promotores escolares

Since June, I have been working with a group of 7 high school students on an HIV/Aids prevention project. The teenagers participated in 15 hours of training that I put together and they are now certified as Peer Health Promoters. (Getting certificates is a big deal here, check out the pictures of our certification ceremony with their parents). During their training, the promoters learned about themes such as adolescence, gender and sexuality, reproduction, prevention of STIs and pregnancy, and all about HIV and Aids.

After their certification, we wrote a grant proposal for funding for a promotion campaign. We are soliciting funds from PEPFAR, which is the President’s Emergency Plan For Aids Relief. The US government has money set aside for small projects in developing countries with HIV prevalence. We have turned in our grant and are waiting to hear if we are approved! If we get the funding, we plan on doing a radio show that promotes healthy lifestyles, three educational sessions in all of the high school classes, making t-shirts and other promotional materials, and putting on a health fair on December 1, which is International HIV/Aids Awareness Day. The Peer Health promoter project is probably the biggest project I am working on right now, and will be spending a lot of time from now till December working with the teenage promoters and the rest of the school. Stay tuned for more updates!