BeU CAMPAIGN, MAHLALINI COMMUNITY DIALOGUE A SUCESS

Friday, 20 June 2025

Nhlangano - JHPIEGO, in partnership with NERCHA conducted a dialogue at Mahlalini Chiefdom in the Shiselweni region under the "Be You" campaign.

The BeU campaign is an HIV Literacy campaign whose objective is to encourage adherence to treatment by people living with HIV. JHPIEGO, in collaboration with NERCHA conducts dialogues to educate the public about opening up to their partners about their HIV status as well as owning same.

The campaign also encourages those living with HIV that they should not fear visiting their nearest health facilities even when they have forgotten their clinic cards as health workers will assist them because what is important is that people do not default in their treatment.

The campaign focuses on the understanding that one's HIV positive status does not change, hence the emphasis on adhering. The dialogues further aim to understand the HIV literacy of the community members. The objectives of the dialogue are:

• To understand the reasons behind why people, retest HIV while they already know their HIV positive status.
• When you are on ART, is it proper to use traditional medicine (Timbita)
• After being prayed for by spiritual people, do you then stop taking ARVs
• Is it easy to disclose your HIV status to a new partner.
• Understanding HIV prevention

Having been hosted in the Hhohho and Shiselweni regions respectively, the dialogues will also be hosted in the Manzini and Lubombo regions as well.