The Addis Ababa based organisation Chadet ‘Children Aid Ethiopia’, is a key local partner organisation in Concern’s HIV/AIDS programme. Concern was Chadet’s only foreign donor until recently, when World Bank funding became available. Chadet’s director, Ato Ananya, explains that the initial support from Concern was the boost that Chadet needed to grow to its current capacity.

Chadet’s programmes concentrate on three key elements:

1-HIV/AIDS prevention through peer educators in the community, through music, drama and public discussions and through the provision of leaflets and the free distribution of condoms.

2-Care is provided for two client groups; people living with HIV/AIDS and AIDS orphans. People who are infected with the virus receive medical support, some household goods such as a mattress, sheets and a blanket and when needed a small monthly payment to cover rent and food expenses. Chadet also has an extensive network of home-based care volunteers who are trained by Chadet to provide support to bedridden patients and their families. For orphans Chadet provides medical care if needed, financial support to those who live alone or to grandparents or other guardians who look after orphans, and school enrolment fees and school uniforms.

3-Capacity building for local leaders. While this element is often overlooked by other agencies, Chadet believes the problems surrounding HIV/AIDS cannot be tackled without the buy-in from local groups. Chadet has been instrumental in mobilising local community leaders in the areas where they work, to find practical solutions to a whole range of HIV/AIDS related problems that only the local officials or local community can help to solve.

The HIV/AIDS prevention work carried out from Chadet’s sub-office in the heart of Mercato, the biggest open air market in Africa, is targeted at the biggest risk groups in the area: the male market traders and travellers who pass through Mercato’s bus station and visit the many sex workers in the area.

To provide both the sex workers and the clients with condoms, Chadet has placed ten open boxes with condoms in strategic places around the area; some are in bars, others outside the kebele offices, and there’s even one box at a popular barbershop.