Teen Peer Education in Mali

The most at risk population for HIV are teens, more particularly, adolescent girls. This portion of the population is also susceptible to teen pregnancy, thus having to quit their education, and potentially risk losing financial and emotional support.

The primary way to protect these young people from these unwanted consequences is through education. GAIA Vaccine Foundation recognizes this, and in order to increase the population’s access to important knowledge, we founded the Teen Peer Education Program. 

The Teen Peer Education Program has been proven to help raise awareness among adolescents about the risks that they face. GAIA Vaccine Foundation is conscious of the fact that in order to ensure the success of the program, it would be most valuable for teens to receive their education from fellow teens. Therefore, we have teenage educators trained through our local adult HIV educators and partners in Bamako, Mali. These teenage educators are fully equipped with the proper communication tools to connect with the adolescent students who attend the weekly discussions.

In time, our program hopes to greatly reduce the number of teenagers who contract HIV. With a donation of $10, you would be sponsoring 2 teens in attending a program session. With a donation of $20, you would be sponsoring 4 teenagers as they attend one of our weekly programs. With a generous donation of $50, you would be providing one of our HIV educator’s ENTIRE salary. If you were to donate $75, it would be because of YOU that GAIA Vaccine Foundation is able to host an ENTIRE session! These sessions are so crucial for ensuring that the young people of Mali are fully equipped with potentially life-saving knowledge. We thank you for your continued support for our ongoing programs, and are hopeful for the future of GAIA Vaccine Foundation.