In early 2008, this wildly popular song played over and over on radio stations across Botswana:
“Let me tell you a story ’bout a guy I know. He’s married, he is happy with his wife. Then he decided to hook up with a young girl. He said to his wife, “Honey, I’ll be home late.” He called his girl and said, “Where are you?” The girl said, “Pick me up by the mall in 20 minutes.”
The lyrics to O Icheke (“Check Yourself” in Setswana) follow the hapless husband’s tragicomic pursuit of his teenaged target until his wife is told, “You’re sharing him with Shirley.”
A year later, inspired by the song, the Government of Botswana adopted “O Icheke—Break the Chain” as the name for its new national campaign to address multiple and concurrent sexual partnerships (MCP) with a multifaceted strategy and strong national leadership. Few countries have attempted to implement a truly national campaign driven by government agencies and existing regional and community organizations to roll-out activities at the community level. The stakes are high: O Icheke is seen as key to achieving Botswana’s long-term goal of zero new HIV infections by 2016.
In a highly mobile and relatively small population such as Botswana’s, the impact of MCP on HIV infection is great. The three-year campaign uses the national mass media—radio, television, print, and billboards—to stimulate public discussion about MCP. At the same time, interventions at the district level encourage communities to change norms and individuals to change behavior. Campaign messages serve as a wake-up call to the target population, explaining why having two or more partners at the same time accelerates the spread of HIV. New information about acute HIV infection and how the virus spreads quickly in highly linked sexual networks has proven to be eye-opening for individuals during community and interpersonal group activities.
AIDSTAR-One is funded by USAID. Read the full case study here.
