The Campaign

The HIV prevention campaign in Botswana is quite extensive.  Every place you go there are signs, billboards, etc about HIV. The signs are much more explicit than education campaigns I have seen in the States.  Here are just a few examples.  The one above is part of the "break the chain" campaign.  There are billboards all over the city, highways, etc that state "Who's in your sexual network?" Some also say "break the chain" others leave it up to the individual to make the connection.

This sign is in the Serowe town center, right next to the bar.

If you look closely, you will notice that the wall of the bar is covered in "lovers" ads (a condom company)

A condom dispenser outside one of the public bathrooms at a local restaurant.

Unfortunately they are usually empty.

Even the inside of the moving truck that moved my furniture to Serowe was coverred in HIV prevention ads. The one of the inside of the truck is hard to read but says "Think before you act. Be wise Condomise"
Truckers are one of the highest risk groups, so this seems like a good place for ads.

Ads like this one for the controversial circumcision campaign are all over the city on billboards and buses.

They are trying to push the idea of personal accountability

One of the local free testing centers in Serowe

Free condoms were sitting on the nightstand of the hotel where I stayed on my first outreach trip to Serowe.

All of these seem like good ideas.  The unfortunate part is these campaigns are not working too well.  Condom use is still at only around 60% (though I guess that is higher than it was at the beginning of the epidemic, it has not incresed in recent years) and the prevalence of HIV in Botswana has increased slightly in the last year (0.5%).  It has decreased since the beginning of the epidemic but recently has gone up.  Getting people to change their behaviors is probably the hardest task in public health, but at least they are trying.  And putting ads in peoples' faces does force them to think and talk about HIV at least a little more than before.

Today is Botswana Day/Independence Day, 43 years since Botswana became an independent nation (luckily the diamonds were discovered after independence ;)  So Happy Independence Botswana!