Week 8 - PEPFAR

Week Eight – PEPFAR

A quick and selfish note: It is now less than a month away from my birthday (August 6^th). I do not have my new address yet, but once I get it I will post it if you’d like to send me a birthday card. If you would like to send me a birthday present here are some ideas:

-       Chocolate

-       Peanut Butter (chunky or smooth)

-       Ked’s (not white, size eight)

-       Yoga mat (not pink)

-       Yoga Dvd

-       Yoga tune up balls

-       Pumice stone

-       Drawing charcoal

-       Artist erasers

-       Pads of drawing/watercolor paper

I   If you are looking to spend a lot of money on me:

-       Whiskey

-       Red Wine (there are no fridges here)

     

     Hope this helps!

Week Eight –

I absolutely cannot believe it is the start of week nine already. I also cannot believe that I have completed eight weeks of training. This has been the slowest and fastest process I have ever been through.

This week has been pretty incredible. Language class was good. Typical. On Tuesday (hub day), we all got on a bus to a neighboring town and went to “AIDS Day.” This is what Peace Corps called it. It was an entire day of training set aside just for HIV/AIDS.

I’ve been really excited about this, and waiting for it for a while now. Every Tuesday and Friday we go to the Hub to have health, safety, and community based training. We have learned all sorts of things at this point, but nothing about HIV/AIDS in Rwanda. Also, when we asked questions about it we were told we’d get to it later. That was a bit unnerving. Especially because when I got my assignment in February they told me I’d be working with HIV/AIDS specifically.

This is true and untrue. There is a huge disconnect between Peace Corps in Washington, and Peace Corps in Rwanda. I hear that this is true of most countries. Let me explain, in about a week and a half I will be dropped off at my Health Center, and be expected to do whatever the Health Center needs. Even though I was told I was doing HIV/AIDS work. I do have control over projects I want to implement, but for my first three months at site I will be doing a Community Needs Assessment. This mainly involves me observing and shadowing various people at the H.C., interviewing and noticing what my H.C. needs.  So if my H.C. does not need anything involving HIV/AIDS then I won’t be doing that type of work. Also my Health Center has a compound for people living with HIV or AIDs. This is very rare in Rwanda, and I find that very cool.

Anyway back to “AIDS DAY”. I was very excited to really dissect the role and impact on HIV and AIDs in Rwanda. Also, two people from my Health Center were there as well, which was super cool. They don’t speak any English, and it was nice to practice my Kinyarwanda.

The day was long, informative, a bit overwhelming, but good. I want to use this post to talk about PEPFAR.

PEPFAR is an acronym for President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief. It was started by George W. Bush in 2003. Between 2003 and 2008 it had a fifteen billion dollar initiative, and eighteen billion was committed. The goals of PEPFAR include: the treatment of two million HIV-infected people, prevention of seven million new infections, and care for ten million HIV-infected people. How much of this actually happened is still unclear. This is called PEPFAR I.

PEPFAR II was started in 2009, it’s a five year program subjected to end in 2013. There is thirty nine billion for bilateral HIV/AIDS programs and global funds. The goals of PEPFAR II: Treatment of three million people living with HIV, prevention of twelve million new infections, care for twelve million people living with HIV, including five million OVC. Agencies participating in PEPFAR include: State, USAID, Health and Human Services – CDC, HRSA, Peace Corps, The Department of Defense.

So, Peace Corps is an implementing agency contributing to PEPFAR goals through its volunteers. How are we going to do this? Prevention: promoting AB and OP among youth, educating the community of the proper and constant use of prevention. Creating life skills among the community, like G.L.O.W. and B.E. for example (Peace Corps summer camps, Girls Leading Our World, Boys Exceling). Developing an institutional capacity for HIV and AIDS. Many of the Health Centers don’t have the resources to collect and analyze data, or keep records (most everything is hand written here). Therefore we find a way to update their resources, and keep them up to date.

So that is a bit about PEPFAR, which I am very excited to be working with. I had little knowledge of the program for “AIDS DAY”, and was extremely impressed by the presentation and the implementation of PEPFAR within Rwanda.

My good friend Erin Maurer recommended a book to me before she left for Senegal. Erin is a friend from high school, and start serving as a PCV in Senegal in March. The book is Invisible Cure by Helen Epstein. There are tons of resources to seek out about HIV/AIDS as well as relief efforts. Though I found this book to be one of the best sources for education. Enjoy.