Military personnel are considered to be one a high-risk group with regard to HIV transmission, and HIV/AIDS has major implications for the military as it impacts on a wide range of crucial service delivery objectives.

Although the military has had an HIV programme that addresses this issue, the mass communication component of the programme utilised media that has been developed by the Department of Health.

As the military is a unique community with a distinctive organisational culture and vulnerability and susceptibility profile, the media from the Department of Health was considered to be limited in their effectiveness.

The Department of Defence therefore decided to develop a military mass awareness campaign that would take cognisance of the unique nature of the military, and that would move beyond mere awareness of HIV towards actual change in attitudes and behaviour.

The campaign also had to address the issue of limited involvement by both individuals and departmental divisions who considered HIV prevention a medical issue.

Various communications frameworks address the issue of health and HIV prevention communication, but a definitive communications model, developed by a collaborative effort between the Pennsylvania State University and UNAIDS was identified to form the basis of the developed programme.

The major finding of this model was that five domains of context are virtually universal factors in successful communications for HIV/AIDS preventative health behaviour. These are:

• Government (organisational) policy.
• Socio-economic status.
• Culture.
• Gender relations.
• Spirituality.

As socio-economic status was not considered to be of major importance to members and employees of the DOD, this factor was not specifically identified as crucial to a successful campaign.
The issue of spirituality was considered to be extremely difficult as the DOD is not a homogenous population in this regard.
Gender issues were considered crucial in the campaign design and would be addressed throughout the campaign.
The remaining factors were therefore the primary influence for the design of the media utilised in the campaign.

It was decided to develop the campaign theme around the common culture of the military organisation and the culture of the Khoi-San as utilised by the National Coat of Arms.

The communications framework further concluded that visible political commitment and sound policy should be the basis of a successful communications framework, and it was therefore decided that the first phase of the campaign would focus on these issues.

After consultation with various individuals it was decided to call the campaign Masibambisane. This Zulu word means, “taking hands”, but also implies working together and supporting each other in the fight against HIV. As such it is considered a call to action, and addresses the problem of limited involvement of individuals and departmental divisions.

A planning workgroup was established with relevant role-players for the development of appropriate media to support the campaign. At the first meeting it was decided to develop campaign specific icons and a campaign background that would support the campaign theme and that would establish a common cultural theme throughout the campaign. These developments would be utilised throughout all the media developed, and would provide a common identity. This led to the development of:

• The Masibambisane “Hands” logo - The internationally recognised HIV red ribbon was adapted into a logo that still resembles the ribbon, but that also illustrates the Masibambisane theme of holding hands.
• The Khoi-San warrior logo - The Khoi-San was derived from the National Coat of Arms and adapted to illustrate that everybody should be fighting against HIV. A further reason for utilising the Khoi-San is that their culture contains certain core values that are considered beneficial in this fight.

The campaign theme and campaign icons are further supported by:

• The mission statement: “The South African Department of Defence, United in the fight against HIV/AIDS”.
• The DOD commitment: “The Department of Defence is committed towards working together in fighting HIV/AIDS, combating discrimination throughout the organisation, caring for those who are infected and affected and supporting our members and their dependants”.
• The supportive slogan: “In Unity we have Victory”.