PROGRAM THEME:  " OPERATION RURAL STORM

PROGRAM FOCUS: To train and equip HIV/AIDS Peer Educators with special emphasis on Women and Youth Leaders in Rural Communities in Nigeria.

PROGRAM  AREA: NATIONAL PILOT PROGRAM - NIGERIA

DATE OF COMMENCEMENT:  January 26th, 2007 

^{DATE ENDING: 26th January, 2008}

HIV/AIDS PANDEMIC IN NIGERIA

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa having the largest concentration of black people in the World. With a population of over 150,000,000 people 70% living in the rural areas. Over two million people in the rural communities are infected with the virus and there have been colossal records of deaths because of HIV/AIDS.

STRATEGY AND IMPLEMENTATION

WYEF in partnership with other organizations proficient in HIV/AIDS Peer Education has carefully designed a training curriculum towards training 500 Youths, Women and Volunteers from 500 rural communities in Nigeria as a pilot team.

This Team will in turn train at least 10 Women and Youth Leaders (Religious leaders, Traditional Administrators, Members of Monastic Dynasty, and Group Leaders) in there various rural communities in Nigeria. This community Youth Leaders will then act as veritable soldiers to combating the ravaging pandemic of HIV/AIDS in their various rural communities in Nigeria.

PILOT PROJECT'S STAGE AT PRESENT:

 50 Volunteers proficient in HIV/AIDS Peer Education trained by UNICEF, NACA- National Action Commission On AIDS, UNAIDS, and Nigerian Ministry Of Health AIDS/STD Control Programme has been constituted to form the Pilot Volunteer Project Instructors, Supervisors, Implementors and Evaluators. They will train the Pilot 500 trainees.

ANTICIPATED PROJECT OUTCOME AND IMPACT:

It's anticipated that at the second stage of the project 5,000 Youth and Women Leader from various rural communities in Nigeria would have been trained. Each of these 5, 000 Women and Youth Leaders will in turn impact on over 100 members of their various rural communities. In two years it is expected that over 500,000 rural people would have been impacted.

Subsequently, the reverberating efforts of these 500,000 people would course a tidal flow of life skills and accurate information on HIV/AIDS. Through this scheme, the people would be willing to cooperate with organizations specialized in HIV/AIDS health care and treatment thereby facilitating Voluntary Confidential Counseling and Testing -VCCT. Right attitude and the use of STI/STD preventive materials like condom would be more accessible and used by the people. Stigmatization will reduce or totally eradicated.

In the whole, the war on ravaging HIV/AIDS pandemic in rural communities in Nigeria would have been a total success.