Abstract:
Change in the mode of pastoralist livelihood activities and resultant consequent
activities have made pastoralist to move out of their traditional safety environment.
Despite of pastoralist being exposed to HIV risk they are holding strong cultural
practices some of which are HIV spread risk factors. The HIV/AIDS pandemic
continues to grow with thousands of new infections occurring every day. Prevention
remains the backbone of programs to curb the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and will be
effective only if they can address the factors that put communities at risk and reach
the majority of people at risk. Understanding of cultural context, specific prevention
needs and characteristics of key groups help the tailoring of programs focusing on
the main modes of HIV transmission in any given community. General objective of
this study was to shed light on the level of knowledge, attitude, and practices
towards
HIV/AIDS
among
Barabaig
pastoralists
and
come
up
with
recommendations to guide implementers on HIV/AIDS interventions in pastoralist
community. Study adopted a cross sectional design. A sample of 100 randomly
selected households was used. In addition 160 of respondents participated in focus
group discussions. The analytical technique used was The Statistical Package for
Social Science (SPSS) version 11.5. Findings indicate that, majority (98.9%) of
Barabaigs have heard about HIV/AIDS. Majority (66.2%) have low to moderate
level of knowledge on HIV/AIDS transmission, with females having low level of
knowledge compared to males. Misconception was wide spread. Majority (54.8%)
does not believe (have negative attitude) if they can also contract HIV/AIDS. Risk
practices (rites, sexual network and circumcision) are prevalent. Main sources of
information were radio and village meeting with limited HIV/AIDS interventions.
Based on the findings, Study recommends implementation of more comprehensive
HIV/AIDS programmes targeting pastoralist basing on prevention, care, treatment,
support, females empowerment and reduction of traditional risk practices.
