Dear positive people everywhere,

I would like to take this opportunity to share with you my thoughts on Positivo and what we are doing.

2007 was a year of changes for all involved in Positivo. Following Roland, Helio and Pierre’s trip to Mangunde, where they created the amazing song “Eu nao tenho medo (I am not afraid), Helen and I spent many evenings discussing the Positivo concept, with friends working in health and HIV prevention. Within a week there was a consolidation of ideas and principles that we felt were important.
At the end of the week Roland was due to leave Mozambique to return to Austria. We caught him the night before his departure and proposed forming Positivo and repeating the basic workshop concept all over Mozambique. The conversation lasted long into the night and Roland seemed convinced. On his way to the airport the following day Roland called in to say “let’s do it!”

With Roland in Austria Helio, Pierre, Helen and I began meeting regularly to plan the future activities of Positivo. Over weeks and months our vision took shape and we’ve been on a mission since then to realise our dream of Mozambique and Mozambicans enjoying prosperity in their lives free from the threat of discrimination and HIV/AIDS.

In our mission to achieve the above we are forced to face the issue of behaviour change. This can become even more complicated when dealing with sexual behaviour. Positivo do not mix health messages with morals. We have to appreciate that we are working in an area where people live with strong religious believes. If we want to open a dialogue about health and sexual behaviour with people, we should not offend them first. Therefore when performing in public Positivo are careful in our public messaging.

Firstly Positivo DO NOT PRESUME TO HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS. Secondly we do not preach to people. We don’t believe in taking a solution from far away and imposing it on people. There is no one size fits all solution to the AIDS problem.

Positivo believe that people have the solutions to their own problems. We understand that sometimes it’s difficult to make changes in our personal behaviour even when health is at risk. That’s why we believe in our song-writing approach. Positivo allows people to create their own message for their own community. We put it into a positive musical medium and amplify the message through media distribution (local and national radio and television).
This works for many reasons. Firstly the message is not being imposed from outside, but coming from within their community. Secondly music has the power to make change. People can express themselves more freely through music and lyrics. Their lyrics travel further and live longer than other forms of public health messaging. Thirdly when someone is recorded in a popular song giving a positive message about sexual health, that person is more likely to live true to the message.
Having defined our principles and ways of working we had to become official and get money to keep working. We decided that we needed to do two more song-writing workshops to test the concept and see if it would be successful in dealing with other issues related to HIV/AIDS. We knew from Mangunde that the concept worked very well in relation to increasing the number of people going for the voluntary test but needed to know if we could tackle issues such as condom use.
By the middle of 2007 we had found funding for two more workshops. GTZ a German NGO gave us €2000 to put on workshops dealing with condom use. We received valuable help from a diverse range of people. The team began consulting health workers, HIV activists and anthropologists to get a thorough understanding of what we were dealing with.
In September we went into schools in Homoine and Maxixe to give concerts, collect data, write songs and test the working concept of the song-writing workshop. The results not only reassured us that we had a good methodology for getting the message to the right people in the right way, but that it is essential to create the message in and with the community. We found that, even though only ten kilometres apart, there was a significant difference in the way the local communities perceived condom use.
Beyond our hopes and expectations there were other positive side effects to our work. Once the song was distributed to the local radio stations, the students from Homoine kept calling the station requesting the song they had made, whilst the group in Maxixe were organising concert performances in the local youth club to promote their song. It seemed that the message in the song would carry much further than any other medium. We have been happy to hear of many people making their own pirate copies of the songs. As long as they are playing the music and spreading positive messages to the people we are happy.
2007 ended in a mad dash to get all the membership papers, statutes and other legal obligations deposited with government entities in Mozambique, in order to formalise Positivo as an association. After four months here we are in April 2008 and our papers have returned from the Ministry of Justice, approved. We are now planning our first General Assembly to finalise the formal aspects of the association.
The General Assembly will take place on Saturday 26th April 2008. At Escola Superior de Hotelaria e Turismo de Inhambane, at 10:00 a.m.
The next step is always forward. This year Positivo will be producing twelve new songs in Inhambane province of Mozambique. We will be sharing with the world all our work and data, in the hope that together we can all make a positive difference. Stay Positive Darren Clark (campaign manager)