Filed under: Cameroon, Peace Corps, Post | Tags: Africa, AIDS, Cameroon, Cameroun, Camp, Education, HIV, HIV/AIDS Awareness, Peace Corps, Peer Education, Post, Seminar, Volunteer, West Africa, World Travel
Newly-trained peer educators, PCVs and guest speakers. Bamenda, Cameroon
After many months of planning, fundraising and recruiting, we successfully completed the Peer Education Camp! I’d like to extend a HUGE thanks to all those who contributed financial support through the Peace Corps Partnership — we couldn’t have done it without your help! Took a while for me to get an update here on the blog, so sorry for the delay.
The camp was a great success and was featured in local newspapers and broadcasts. What was also nice was that both youth and volunteers had a great time! The kids involved camped at a guest house at the training site and when sessions were not taking place we all participated in activities like frisbee, soccer, cards and boardgames. All of us PCVs teamed up for the various presentations, and we also supplemented the material with Cameroonian guest speakers. The young participants were model trainees and were very eager to learn all that was offered. They did very well, and their progress was measured through pre- and post-testing. The participants consisted of two youths (a boy and girl) each from eleven villages around the North West. We trained them on HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness, peer education and life skills topics, including some that were mentioned in my post Important project: youth peer education in HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention.
Conducting a peer education session, Bamenda, Cameroon
In addition to teaching trainees all of the topics, we also did action planning, where volunteers worked with the kids from their site villages on strategies for how to implement the newly learned material in the field. At the end of the camp, trainee groups did mock-presentations on selected topics for their fellow trainees, PCVs, and invited guests, and then all peer educators were awarded certificates and T-shirts. Now that Phase 1 is complete, we will move on to Phase 2 of the project, in which we will individually work with the two youths in each of our villages to help them develop presentations and outreach programs on HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness.
Action planning with trainees from Bamenda, Cameroon
Filed under: Cameroon, Peace Corps, Post | Tags: Africa, AIDS, Cameroon, Cameroun, Camp, Education, HIV, HIV/AIDS Awareness, Peace Corps, Peer Education, Post, Volunteer, West Africa
We Teach: Youth HIV/AIDS Peer Education
Exciting news! We volunteers in the Northwest of Cameroon just had our Regional Project for 2011 approved to seek funding. We’ve been designing and planning the project since September. Now with all the logistical details and content sorted out, all we need is funding! Read about the Peer Education Program.
The Northwest Region of Cameroon has the highest HIV/AIDS rate in the country at 8.7%, and it is really important to promote awareness of the situation. We are targeting youth at the most critical ages of 14-18, and will give them the tools to go out and teach & inform their peers. Here’s more on the project:
The “We Teach” Peer Education Program is a collaborative effort of ten volunteers in the northwest region of Cameroon. Twenty students from ten villages will be invited to participate in the program. The program consists of three phases that all have the expressed goal of providing motivated youth with the life skills and knowledge necessary to become education leaders in their communities including their peer groups. Phase 1 of this program is a 3-day, 3-night workshop to be held in the regional capital. The lessons to be conducted during this workshop are as follows; Basic Facts about HIV/AIDS, Peer Education Techniques, Action Planning for Peer to Peer Sessions, Life Skills, Behavior Change and Communication, STD/HIV Prevention, HIV/AIDS Disease Progression and Support, and Culture and Stigma Surrounding HIV/AIDS in the Cameroonian Context. There will also be a day-long practicum in which the students will prepare and present various relevant topics to different groups in specific settings such as Youth Day, Health Clubs, School Gatherings and at the camp itself. Phase 2 of the program will involve each participant carrying out peer-to-peer training sessions in each of their respective villages. All participants will work closely with PCVs to organize and present peer-to-peer education sessions. Phase 3 will be a sustainability follow-up of the participants in their peer educator roles done by each PCV and compiled regionally. The data will be analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness of the program.
Please try to spread the word about our project, or donate, so that we can help the children! Here you can donate to the Peer Education Program
Filed under: Cameroon, Peace Corps, Post | Tags: ACMS, AIDS, Cameroon, HEDECS, HIV, Peace Corps, Post, Prescraft, SNV, Volunteer, World AIDS Day
World AIDS Day Question & Answer Booth and Testing in Bamenda
On December 1st, communities around the globe are encouraged to hold events and activities to promote the awareness and prevention of HIV/AIDS. Living here in the Northwest Region of Cameroon, which has the highest HIV/AIDS rate in the country at 8.7%, it is really important to promote awareness of the situation. This year I teamed up with some volunteers and other organizations here in Bamenda on December 2nd to have a question & answer booth set up in the center of town that would include a Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) taking place simultaneously. The project was conceived by Kelly (a really cool Health volunteer here in the NW) and I, and then we had a lot of help from other organizations and Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs).
The goal was to help educate and sensitize citizens of Bamenda on issues relating to the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS—this was achieved through an informal Q&A process between volunteers and the people, condom demonstrations, and the handing out of fliers which included places, phone numbers and websites where further information could be acquired, as well as the locations of HIV treatment centers in Bamenda. Overall, the project went really well. We had over 160 people tested, and there were a lot of people with questions sparking conversations about the subject of HIV/AIDS. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without the help of several organizations including Prescafe who hosted the event, RTG (Regional Technical Group) who did the VCT, ACMS, HEDECS, and SNV who contributed promotional materials, demonstrations and transport respectively. And of course thanks to the other PCVs who stood out in the sun all day promoting and answering questions!
To prepare for the event, we had to get the permission of local officials including the Governor, the District Office, and every local police precinct and gendarmerie! Including coordinating all of the different organizations, it was a lot of legwork. But it paid off. Maybe we’ll get to have another event like it sometime soon…
Year 3 - Volunteering in Cameroon 