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Education and Training
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BONELA Workshops and Training
BONELA facilitates a series of workshops with the goal of building capacity among community stakeholders to respond to HIV/AIDS in the context of human rights in their communities.
Basic Awareness-Raising Workshops are usually in the format of a three-day course to raise awareness about basic human rights issues related to HIV/AIDS. Key topics covered in these trainings include: HIV and the workplace; HIV testing and confidentiality; the right to health; and, wills and inheritance.
BONELA also coordinates a week-long Training of Focal Persons Workshop. In this intensive and further training, individuals selected from basic awareness-raising workshops learn how to provide a human rights service response to members of their community whom they attend to within their own job responsibilities. In this intermediate-level course, participants also learn facilitation and presentation skills, as well as knowledge that enables them to address their communities on HIV/AIDS issues from a human rights perspective. Upon graduation, individuals are tasked as Focal Persons in the service provision sector that they represent and take responsibility for addressing human rights issues in the arena of HIV/AIDS.
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BONELA workshops serve a wide variety of stakeholders and sectors, including (but not limited to) the following:
- Healthcare Professionals and other professionals who work in clinical settings in both government and private institutions
- Support Groups for People Living with HIV/AIDS
- National and Local Police and the Botswana Defense Force
- Government AIDS Coordinators and Committees
- Business/Private Sector
- The Judiciary
- NGOs, CBOs, FBOs
- Youth Organisations
- Media
These workshops have been made possible primarily by the support of the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB, supplemented by other donors.
Responses from participants have been very positive, encouraging and insightful. Most sectors proved to be open to new ideas, interested in addressing their gaps and weaknesses, and showed promising willingness to use the knowledge and skills they learned in training.
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Topical issue in training: HIV Testing and Confidentiality
While many issues are widespread in Botswana, HIV testing and confidentiality appear to be the most widely discussed topics during training sessions-likely because they relate to everyday decisions and ethical issues faced by individuals.
A person’s decision to test and then inform a partner or family of the result, if HIV-positive, is greatly influenced by how this individual presumes his or her partner/family will react, including fears of rejection, isolation and violence. Training on human rights and HIV/AIDS are, therefore, meant to sensitise health care and service providers to this context when assisting individuals. Training on this issue is also meant to help service providers respond accordingly to help, for instance, protect the right to security and right to freedom from discrimination of individuals. It will also enhance the skills of service providers and stakeholders to help resolve human rights conflicts between individuals prior to the need for legal intervention.
Through its education and training activities, BONELA envisions individuals taking charge of their lives in this era of HIV/AIDS through the promotion of their rights. When doing so, they will also take full responsibility of their actions.
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