages by a person-to-person format, encourage and support sus-
tained behavior change, and provide emotional support and referential
information to callers.

She explains: "The AIDS Hotline callers will find someone to listen
to their problems. The Hotline will create friendship and give call-
ers the sense of not being alone or of having an abnormal problem. A
non-judgmental manner will be used while all discussions will be in
strict confidentiality. On the YEF HIV/AIDS Hotline we guarantee con-
fidentiality and anonymity."

The use of Hotlines, under information and referral (I&R) services,
was developed in the United States in the 1960s and the 1970s. The
services were aimed at the chronically ill, the elderly, the poor,
and the homeless, and subsequently assistance was offered with prob-
lems of rape, domestic violence, drug overdose, and suicide (crisis
intervention counselling). By the mid-1970s family planning programs
established hotlines in Austria, Canada, Ireland, Korea, Mauritius,
Mexico, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Sierra Leone, Taiwan, and
Thailand.

The use of hotlines in response to AIDS started in 1982 among gay men
in New York City and San Francisco with volunteers. In 1983 hotlines
were developed by voluntary AIDS Service Organizations (ASOs) in a
number of cities and a national hotline by the United States Public
Health Service (PHS). In 1987 the National AIDS Hotline (NAH) became
part of the PHS National AIDS Information and Education Program. NAH
serves an average of 3500 callers a day. There are another 100 local,
regional, and national lines maintained by local ASOs, hospitals, and
health departments. By 1989 there were least 80 hotlines in 21 west-
ern European countries. In developing countries AIDS hotlines began
operating in the late 1980s, primarily in Latin America and Asia. In
Eastern Europe AIDS education also started at the same time.

Most Hotlines serve 3 major functions: 1) the provision of concrete
information about AIDS, its transmission, and its symptoms; 2) refer-
ral of individual callers to specialized services such as testing
centres for the AIDS virus, re- search programs, physicians and coun-
sellors, and alternative care settings; and 3) a listening support
system for those in crisis. The YEF HIV/AIDS Hotline will provide
these services to the general public 7 days a week at no charge, says
Akin-Jimoh.

The expansion of the Hotline is based on funding from the United
States Agency for International Development (USAID) office in Nigeria
while technical support is being provided by the Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity Population Communication Ser- vices (JHU/PCS). Youth Empower-
ment Foundation (YEF) is expanding the Hotline to Youth Communication
Initiative (Youthcom), Society for Women and AIDS in Africa, Nigeria
Chapter (SWAAN), Adolescent in Nigeria (AIN), Child Health Associa-
tion of Nigeria (CHAN) and the Lagos University Teaching Hospital
(LUTH). The organizations are presently working with in- and out-of
school youth on adolescent reproductive health (RH) in Lagos State.
These five organisations and YEF will manage the hotlines and serve
as counselling/information referral centres for youth on HIV/AIDS.



MRAC-Nigeria: This release is provided free by the Media Resource and
Advocacy Centre (MRAC) a project of Development Communications
(Devcoms) MRAC,
40 Johnson Street,
Off Bode Thomas Street,
Surulere
Lagos
Nigeria.
mailto:devcoms@yahoo.com
Tel:+234-1-7748-397 


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