Cervical Cancer Screening

SWOP Newsletter

Hello,
Get a copy of our newsletter in any SWOP facility and keep updated on our programme's progress. Enjoy!

Our Programme

HELLO,

At SWOP we provide sex workers with friendly and accessible comprehensive STI/HIV care and services.

Since our inception in 2008, we have employed methodologies which included the mobilization of sex workers through trained peer leaders who were themselves identified and chosen by the sex workers, we have developed outreach strategies for working in the community, providing a comprehensive service that included both education messages and well as clinical care, and by bringing the sex workers together regularly in gatherings (locally called barazas), where they received feedback of the research studies, share experiences, receive educational messages, and strengthen their own feelings of self-worth and esteem through group support.

On a clinical level, we have been instrumental in establishing the clinical guidelines for the syndromic treatment of STIs in Kenya, and establishing syndromic management as part of the national STI Control Programme (NASCOP) health policy.

CORE PILLARS OF THE PROGRAMME

CLINICAL TEAM

This is a team of clinical doctors, officers, counsellors and nurses tasked

with providing sex workers with friendly and accessible comprehen-

sive STI/HIV care and treatment ser- vices at the facilities.

PREVENTION OFFICERS

These include prevention officers attached to field sites. They are in charge of the field activities in swop sites, where they develop mobilization strategies, and act as a link between the clinic and community members.

OUTREACH WORKERS

Outreach workers are influential and respected sex workers among their peers. They are like zone managers in charge of 5-10 peer educators and oversee hotspots.

They are trained based on the NASCOP’s

Nation Peer Educators Curriculum.

PEER EDUCATORS

These are individuals identified as “peer leaders” and act as the pace setters for

positive example and inspiring others to follow that direction. They help others in their peer group to go through the process of examining and, ultimately, changing behaviours that put them at risk for HIV infection. They are in charge of 50-100 sex workers.