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ENAH (European Nework of Aids Helplines)
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Sida Info Service has been coordinating the European Network of Aids Helplines (ENAH) since 1999.
Its initiatives include:
• ENAH is the European Network of Aids Helplines.
• The aim of ENAH is to support and encourage long-term collaboration between the network’s telephone helpline service providers by structuring the resources required for a continual exchange of information about the problems of telephone helplines and HIV.
• This means maximising the expertise available within organisations by enhancing their telephone skills and highlighting the special place they occupy within national AIDS support resources.
The network currently has 9 active members and 10 associate members.
Following on from its 2003 development, the next stage is to expand the network into all EU countries and extend membership to those organisations representing the new EU countries.
www.enah.org
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HAUT DE PAGE
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HELPLINE
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The Sida Info Service puts telephone support for health and social issues at the heart of everything it does. The Helpline goes much further than simple face-to-face contact.
It offers:
• anonymity and confidentiality;
• a place to talk freely;
• the caller the opportunity to escape from the pressures imposed by family, religious, social and government institutions;
accurate information on which to base informed choices.
The number of requests Sida Info Service receives from foreign organisations asking for help in developing or improving telephone support demonstrates the enormous need people everywhere have for information, support and preventive advice. This type of support has become a way of empowering not only those already affected, but also the much larger numbers of people who are most weakened by HIV, because, as well as their urgent need for ARV treatment, they also need places of safety in which to express their concerns and obtain information.
The increasing technological sophistication of many developing countries brings with it a more widespread use of the telephone, especially in the major urban centres of Africa and Asia, where this tragic epidemic is at its most concentrated. Free calls or calls at nominal cost, combined with the accessibility offered by the mobile phone, give our partner organisations a central and powerful resource for disseminating information and preventive advice and which offers genuine anonymity in cultures where the disease is still taboo.
Our partners see telephone support as an essential complement to the grassroots action being taken by other organisations. In some cases, it extends those initiatives; in others, it strengthens them.
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NORTH/SOUTH COOPERATION
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One side-effect of coordinating this network is that Sida Info Service is now seen as the central point in the process of transferring skills to organisations outside the EU wishing to improve their existing helplines or set up new services.
We are involved in many international cooperation programmes:
• providing internal organisational support;
• providing training support (initial and ongoing);
• updating listening skills and techniques;
• supporting implementation of technical resources (call sheets,
computerised directories, automatic exchanges, etc.);
• supporting communications campaigns;
• helping to secure funding;
• monitoring and supporting existing initiatives;
• reporting to financial backers;
• supporting the introduction of evaluation and call return systems.
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HAUT DE PAGE
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STAGES OF DEVELOPPEMENT
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Phase 1 - project initiation
 Cameroon - Improving a local helpline at Douala and helping it grow into a national service.
Partners: SunAids, CNLS and the World Bank.
Phase 2 - project development
Niger - Fact-finding mission in Niamey into the feasibility of setting up a local sexual health and education helpline for young people.
Partners: Initiatives Jeunes, Academy for Education and Developpement (USA) and FNUAP.
Phase 3 – financial partnership
Mauritius - Securing project funding to extend and professionalize the national line run by the PILS association in Mauritius.
Partners: PILS.
Phase 4 – implementation of initiatives
Morocco – the country’s “Allo…Info Sida” line has been open since 1 December 2002
Partners: ALCS, Maroc Telecom, MAE, Mairie de Paris, Mairie de Marseille, FNUAP, AMSED, CRIF and Agnès B.
Poland – Transfer and adaptation of computerised call sheets for the national helpline run by the Polish organisation “Be with us” + delivering information on the skills and activities of SIDA INFO SERVICE to national health and social support organisations + improving the ability of “Be with us” helpline staff to respond through training in how to use call sheets and support relationship techniques.
Partners: Abbott Poland, “Be with us”.
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