The role of effective peer education in achieving targets

Peer Educators have over the years played a crucial role in our quest to providing quality HIV testing services to Key populations in Ghana. The West Africa AIDS Foundation continues to acknowledge and appreciate the important role of Peer Educators in achieving Epidemic control in the western region. In the first quarter of FY 21, one such peer educator showed incredible performance and contributed to our success in the Ahanta West Municipal.
Arnold was engaged by WAAF in November 2020 as an MSM peer educator on the Care Continuum Project in the Ahanta West Municipal. As a peer educator, his primary role was to educate and mobilize his peers for HTS and as well serve as a role model to them. In FY 20, it was very challenging for WAAF to meet its target due to the difficulty in identifying committed peer educators to work with in the Ahanta West Municipal, however, upon engaging Arnold, the story has changed and WAAF has overachieved its first-quarter targets in Ahanta West through the hard work and dedication of our current peer educator.
As a peer educator, Arnold is not only committed and dedicated to his role but has passion and deep love for the MSM community and he is always willing to sacrifice both his time and material resources to ensure that his fellow MSM receives services in Ahanta West. Through hard work, Arnold has mobilized 30 high-risk MSM out of which 7 positive cases have been identified which exceeds our target of 5 positive cases for the first quarter. Arnold continues to impact the lives of MSM in Ahanta West and WAAF is most grateful for his efforts and encourages other peer educators to learn from his example.