26 March 2015 - USAID and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) today concluded a two-day training on prevention of HIV/AIDS for health promoters in Malakal, Upper Nile State.

The workshop aimed to train hygiene promoters and health workers to pass on basic knowledge about HIV prevention to communities staying at the UNMISS Protection of Civilians (PoC) site, according to IOM Health Programme Manager in South Sudan, Haley West.

For this trainings, and others conducted across South Sudan, USAID provides audiovisual tools tested and approved by the South Sudanese Ministry of Health and its national HIV/AIDS Commission.

“We are training trainers working in the health field, mainly health promoters at the Malakal PoC sites, but also other health partners,” said USAID’s lead facilitator Betty Araba.

Several workshop participants considered the training vital, stressing that more information and teaching tools were needed to effectively share knowledge about HIV/AIDS prevention with local communities.

“In many ways women are vulnerable in terms of freedom of expression when it comes to issues related to HIV status at the family level,” said participant Sarafina James Otuk.

UNMISS Protection of Civilian sites in Malakal currently shelter more than 20,000 internally displaced persons from Malakal and surrounding areas.