AIDS in Uganda is a major crisis for the whole society. In January, 1991 CARE-Uganda initiated a project in Jinja District with the dual purpose of increasing education on AIDS to the DHT, health facility staff, community leaders and the general public and supporting the formation of a chapter of TASO in Jinja. The project lasted fifteen months and was funded by AMFAR. As the funding for the project was drawing to an end and as this was the first project of its kind in Uganda CARE-Uganda contracted CHDC Makerere University, to evaluate how the project had progressed and its impact so far. This would enable CARE to draw on the project's experience in relation to future projects both in the field of AIDS education and prevention and those involving collaboration with indigenous NGOs.

The major findings of the evaluation are that the project did to some extent strengthen the capabilities of the Ministry of Health authorities in Jinja to more effectively address HIV prevention and control. This it did by enabling the DHET to travel all over Jinja district and organise AIDS education programme and enabling them to create a structure through which AIDS education information could be disseminated to the grassroot level. However, there was a need for more capital investment and longer term funding in order to enable the DHET to continue with the work they had started.

TAESP in collaboration with TASO, Kampala was able to establish a TASO chapter in Jinja which is now providing supportive services to people with AIDS. TAESP experimented with many AIDS education approaches using different modes of communication. However, the approaches tended to be adhoc. As a result it was difficult to establish in concrete terms the impact of TAESP's education activities. This also made it difficult to draw concrete lessons of how different target audiences respond to different kinds of media or modes of communicators e.g., youth, women, illiterates etc.

Although the AIDS committee structure has been established right upto the parish level the structure is fragile needing a lot more material and technical support from the DHET.

CARE's involvement with TASO, ACP and the DMO's office in Jinja was perceived by all concerned as supportive and most welcome. There is a need, however, for CARE to continue supporting the DMO's office and TASO Jinja in order to enable them to continue with their AIDS control and prevention activities.

KEYWORDS[ AIDS, IEC, evaluation ]