Beyond Victims and Villains (BVV) in Botswana

Visit the Beyond Victims and Villains page for a general description of the BVV intervention.

In Botswana we undertook a first round of BVV groups in communities in 2009, facilitated by a visiting team trained centrally. Each team had 4 facilitators and a team leader.

We mobilized participants for the BVV groups through community leaders such as the Village Development Committee (VDC) chairpersons, Headmen, District AIDS Coordinators (DAC), local councillors, and local health care providers. We also approached Village Health Committees, Village Multi Sectoral AIDS Committees (VMSAC), Men’s Sector (of local government), Minister’s Fraternal, Youth and sports groups. We targeted four categories in each community: older women, older men, younger women, and younger men. Each group listened to and discussed the eight BVV episodes, meeting approximately weekly at a time and place that suited them. Venues included sports fields, kgotlas (village meeting places), informal meeting places, clinics, tuck shops, and community halls.

The visiting teams faced challenges of ensuring consistent participation, particularly among the men’s groups. They also travelled great distances; some of the trial sites in Botswana are far apart.

As the next stage, we trained BVV facilitators from the communities to continue with the intervention, mostly identified from among the participants in the first round of BVV groups, or suggested by community leaders. These community BVV facilitators worked as unpaid volunteers; the project provided them with the materials for the groups (manuals, scripts, CDs, portable CD players and batteries) and reimbursed their communication costs. A core central team has visited them monthly (as well as telephone contacts) to check progress and help overcome challenges.

Many of the community BVV facilitators have found the work stimulating and meaningful but inevitably some have not been able to continue and there has been an ongoing requirement to train additional facilitators. Some of the community BVV facilitators plan to continue the BVV groups even after the formal end of the trial.

Return to the Choice Disability Trial in Botswana page or to the Botswana page.