Education, in particular HIV/AIDS education, is the cornerstone of EFA’s strategy to improve the condition of life for the associations and members of our Youth Empowerment Network. Peace Corps Volunteer Caitlyn Bradburn paved the way when she created the Peer Education program. The Peer Education program was designed to give association members, regardless of previous education, monetary situation, or ability to read or write, the opportunity to not only educate themselves on HIV and AIDS, but to serve as educators for their peers also infected or affected by HIV and AIDS in their community. It sought to empower our members to not only live positively themselves,but to promote positive living and reduce stigma and discrimination in their communities. Caitlyn, Alim, and Amada served as the new program trainers.

When I arrived as the next Peace Corps Volunteer to serve with EFA International, it was clear this program was a huge success. Members felt empowered and attitudes and behaviors of both HIV-positive and HIV-negative people in the community were changing. I thought to myself: this is great, but how can it be better? I realized, the previous Volunteer had created this empowering and effective program, but now my role was to make it sustainable, to make it EFA’s program and not the Volunteer’s.

I approached Alim and Amada, the trusty and dedicated staff of the regional office in Cameroon with an idea… what if we trained existing motivated and talented Peer Educators as volunteer program trainers? Though they thought the task would be difficult, they were immediately on board. What better way to further empower EFA Youth Empowerment Network members? What better way to ensure that the program can and will exist without a Peace Corps Volunteer?
With the help of star Peer Educator/Trainer Pehlem Therese, whose excellence and passion for peer education had actually already secured her as a Peer Education trainer, I set off to design my project and with the support from a VAST/PEPFAR grant and contributions from EFA International, including those from Global Giving. My project began in late November 2011.

Candidates for the new trainer position underwent a preliminary application and testing process, from which we selected four Peer Educators to continue on to the training round. These four candidates then participated in an 8-day intensive Training of Trainers, which included identifying training needs, facilitation, and leadership techniques. Finally,all the candidates gained practical experience by serving as the lead trainers in an actual EFA Peer Education cycle for members of AJUBS Kousseri under my supervision and the supervision of Pehlem and Amada. Even though the project was long and difficult, watching the improvement of these four candidates from the initial interview process to the final trainings they delivered has beeninspiring. In addition, seeing Pehlem continue her personal and professional growth and rise to the challenge of being a leader has been one of the greatest highlights of my service. Not only have they all succeeded themselves, but they successfully trained 8 new peer educators in Kousseri, a training success rateof 80 percent with the highest average post-training test score of any PeerEducation cycle and EFA’s first post-test score of 100%!

I am so proud to announce EFA International Cameroon’s five volunteer Peer Education Trainers, who successfully completed their training and practical in March 2012:

Pehlem Therese, AJEPS Maroua
Asta Madeline, AJEPS Maroua
Salihou, ASSYSGOD Godola
Aissatou Moussa, AJUBS Kousseri
Henriette Maidouwe, AJUBS Kousseri

Please join me in congratulating their hard work and welcoming them to the EFA team! This success is due not only to their hard work, but also to the generous support of our donors. Please help EFA to continue this positive momentum!

There are countless instances where the members, all young people infected or affected with HIV, have overcome significant obstacles to fight stigma and to help assure fair access to medical treatment.

One of the most incredible stories of late is about Sarah and the lion of stigma that the association members tied up. Sarah is a member of EFA’s Youth Empowerment Network and during this past year, her HIV progressed to such a degree that she had to begin anti-retroviral treatment to stay healthy.

The stigma in this story came from Sarah’s mother who refused to allow her daughter to take the medication and instead saw her HIV+ status as a punishment and blamed Sarah for becoming infected in the first place.

Sarah’s fellow association members flew into action. They first gained the support and understanding of Sarah’s siblings. The siblings and some of the association members approached Sarah’s mother and convinced her to care for and support her daughter on her road to recovery. However, the story does not end there. The support of the associations did not end there. The association members visited Sarah time and time again. It became evident that even though the mother was now committed to helping Sarah and caring for her, she did not know how to best help.

The association members flew into action again to support Sarah with individualized trainings for Sarah and her mother about the ins and outs of treatment, adherence, dosage and timing. Over the course of just a few weeks, Sarah’s improvement was dramatic. She is doing more than just surviving, she is thriving. The network of support has surely saved Sarah’s life.

Through the Circle of Love, you can help to assure that we have more stories like Sarah’s. The formula is simple…assure that people have access to the medical treatment that they need and provide the social support so that the treatments are successful.

With your support, as another “spider”, we can continue to tie up more lions. Thank you for uniting with us and for joining in our efforts.