Project Report
| Jan 24, 2013
Rapport Annuel 2011 d'EFA - En Francais
By Kayt McKissick | Secretary, Board of Directors
Bonjour les amis,
J'ai le plaisir de vous partager le rapport annuel 2011 d'EFA International en francais. Merci a tous ceux qui ont contribué à l'excellent travail et le succès continu de l'EFA International. Nous vous remercions de votre soutien continu. Bientôt, nous allons poster quelques vidéos afin que vous puissiez voir et entendre l'impact positif de votre soutien auprès des membres du réseau Youth Empowerment eux-mêmes. Eux et nous, vous remercie de votre soutien continu.
Bonne année 2013!
Hello friends,
I am pleased to share with you the 2011 Annual Report of EFA International in French. Thank you to all those who contributed to the excellent work and continued success of EFA International. Soon we will post some videos so you can see and hear the impact of your support from members of the Youth Empowerment Network themselves. They, and we, thank you for your continued support.
Happy New Year 2013!
Attachments:
Oct 17, 2012
What Your Funds Have Helped Us Accomplish + 2011 Annual Report is now available online!
By Dana Allen-Greil, Rachel Deussom, Kayt McKissick | Board of Directors
For over half a decade, EFA International has responded to its mission of promoting the successful future of young men and women who are touched by HIV. We are grateful to donors like you for the financial support that has enabled recent successes in our three core program areas:

- 9 HIV-positive associations throughout the Far North of Cameroon received professional skills support.
- 38 new peer educators were trained in HIV prevention education and community mobilization.
- 8,000 community members were reached by 50 peer educators trained in sexual and gender-based violence prevention and gender equality through a TrustAfrica grant.
- 18,600 men, women, and youth received prevention education messages during 129 outreach sessions in communities vulnerable to HIV and AIDS due to low levels of education, socioeconomic status, and gender dynamics.

- Helped EFA-supported associations conduct profitable and productive income generating activities, with funding through the UNDP.
- Supported Circle of Love, a program for vulnerable HIV-positive women to cover costs and improve access to necessary medical diagnostics related to their HIV status.
- Worked closely with the regional directorate of the Ministry of Health, where EFA-supported associations are building partnerships with local health centers to ensure the quality and continuum of care provided to people living with HIV/AIDS.

- Our technical assistants supported new associations to better manage their activities and guided their integration into the Youth Empowerment Network.
- Our Coordination Committee continued to serve as an important advocacy and exchange forum for young people living with HIV in the region.
- Our Youth Empowerment Network expanded across Northern Cameroon with 4 new groups established or in training in 2011.


Download the 2011 Annual Report (PDF) to learn more about EFA's recent accomplishments, including:
- Building capacity and professional skills for youth associations
- Expanding HIV peer education
- Reaching out to communities
- Income generating activities
- Creating a multimedia resource center
Links:
Jul 26, 2012
Live Blog from the International AIDS Conference
By Rachel Hoy Deussom | Chair, Board of Directors
On Tuesday’s plenary session at the International AIDS Conference, Phil Wilson of the Black AIDS Institute talked about the need for an “army of patient navigators,” people who provide the critical connection between HIV-affected individuals and life-saving health and social services.
As a Peace Corps volunteer working in Northern Cameroon, I came to know a timid collection of youth who believed that their HIV diagnosis was a death sentence. In addition to facing the stigma surrounding HIV, they must overcome the burdens of poverty, limited literacy, and in most cases being a woman in a conservatively Muslim society.
Under the shade of a neem tree, they questioned the possibility of their dreams. How long could they live? Should they invest in going to school? Could they ever hope to have a family someday?
Antoinette, shy and tall, spoke of how her husband accused her of bringing HIV to their marriage and abandoned her.
Yaya had been left to die in an isolated room of his family’s compound because his family did not know about life-saving drugs.
Aïssatou is a widow and mother of three, struggling to provide for her children.
Six years later: through education and empowerment, these young people and dozens more like them have been transformed into dynamic, awe-inspiring front line health workers!
First, they gained the knowledge to manage their own health and live positively. Then, they received a comprehensive HIV peer education training, and became armed with communication and leadership skills to educate others in their communities about HIV and AIDS.
Now these HIV-positive young people reach out to the most vulnerable in their communities. They are uniting in solidarity to face down stigma and providing home-based care as well as psychosocial and financial support to HIV-affected families. They are partnering with the Ministry of Health’s regional directorate and district-level health facilities to ensure that people living with HIV have good relationships with the doctors and nurses there in order to access higher quality preventive care, CD4 tests, and ARVs.
Antoinette recently gave birth to an HIV-negative baby and works as a social worker to ensure that HIV-affected families access the government’s social protection programs.
Yaya is now on ARVs and has been trained in gender-based violence. He works with men to consider their role in negotiating sexual partnerships and condom use to prevent HIV transmission.
Aïssatou can now pay for her children to attend school because she is healthy. She was awarded a scholarship from UNFPA and promotes prevention of mother-to-child transmission in her community. She also travels over bumpy roads to the border town of Kousseri to train sex workers on how to get tested and become peer educators and promoters of safe sex.
These peer educators are the missing link between communities and health care services. They are cost-effective and they promote social accountability. As so eloquently stated by the speakers at Tuesday’s session on health workers, these armies of patient navigators, peer educators, and front line health workers will play a key role in turning the tide on the AIDS epidemic.
Full disclosure: I am the chair of the Board of Directors for Education Fights AIDS (EFA) International, the organization that provides the capacity-building services described.
Photo 1 courtesy of Rachel Deussom. Photo 2: Peer educators Katerine, Aïssatou, and Doudou support their communities and each other in the fight against HIV and AIDS in Maroua, Cameroon. © Rachel Hoy Deussom/EFA International
Links: