The International HIV/AIDS Alliance has developed a tool kit titled ‘Understanding and challenging HIV stigma’. The organisation believes that ‘HIV-stigma has long been recognised as a barrier to prevention, care and treatment, yet there are few tools available to support trainers and community leaders to begin to tackle this problem’.

The toolkit originally evolved out of a two-year research project on stigma conducted in Zambia, Tanzania and Ethiopia. Tools were developed with the involvement of staff from more than 50 NGOs from these countries. They shared stories and their experiences, developed exercises and tested some of the tools.

This revised edition builds on the original toolkit and includes the experience of the Alliance’s Regional Stigma Training Project. New modules now address stigma as it relates to treatment, children and youth and men who have sex with men.

The toolkit contains over 100 participatory exercises which can be adapted to fit different target groups and contexts. There are different sets of pictures codes which help to identify stigma, discuss the rights of positive people and help to stimulate discussions around gender and sexuality and morality issues linked to stigma. Click here for the tool kit.