Think about your life!

Youth interns from the Western Highlands Province. Photo taken with permission by Lisa Renkin, Burnet Institute.

ADG content partner The Burnet Institute is currently involved in a range of laboratory research and field programs that address many of Papua New Guinea's critical health problems. One program is using a high-risk settings approach to address the HIV epidemic.

At an estimated prevalence of 1.28 per cent, PNG has one of the highest national HIV rates in the Pacific region. The national response to the emerging HIV epidemic has recognised the need for multi-faceted community-based responses.

Tingim Laip - 'think about your life' in the local language - is a comprehensive community-based HIV prevention and care strategy operating in 34 sites across 11 provinces. The project is funded by AusAID, and  implemented by the Burnet Institute in conjunction with Family Health International, Save the Children PNG and World Vision.  It promotes tailored behaviour change interventions and referral to services, focusing on the most vulnerable populations in high-risk settings throughout the country where HIV transmission is known or likely to be high.

Behavioural surveillance and social risk mapping highlighted that several groups of people across these high-risk settings were vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections including HIV. One such group were 'young people'.  Young people were involved in high-risk behaviours such as trading sex, consuming homebrew and marijuana and inconsistent condom use. However, structural and cultural barriers restricted young people's genuine participation in planning, design and implementation of appropriate interventions which focused on these behaviours.

Tingim Laip's approach to youth participation
Analysis of the structural and cultural barriers to youth participation in community programs led to specific technical inputs, advocacy, community consultations, capacity strengthening and structured dialogue with young people, resulting in a youth leadership development program. The program strengthened youth representation in community-level and decision-making structures.

Lessons learned
In PNG, youth leadership development needed to be positioned within community structures at the core of the response to HIV. The formation of adult-youth partnerships was crucial to enabling a sphere of engagement for young people. Establishing mentors for youth leaders and providing structured opportunities for engagement with existing decision making structures led to powerful alliances.

Tingim Laip has successfully created community structures to ensure the meaningful participation of young men and women in responses to HIV and lessons learned are currently being promoted within national government structures and international non government organisation partners for possible scaling-up.

Tingim Laip also addresses other key issues such as gender considerations; social mobilisation; condom promotion and distribution; the greater involvement of people living with HIV as well as harm minimisation in relation to drug and alcohol use. The project builds the capacity of local communities to develop interventions which address local issues. It operates in close collaboration with government services and other organisations implementing activities at each of the project sites.

This is only one example of Burnet's work in Papua New Guinea. Other projects include malaria research, initiatives in maternal and child health and sexual health activities.

Edited with permission from the Burnet Institute's IMPACT newsletter. Click here for the complete edition.


Joyce Bay, east of Port Moresby. Photo: Tansie Jarrett, Burnet Institute.

• Published: 2009
• Source: Burnet Institute (http://www.burnet.edu.au)
• Added to ADG on: 29 June 2009 , contributed by: Burnet Institute
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