I was assigned to La Masica as a member of a Peace Corps health project to address the education and prevention of HIV/AIDS and Maternal and Child Health. Towards that end I have involved myself with the local Centro de Salud and have gone out to the aldeas with a health team to provide health care and education and to give talks to groups, as well as going out with the Jovenes Sin Fronteras to youth workshops aimed at condom education and risk recognition. I had not yet started to develop a weekly HIV curriculum at the local colegio with one of the instructors but I had involved myself with weekly HIV support groups at the Hospital Regional Atlantida in La Ceiba. In addition I had made contact with other HIV prevention groups through my work at the hospital. Two weeks ago I made a trip up to an aldea called El Recreo to observe the JSFs give a cineforo presentation to the entire small village: A DVD about HIV/AIDS on a local television held in a communal hall with an oral presentation and discussion afterward. I also accompanied the local school instructor to one of his classes and observed the teaching method and curriculum. He and several other instructors who go to these mountain villages are funded by an ONG (Non Governmental Program) called SAT (Tutorial Learning System) by which the students earn a colegio diploma. This week I met the Executive Director of SAT in La Ceiba and learned that they have these rural educational programs in 12 of Honduras’ 18 departamentos. This week I also met the staff of the La Ceiba Red Cross who do HIV/AIDS education and outreach using the same methodology as the Jovenes Sin Fronteras. Next Tuesday I will be going to a 3-day Micro-Business workshop developed specifically for people living with HIV/AIDS, accompanied by three Honduran counterparts. Then when I return to La Masica I will be transferred to another part of the country to begin anew similar contacts that I have developed here on the North Coast over the past two months, with the goal of integrating myself into the community to which I will be transferred. I was just beginning my work here and now I have to go.
About My Work
1 Reply