Trainers’ manual: community engagement for antiretroviral treatment

This training manual from International HIV/AIDS Alliance provides a basic training course on antiretroviral therapy (ART) for those working in community-based organisations (CBOs). The course is designed to enhance awareness and knowledge about these treatments among workers who provide support services in a community setting to people receiving ART. This is based on a participatory model of training, which encourages the trainers to take the existing knowledge of the participants as their staring point.

The manual consists of a number of modules and each of these focuses on a different aspect of HIV treatment. The course begins with basic information on HIV and ART, and then moves on to cover who needs ART and how to deliver information to those about to begin treatment. The other aspects of the course include supporting people to ensure adherence to their treatment, including helping them to deal with the stigma attached to HIV, and also supporting people during changes in their treatment regime. The course includes modules on specific issues, such as the different issues which HIV treatment raises for women, children and men. For each module the training manual outlines the aim and structure of each session, and provides information and suggested participatory activities for the trainers to use in the sessions.