Places Where People Meet New Sexual Partners
Priorities for Local AIDS Control Efforts (PLACE) was initiated in 2003 with the aim of identifying high transmission areas where people meet new sexual partners, visit, map, characterize the people socializing in these areas and use the findings to inform interventions. A few of the places where people meet new sexual partners include exotic clubs, CSW street sites, bus stops, street corners, malls/plazas and fast food joints.
At this time, there were 50 PLACE Outreach Officers who went to these socialized places to identify “influentials” which they would educate and train about condom use and HIV. These influentials are persons who know the site very well and are there on a daily basis. PLACE built the physical environment by ensuring that condoms are always on site provide the influentials with a start up package of condoms to sell which they are to build on. Also, they assisted companies or business enterprises in getting condom machines to ensure that condoms are accessible to members of the public. The PLACE method was reformed and out of that targeted community interventions were born.
Targeted Community Intervention
Targeted Community Interventions (TCI) are selected based on HIV/AIDS prevalence rate, STI prevalence, socio-economic level – poverty, overcrowding, high unemployment, high prevalence of out-of-school youth, street people and commercial sex work. Currently, the National HIV/STI Programme has two types of TCIs: Short Term and Long Term.
The success of a TCI is measured by the number of workshops conducted; peer educators trained, voluntary testing conducted, condom demonstrations conducted, condom access points established persons referred for social services and positive persons referred for HIV/STI services. It is recommended that it be executed in four (4) phases: contact phase, survey and launch, execution, wrap up and evaluation.