Questions were asked. It became clear that lack of publicity was to blame. People didn't know it existed. It was agreed that the target for calls was
set too high and that effective promotion was essential.
From last September, the service's hours were cut by half, down to 20
hours a week, Tuesday to Friday, 2pm to 7pm.
The Department of Health then ran a publicity campaign in London for six
weeks and, around the same time, the Embrace health programme of pharmaceutical
giant GlaxoSmithKline, which targets UK Africans, got involved.
Syson explains: "Embrace wanted to support our service and also felt
that the helpline would act to monitor the effectiveness of their campaign."
Some of you won't have missed the impressive African beauty that graces
the Embrace adverts PosNation has run over the last few months. The poster
campaign draws in the viewer with the statement "HIV - I thought
it could never happen to me". The ads have been run in both the HIV
press and the black press, and posters also got distributed in key African
social centres or meeting places. There was also a cassette called Breaking
the Silence - HIV info interspersed with specially-commissioned African
music - and helpline calling cards.
Glaxo's Embrace programme manager, Neil McDonald talked about how they
got the campaign promoted: "We partnered up with an African marketing
company called Anambra run by an Africa entrepreneur, Ade Tayo Idowu.
They helped us distribute to African music shops, restaurants, cafes,
travel agents, phone bureaux, and numerous clubs and social venues."
Ade himself is very proud of the campaign. "Yeah, firstly we were
employed to
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market the helpline's posters financed by the Department of Health, then we
