Vo/untmy counseling and testing (VeT) is potentially effective mechanism to preventrnHIV infection and transmission by changing the knowledge and attitude of people. Thernmain objective of the study was to examine the knowledge and attitude of peoplerntowards vo/unta!y counseling and testing for HIV.rnA cross-sectional survey aimed at assessing the knowledge and attitude of peoplerntowards voluntmy counseling and testing for HIV was made. Shashemene woreda inrnwestern Arsi Zone was selected purposely for this study. From the woreda two kebelesrn(four and six) were selected as a sampling unit. Data regarding knowledge and attitudernwas collected from 200 households available in the kebeles which were selected byrnusing systematic random sampling method.rnThe finding depicts that significant number of people had adequate knowledge andrnpositive attitude towards voluntary counseling and testing for HIV. They are aware thatrnvoluntmy counseling and testing is a key element in HIV prevention and care and itrnassists people to make informed decisions about the test of HIV. Moreover, resultsrnshowed that stigma and discrimination, wonying about the test result andrnunavai/ability of the service hinders the use of voluntmy counseling and testing.rnThe t-test value revealed that there is no significant knowledge and attitude differencerntowards vo/untmy counseling and testing for HIV between subjects belonging to sexrngroups of male and female. On the other hand one-way ANOVA result shows arnsignificant attitude difference observed among subjects based on their education level.rnAs education level increases attitude also increases.rnIt is concluded that the level of awareness regarding knowledge and attitude towardsrnvoluntm), counseling and testing for HIV seems too high on the study community.rnHowever, there are still different factors which prohibit people in order not to usernvoluntm), counseling and testing service. There fore, efforts should be made to changernthis high awareness to practice by redUCing or if possible by eliminating those factorsrnthat prohibit the use of voluntmy counseling and testing.