Free AIDS Help Line programme for expansion

By Judica Tarimo

The National AIDS Help Line programme plans to expand service lines following an increased number of clients seeking accurate sexual reproductive health and related issues like HIV/AID information.

The Director of the Tanzania Youths Awareness Trust Fund (TAYOA), Peter Masika, which has been implementing a one-year project in cooperation with telephone companies and other donors, said about 5,471 people have so far sought help using the lines.

“Callers have increased, and many people cannot access the service lines…we thought it is worthwhile idea to expand the service lines,” Masika told a news conference at the Tanzania Information Service (Maelezo) on Wednesday.

“People are eager to get information about HIV/AIDS to help them fight the deadly condition, but are limited by the lines congestion,” Masika told The Guardian.

The First Lady, Mama Anna Mkapa, launched the programme in January this year, which has been allowing people across the country to easily access HIV/AIDS information through free and confidential telephone services.

Under the programme, experts in HIV/AIDS receive phone calls from people seeking information about the disease and answer them accordingly.

According to Masika, in February alone, about 2,780 people made calls, out of whom 73.7 per cent were satisfied with the services while 26.1 per cent were not.

About 68.6 per cent of those who phoned were youths aged between 20-29 years old, 15 per cent were aged 30-39 years, and 12.6 per cent were below 18 years, Masika told reporters, adding that three quarters of the calls came from Dar es Salaam alone.

About 78.8 per cent of the callers were men and 29.2 per cent were women. “Generally, men are leading among people of different age groups,” he said.

According to Masika, most of the issues raised by callers focused more on the proper use of condoms, how to undergo Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT), provide support treatment for those infected, and home-based care.

TAYOA apologised to people who have missed the service lines, saying negotiations were going on to convince telephone companies to allocate additional lines.

“Mobitel and Vodacom have already agreed to allocate more lines for the programme, but we are still negotiating with other phone operators to do the same to help the people,” Masika said.

Zantel, Celtel, Mobitel,Vodacom and Tanzania Telecommunication Company Limited (TTCL) under funding from the Rapid Funding Envelope, are the sponsors of the Free Help Line programme.

SOURCE: Guardian, 2004