| Abstract: | Cognizing of the drastic impact of the deadly disease HIV/AIDS, it was soon after the first evidence of the virus in Ethiopia that in 1998, a National HIV/AIDS Policy was endorsed by the parliament. The National HIV/AIDS Policy calls for information, education and communication (IEC) programs to inform the population about the risk factors and encourage people to adopt protective behavior (The FDRE,1998). As integral part of informing ,educating and communicating the community about HIV virus , the government of Ethiopia established the National AIDS Resource Center in Addis Ababa city and other Regional AIDS Resource centers in each region .Hence ,Oromia AIDS Resource Center (OARC) which is found in Adama town is the AIDS Resource Center which is established for the provision of different IEC services on Reproductive Health, HIV/AIDS, Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), and Tuberculosis (TB).(OARC,2005) This study was conducted for assessing the service quality and level of satisfaction among the youth beneficiaries of Oromia AIDS Resource Center which is found in South East Ethiopia ,Adama town. While conducting this research to assess and understand the service quality perception and level of satisfaction among OARC youth beneficiaries, the researcher used descriptive research which require using the mix of both quantitative and qualitative techniques and simple random sampling method to select the samples from the targeted youth . To collect the necessary quantitative data in response to the major research questions, the researcher used self-administered close ended questionnaires. Additionally, to get the deeper views and perception of the study population, un structured interviews and focus group discussions were also conducted. And also document review and personal observation were an integral part of this research. Using the attendance sheet of the service users which is found in the Resource Center as a sampling frame and using simple random sampling method ,a total of seventy six sample youth respondents were selected and included in the study. And also an in-depth interview was also conducted with a total of twenty three interviewees and also a discussion was also conducted with a total of twelve Focus Group discussion participants.
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In this way ,various data and information which are vital for assessing and measuring the service quality perception and level of satisfaction of the youth beneficiaries on the adequacy and quality of the ARC infrastructures and its services comprising the internet, library, Audio-Visual, printing and photo copy services and the adequacy ,competency and preparedness of the OARC staff from the views and opinion of the youth beneficiaries and other attributes which are believed to examine and measure the level of satisfaction they have on the quality of OARC services were collected , analyzed and interpreted. As an integral part of these, other information which are vital for identifying the major strengths and constraints that may affect the service quality and effectiveness OARC werealso adequately collected, analyzed and interpreted. Accordingly, as the field level findings reveal, substantial number of the youth beneficiaries addressed by this study have highly valued and recognized the usefulness of the services provided by OARC. While assessing the views and opinions of the beneficiaries regarding the usefulness of the resource center cervices, substantial percentage of them agreed on the usefulness of the ARC services comprising: 86% on the internet services, 80% on the library services, 89% on the printing ,82% on photo copy , 82% on the printing and 71% on Audio-Visual services. However, the opinion of the beneficiaries on the adequacy of each service is quite different. Only few of them agreed on the adequacy of the Resource Center Services.(Only 22% reported on the adequacy of the internet services, 18% on the library,1% on the printing,14% on photo copy service and 9% on the audio-visual services). Considerable percentage of them ,64% and 68% said the internet service and the library services are somehow adequate and 88% of them said the printing service is not adequate ,86% said the photo copy service is not adequate and 78% of them said the audio-visual service is not adequate. This shows that despite the existence of high understanding on the usefulness of the resource center services, the effort made to respond their demand through availing adequate services is not comparable with the prevailing demand of the users. Similarly, while assessing the general level of satisfaction they have on the overall quality of the resource center services, a part from those relatively good satisfaction rates reported on the internet services (83%) , library service (76%,) office facilities (91%) and on staff support (84%), high dissatisfaction rate were reported on the overall service quality of the photo copying, printing and Audio –visual services of the Resource Center.
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Also, the good satisfaction rates which are observed on the office facilities, internet and library services are not mean without limitations. Even though, considerable of the respondents reported the general satisfaction they have on the office location &its facilities and on the library and internet services , same proportion of them were dissatisfied with the adequacy and cleanness of the toilet rooms(78% dissatisfied&13% very dissatisfied) and 76% of them were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with the waiting time to get the internet service. With the same scenario, while assessing the overall satisfaction level of the beneficiaries regarding the accessibility and adequacy of the AIDS Resource Center infrastructure including the accessibility of the office location ,its opening hours, the adequacy of the office space, furniture‟s and utilities , generally a good level of general satisfaction (91%) was reported. The highest level of dissatisfaction (78%) and very dissatisfaction rates (13%) were also reported on the adequacy and cleanness of the toilet rooms.
The other undisputable finding from the assessment conducted on the general satisfaction rate of the beneficiaries was on the staff support. Substantial percentage of the respondents (84%) reported the overall satisfaction they had on the staff support .However, slight variation of opinion was observed on the adequacy, competency and preparedness of the staff. Accordingly, while 57% of the respondents said the staff number are somehow adequate, only 5% of them said the staff number is not adequate. Similar trend was observed on the competency and preparedness of the OARC staff .Accordingly, while 46% of the respondents say the staff are somehow competent and moderately prepared(51%), the remaining few of them said the staff are not competent (4%) and not prepared at all (4%). |
