Grassroots Empowerment for Combating HIV and AIDS In Ethiopia, currently the prevalence rate of HIV and AIDS is 2.3% of the nearly 80 million people. Nowadays the prevalence has been increasing at an alarming rate in the rural areas of the country.  The spread of HIV has become increasing particularly in the pastoralist areas of the country. This is mainly because: 

Firstly, the seasonal mobility from place to place searching for pasture and water for their livestock and migration of people to such places as towns, mines and other places in search of employment or other means of survival forced them to stay away from home for a long time and this situation exposes them to such habits as drinking alcohol, chewing 'chat' (local stimulant leaf), etc creating conducive environment for extra-marital sexual relations which may entail the spread of HIV/AIDS. 

Secondly, the local culture tolerates the practice of having lovers besides husbands or wives. It isn’t unusual for a man or a woman to have a Jaala or Jaalto (male or female lovers). There are other aspects of the local cultural practices that exacerbate the spread of HIV/AIDS. Among these, one can site polygamy.  Another factor is the practice of spouse inheritance. Men usually marry the widows of their brothers or close relatives, as women are not entitled to inheritance. Such cultural practices create fertile ground for the spread of HIV/AIDS by encouraging extra-marital sexual relationships.

Thirdly, as the project area is close to the Kenyan border, there is significant cross-border movement of people for marketing, mobile grazing, and other social reasons. While this is very useful for sustaining the livelihood of the local people, it is, nevertheless, conducive for the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Finally, the low level of awareness of the local people about the mode of transmission and effects of HIV/AIDS, make the people highly vulnerable to the disease. This is particularly true for the women folks, whose awareness tends to be limited.

As a means of addressing those problems  a project aiming at building  the local capacities for  preventing and responding to HIV/AIDS has been implemented  in few woredas since 2007 through the support from Trócaire.

This project is the continuation of the last project to further consolidate the achievements gained so far and to expand the good practices observed to help prevent and control the spread of HIV infection in pastoralist areas of Borana. Therefore, the current project is designed for three years (2010-2012) to be implemented by Action for Development (AFD) in Dire, Miyo, Dillo, Dhas and Yabello districts in Borana zone of Oromia Regional state in southern Ethiopia.  In summary the project is focusing on strengthening awareness creation through establishing and strengthening different clubs or community mobilization, HIV and AIDS prevention and provision of care and support for PLWHA and OVC which is meant to consolidate the previous initiatives. Moreover the project wants to make use of the opportunities that the GADDA leaders can leaders can play in reducing the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in their area. The ‘Gadaa1 system is a traditional institution governing the political, economical, social and cultural aspect of the Oromo people of which the Borana people belongs to. The ‘GADDA’ system is still capable to mobilize the Borana community towards common goals, including the prevention of the spread of HIV/AIDS.