Communities have always played an important role in the fight against epidemics in Africa. In the response to HIV, community involvement has been illustrated by a key principle: nothing for us without us. Since the beginning of the AIDS response, civil society has been on the front line, demanding access to treatment, calling for respect for human rights and supporting community-led HIV services.
In Guinea, community engagement has resulted in the continuous improvement of HIV programmes and to considerable progress in testing, prevention, treatment adherence and psychosocial support. The promotion and defence of human rights is also central to communities, and community engagement has contributed to tackling stigma and discrimination and to monitoring the quality of services and addressing challenges.
From the lessons learned from the 2013–2016 Ebola outbreak in the country, the need for the active participation of communities, alongside the public, in the COVID-19 response is clear. This is why the National Platform of Civil Society Organizations on HIV and TB (PNOSC-HIV/TB) was recently set up. Established with technical and financial support from UNAIDS and bringing together 28 associations, PNOSC-HIV/TB played a central role in the development of the Ministry of Health’s contingency plan to reduce the impact of COVID-19 on health services, particularly HIV services.
Focusing on populations that include prisoners, people in refugee camps and solidarity cities— places where people with disabilities live—PNOSC-HIV/TB is active in helping to prevent COVID-19, raising awareness about the importance of physical distancing through community mediators, local artists, the media and door-to-door outreach.
Psychosocial help is being given through a hotline run by two networks of people living with HIV, one of which is focusing on key populations. PNOSC-HIV/TB is also working to promote and scale up nationwide the multimonth dispensing strategy for antiretroviral therapy.
“PNOSC-HIV/TB will enable us to speak with one voice, to assert ourselves even more, to organize and strengthen our contribution to defeating COVID-19 and to the elimination of AIDS in Guinea by 2030,” said Mahawa Diallo Sylla, President of PNOSC-HIV/TB.
PNOSC-HIV/TB also participates in the Community Treatment Observatory, which monitors respect for human rights in the context of COVID-19 and reports violations to the government and the National Institute of Human Rights.
“I am impressed by PNOSC-HIV/TB’s willingness to close the gap in terms of their participation in the national response to HIV. I am confident that the momentum and energy generated since its establishment will have a lasting impact on the responses to HIV and COVID-19 in Guinea,” said Dado Sy Kagnassy, UNAIDS Country Director for Guinea.
