Workshop on social behavioural change communication held

Dimapur, March 17 (EMN): Two-day workshop on Social Behavioural Change Communication (SBCC) was organised by Nagaland State AIDS Control Society on March 15 and 16.
The workshop was attended by senior medical officers and counselors from ART Plus Centres, District Program Officers from six District AIDS Prevention and Control Unit, and NSACS officers and staff.
Resource persons were Dr. Pravin Kumar, Regional SBCC Consultant UNICEF, Guwahati and Marykali Yepthomi, SBCC Consultant, UNICEF, Nagaland. The program was facilitated by Metevinuo Sakhrie, joint director (IEC) and Ainato Yeptho, assistant director of Youth Affairs, NSACS. Some of the important topics covered were: Evolution of SBCC, communication process, behavior change process and supportive environment, counseling, understanding issues-use of problem tress, people analysis and problem statement, use of IEC materials, SBCC plans for HIV programs, creating a positive learning environment and facilitation skills.
The workshop was organized to capacitate the participants to use knowledge of social and behavioural change principals for planning SBCC interventions for HIV, prepare communication plans to implement HIV programs with a special focus on adolescents, use their understanding of the socio-ecological model for inclusion of marginalized and high risk populations in communication planning and transfer their knowledge and skills to mid managers and service provides as a facilitators.