EXAMPLES OF YOUTH INVOLVEMENT AGAINST HIV-AIDS IN AFRICA Jean Delion AFTS2 ESSD Week Parallel Session: “Youth, Assets for Economic and Social Transformation”

Youth Organizations ask support to the Bank to build their capacities against HIV-AIDS Grant to an Alliance of “Big Seven” Youth Organizations in South and East Africa to assess the impact of their activities against HIV- AIDS in five countries, to consolidate their training modules for their members and to disseminate them Workshops took place in the 5 countries, then a regional workshop allowed the YO to share their impact assessments and training modules

Faith Based Organizations guide the youth in their efforts against HIV-AIDS Mauritania: the Imams engage with the youth organizations to inform on HIV-AIDS, to prevent risks behaviors and to support infected people CAR: A federation of PLWHA (mainly youth) opens a restaurant; the MAP project provides a grant for basic equipment; the restaurant has been three years in operation; it serves food to PLWHA at low prices and to the general public at reasonable rates: very high impact on stigma reduction

Youth ask support to private firms  CAR: after a sensitization by the provincial AIDS committee, a youth organization visits the local businessmen  One makes a house available to the youth; others provide equipment or seed money  The youth start a “youth club”, they disseminate information against AIDS  They use games (stepping stones and others) and create animation in the house, to attract the youth and discuss on HIV-AIDS

A GENDER FUND grant funds trained 1,000 peer counselors, reached 5,000 youth in three months  CAR: trainers from the Kenya Guides Association adapted their peer counseling modules to CAR  They trained 20 Trainers Of Trainers from 10 young women associations  In each association the TOT trained 100 peer counselors (PC), mainly young women: total 1,000 PC  Each PC formed at least one group of 5 and developed self defense/assistance mechanisms against HIV-AIDS for the group members: total 5,000 “ self defense/assistance Youth, mainly young women  These 1,000 groups are serving as models, more groups are being formed, with support form FBO

Many YO get grants directly from MAP projects The Red Cross got grants from MAP projects in various countries in East-Africa Many YO got grants: during their first year they focused on IEC and peer education Then in year 2 or 3 they moved to direct support to Orphans and Vulnerable Children and to home based care

Many youth groups get grants from the committee against HIV-AIDS in their community In most MAP projects, each community conducts a situation analysis, in sub-groups, including young men and young women: the youth influence the Community Action Plan (CA) and insert their own contributions in the CAP Around 20,000 communities are already implementing Community action plans against HIV-AIDS with support from MAP projects

The youth vote, confidentially, on effectiveness of Community Action Plans (CAP) against HIV-AIDS Cameroon and Benin: the MAP introduced “ report cards ” using simple game cards, to assess CAP effectiveness Each community conducts a self-assessment process every 6 months: during a large community meeting, an animator from the district randomly picks 10 young men and 10 young women (together with 10 middle age men, 10 middle age women, 10 old women 10 old men) they vote, confidentially on simple questions, using cards with 1,2 or 3 stars In most cases, the community decides to change some committee members and to stop some activities on the basis of the votes: the youth are empowered to influence CPA

Many more youth are inventing ways to engage against HIV-AIDS TOGO: tee-shirts moto-taxi “With me you can talk on AIDS” TOGO: youth guided by a gastroenterologist used a filter to provide filtered water to chronically ill patients in the community; they moved to provision of grilled/dry taro as vegetal coal to reduce diarrhea; they launched “the weekly provisions basket for our sick members”: at the main market exit door, they align baskets: people put eggs, fruits, meat, etc. ; the volunteers distribute the baskets to the households with chronically ill patients

The Youth bring creativity, enthusiasm Add professionalism from Development experience Plus some funding (not too much, do not corrupt the YO) _________________________________________ = Very cost effective results, plus social inclusion, social capital built along the process, the youth are valued for their contributions Conclusion