HIV/AIDS Working Group

Mission

The HIV/AIDS Working Group brings together interested volunteers to help plan and assist other volunteers throughout Ukraine working in every project sector to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS in their communities. The working group assists volunteers to educate their community on HIV and AIDS by collecting, creating, planning and distributing resources, activity ideas, event information and NGO contacts working on HIV/AIDS awareness throughout Ukraine.

Goals & Objectives

Goal: To increase effectiveness of delivering HIV/AIDS related material to Peace Corps Volunteers around Ukraine.

Objective: Execute a survey for all PCVs by April 2013
Objective: By June 2013, establish criteria for administering HIV/AIDS related material.
Objective: Increase communication through establishing new direct communication means.

Goal: To encourage Peace Corps Volunteers to initiate HIV/AIDS related projects in their community.

Objective: By June 2013, create a system of quantifying the projects and success of the members within the working group.
Objective: Administer the work that working group members are involved with to show by example what other PCVs can do.

Goal: To establish a more inclusive and effective HIV/AIDS community within both the Peace Corps community and Ukrainian Community.

Objective: Create a new sub-community that is dedicated to working with Ukrainians and PCVs.

Projects

Annual Projects

HIV/AIDS Awareness Poster Contest:

The annual poster contest presents an opportunity to address and raise awareness of HIV/AIDS throughout Ukraine. The poster contest theme is determined by HIV/AIDS members each fall and distributed in November/December of each year. Working group members and Peace Corps staff judge the posters and announce the winner(s) in March. The Council accepts submissions in the following two age categories: 11-15; 16-20. Please see Appendix E of this handbook for submission information for the 2013 Poster contest.

VK.com HIV/AIDS Awareness Contest:

This annual online contest allows PCV’s and their communities to get involved with HIV/AIDS Awareness by using VK.com, a popular social networking site in Ukraine. The goal is to spread HIV/AIDS awareness by getting as many people to “join” a PCV page on VK (specifically created for the contest) filled with important information about HIV/AIDS Prevention. The winning page produces the most entries. The winner is announced at the end of December.

HEAL/OHALOW Camps:

The HIV/AIDS Working Group plans and executes two camps every summer. Camp HEAL (Human Trafficking, Education, AIDS/HIV, Leadership) addresses the issues above amongst Ukrainian youth, and Camp OHALOW (Overcoming HIV/AIDS and Leading Our World) focuses on stigma and working with HIV positive children.

Current Projects

HEAL Day Camps:

The HEAL Subcommittee has created a manual that details how to implement a HEAL day camp (HEAL Today) at a Volunteer’s individual site. It was created so as to provide a way for youth across Ukraine to experience the lessons given at the annual HEAL summer camps.

OHALOW Day Camps:

The OHALOW Subcommittee has worked to develop a program during the summer camp to train and empower Ukrainian social workers to work with local volunteers and hold day camps to support and serve children living with HIV in the area.

HIV/AIDS Working Group Website:

The Resources Subcommittee has created, and is continuously updating, the working group website, which showcases each of the sub-committees and projects, compiles our resources and can be shared with professional partner organizations as well as fellow PCV’s. They are in the processes of creating a new website.

World AIDS Day Manual:

The Projects Subcommittee has created and updates annually, a manual for Peace Corps Volunteers which provides various HIV/AIDS lessons, and project ideas for World AIDS Day as well as information on how to enter our annual contests.

Resource Development:

The Working Group continually works to compile informational and educational resources for Volunteers to use at site, in an organization or the classroom. HIV/AIDS resources are made available on the resource CDs distributed at Swearing-in, on SharePoint, and here: HIV-AIDS section

Membership and Meetings

The group meets 3-4 a times year, but works throughout the year on various projects. We are constantly looking for new ideas to help volunteers and Ukrainians talk about the seriousness of the HIV/AIDS problem in Ukraine, and are looking for dedicated, interested and creative people to join the group!

The HIV/AIDS working group welcomes all PCVs that are interested in making a difference in Ukraine concerning HIV/AIDS! Our meetings are open to all PCVs; however, for accountability purposes, we do have an application process for full members. The working group will send out an application about two times a year. The application will be administered through the Friday Digest.

HIV/AIDS Working Group Subcommittees

HEAL

HEAL subcommittee members are responsible for planning the Working Group’s annual HEAL (Human trafficking, Education, AIDS/HIV, Leadership) summer camp. Members of the HEAL Subcommittee look for locations, write grants, create lesson plans and activities, recruit students, and serve as camp counselors. Most recently the HEAL Subcommittee has created a manual that allows PCVs to bring the HEAL camps to their own sites in the form of day camps (HEAL Today).

Action Items

Conduct 2 Mini HEALS in Sumy and Rivne
In April there will be 3 more Mini HEAL's: Two 2-day day camps in Kharkiv and Cherkasy; One 1-day camp in Odessa.
Translating material into Ukrainian and Russian

OHALOW

OHALOW subcommittee members are responsible for planning the Working Group’s annual OHALOW (Overcoming HIV/AIDS and Leading Our World) Summer Camp. Members of the OHALOW Subcommittee look for locations, write grants, create lesson plans and activities, organize campers and serve as camp counselors.

Action Items

Will have conducted 4-day camps for HIV+ kids over the 2012-2013 school year

Project Subcommittee

Project Subcommittee members are responsible for planning and developing HIV/AIDS themed projects which are accessible to all PCV’s throughout Ukraine, and are intended to be implemented on a national scale, as well as providing support to PCV’s participating in such projects.

Action Items

HIV board game being produced
May 19th candle light project
Movie about people living with HIV
Getting winner of poster project up on a billboard and second place on stickers

Resources

We provide educational materials and support to PCVs seeking to involve their community in a discussion of HIV/AIDS. The current focus is to educate Ukrainians about HIV/AIDS prevention, to bring awareness to local support networks, and to train participants (particularly youth) to be advocates for HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention in their communities.

Visit the HIV-AIDS section of the Materials Database to browse and download lesson plans, manuals, articles, and many more useful resources on HIV/AIDS prevention and education.

Action Items

Creating new website
Creating new focus area of collaboration with Ukrainian HIV/AIDS NGO's and PCV's
Translating Material

Website

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Peace Corps Ukraine HIV/AIDS

Contact

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