Description

The AAA project aims at introducing a two-layered innovative approach to achieve the goal of maintaining low HIV/AIDS prevalence in Egypt. One of the levels of this approach consists of developing private sector engagement in HIV/AIDS prevention efforts for their employees and for rural communities. CARE provides private companies with orientation programs to increase staff members’ knowledge about AIDS prevention, help them apply general messages to their own situation and behavior, and give them tools for making personal decisions about their exposure to risk and how they will manage it. Additionally AAA encourages corporate social responsibility through encouraging companies to support community based awareness campaigns in Aswan, Egypt. So far, companies that have participated with AAA for receiving orientations are Shell Egypt, Trane Egypt, The American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM), FedEx Egypt, Rotary Club of New Cairo (District 2450), General Motors Egypt and Conrad Cairo. Scheduled orientations with BG Egypt, Cadbury, and other companies have also been established.

As mentioned above, CARE Egypt recently established the Friends of AAA which is a group composed of private companies operating in Egypt who decided to respond positively to HIV/AIDS, namely Shell Egypt, Cadbury, Trane Egypt, AMCHAM, Bristol Myers Squibb Egypt, and Coca-Cola Egypt. This group is an advisory committee working with AAA to encourage more companies to engage in HIV/AIDS efforts, to participate in research studies to assess changes in knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of staff related to HIV/AIDS and to also engage in organizing a national summit for business and HIV/AIDS with various stakeholders.

The Awareness Against AIDS (AAA) project was designed to address the right to risk-reduction, prevention information, and access to appropriate prevention methods with focus on HIV/AIDS. As noted, AAA introduced a two-layered innovative approach to maintain a low HIV/AIDS prevalence in Egypt. Through AAA, CARE Egypt fostered innovative partnerships with the private sector and local organizations to reduce the vulnerability to HIV/AIDS in the workplace and at the community level. This initiative is conducted in coordination with the Ministry of Health and Population (M0HP) National AIDS Program (NAP) and other International NGOs operating in Egypt and in partnership with local Community Development Associations (CDAs) targeting health care providers and other community members, mainly youth, in Aswan governorate in Upper Egypt. The main purpose of the final evaluation was to ascertain impact of the project’s awareness activities as well as corporate relationship and achievement on the Aswan community knowledge, attitudes and behaviors.

Services

The proposed methodology relied on the qualitative research approach. The final evaluation was conducted to generate lessons learned for the implementation of the project activities. The consultant also reviewed the relevant documents and identified the sample and the related guidelines questions for the focus group discussions and in depth interviews. The second phase consisted of the fieldwork through the utilization of the different research tools (contact with key informants, focus group discussions, in depth interviews). Once captured, the data was analyzed and used for the preparation of the draft report.