Community-Based Outreach through ‘STOP.THINK.TEST HIV/AIDS’ Social Campaign: What Have We Learned?

Abstract

The concept of strengthening community action within the context of HIV prevention and
awareness is often met with infamy even though the idea of HIV/AIDS is well noted.
Community participation and engagement with this subject matter is not well achieved due to
anxiety and stigma that is associated with HIV/AIDS patients, carriers or the caretakers.
Assuming this, a social campaign under the umbrella of community-based outreach,
consisting of a comprehensive program has been lined up to cater to the local community of
Penang to tackle the prevention issues and build more awareness. The program outlined is
aimed to realign the understanding and create awareness among the community so that
issues, stigma and discrimination towards HIV/AIDS patients as well as people living with
HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) can be reduced significantly to ensure sustainable and harmonious living
in the society. Preliminary research was done to identify factors that have put the community
in high anxiety and stigma. Through this insight, a three month community-based outreach
social campaign was executed carrying activities such as forum, health expo, HIV/ADIS
screening, red-ribbon run, exhibition, visitation and sharing session with HIV/AIDS patient.
This community-based outreach social campaign has managed to pull in a number of
partnership and collaborators namely Malaysian AIDS Council (MAC), Pusat Sejahtera USM,
and AIESEC Malaysia. Also, sponsorship (cash and kind) received from FWC, LivYoung
Lifestyle Sdn. Bhd., Hovid Berhad, G Hotel, Flamingo Hotel, and Underwater World
Langkawi. This paper presented the detail of the community-based outreach program that
was named STOP.THINK.TEST that is targeted to the USM students, staff and local
community of Penang, so that through this campaign, it is expected some degree of social
change in behavior and acceptance can be altered significantly.