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Country Profiles |
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FHI Supports Successful Approach to Community Counselor Training in Namibia |
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 JUNE 2007—Herlyn Urias was among the first trainees when a new approach to community counselor training was piloted in Namibia in 2004 by LifeLine/ChildLine, one of FHI's local implementing partners. Since then, she has made designers of the training course proud, and has gained international recognition as a community counselor in Walvis Bay, on Namibia's South Atlantic coastline.
Herlyn, 23, decided to devote her life to AIDS-prevention work when she was only age 18, two years after she was diagnosed as HIV-positive. She volunteered as a peer education counselor at the Walvis Bay Multipurpose Center, where she quickly became the "positive" face for community outreach and workplace interventions. Her exceptional communication skills, empathy, and positive attitude were further developed by the new training course for community counselors, funded by the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Through USAID's IMPACT Project, implemented by FHI, the Lifeline/ChildLine training was adapted and expanded to train community counselors for district hospitals, voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) centers, and faith- and community-based organizations. To date, more than 500 community counselors have been trained. Herlyn absorbed the content of course modules on personal growth, basic counseling, prevention of mother-to-child transmission, and antiretroviral therapy, and was putting the skills she honed to maximum use when she caught the eye of German photographer Ralph Hoefelein. He featured her in his series of photographs entitled "Positive Living," which received first prize in an international photo contest at the Conference for Sustainable Development in Germany.
Back home in Walvis Bay, Herlyn has made landmark contributions to the multipurpose center's Ladies First Outreach Program and its FHI/PSI-supported New Start VCT Center. She and five other HIV-positive counselors have reached more than 8,500 community members by going from door-to-door, surveying people on their HIV knowledge, conducting awareness sessions in private homes, and encouraging people to learn about HIV prevention and care and come to the center for testing and counseling. Some women Herlyn reached indicated that they felt comfortable disclosing their HIV status to her because she is warm, approachable, and open about her own status. Herlyn credits the courses she took with refining her people skills and providing a lot of practical experience. She says she "learned how to deal with people, and talk to them individually to give them options."
The six-module program uses a wide range of experiential and participatory learning exercises. It helps trainees assess their clients' emotional states and general condition, identify and evaluate important issues or problems, and explore options. Trainees also learn how to develop an agreed-upon plan of action that has achievable objectives and organize follow-up. Basic counseling skills—listening, reflecting, probing, and managing problems—are taught in module two, before launching into essential HIV information. And sessions on topics such as transmission and prevention go beyond factual data to include the emotional aspect of the HIV and AIDS and participants' own views on sexuality and sexual behaviors. Client-centered counseling is incorporated into all six modules. While community counselors offer emotional and psychosocial support to their clients, interdisciplinary teams of healthcare providers deal with their medical options and specific health information. But the counselors make sure that clients understand their health-related issues and support any behavior change required, including changes that may reduce risks and lead to positive living. What's New for Herlyn Urias and the Multipurpose Center? FHI support helped the Walvis Bay Multipurpose Center to become an independent trust in 2005. The center offers workplace, school and community outreach programs, and VCT and other counseling services. In addition, Catholic AIDS Action has offices at the center and provides home-based care and psychological support for those in need, including orphans and other vulnerable children. This mission is one close to Herlyn's heart. As she describes her dreams for the future, "I would love to have my own place called "Herlyn's House," where I could look after children, orphans, and people that need care and looking after." PHOTOS: (home page, bottom) Portraits of Herlyn Urias in Kuisebmond, the township in which she lives and the Walvis Bay Multipurpose Center is located; (top) Herlyn counsels a client at the center; (middle) Herlyn is congratulated by then-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder at the 2005 Conference for Sustainable Development in Germany. (Ralph Hoefelein) |
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Putting HIV in the context of a client's life—instead of isolating his or her sexual behaviors, risk patterns, and treatment needs—is a novel focus for community counselor training. This approach develops and polishes the client-centered skills of would-be counselors, instead of concentrating on the delivery of standard messages about the availability of services or the ways HIV is transmitted.