HIV/AIDS

The spread of HIV/AIDS threatens to derail efforts to improve food security, fight poverty and stimulate economic growth in the countries where Mercy Corps works. Our HIV/AIDS programs have reached more than 300,000 people worldwide, with a special focus on at-risk populations including youth. As part of our prevention strategy, we employ sports to reach youth with the skills and knowledge they need to protect themselves. Mitigating the impact of HIV/AIDS by providing people with income- generating opportunities, life skills and support networks is also an important part of our strategy.

Peer Education Promotes Prevention In 2004, Mercy Corps launched the Youth Education for Life Skills (YES) program in Liberia. We reached a total of 15,000 young people in 285 communities. In 2006, with partners NikeGo and Grassroot Soccer, we began YES to Soccer, teaching 1,600 young adults about HIV/AIDS using the soccer field as classroom and soccer coaches as teachers. Young people from 53 communities participated, and a post-test evaluation showed significant HIV knowledge gains among both boys and girls.

Increasing Awareness Through Sports Across southern Sudan, Mercy Corps used sports to give young people the knowledge and skills they needed to face and avert a larger HIV epidemic – essential for the stability of Sudan.

In southern Sudan, Mercy Corps worked with NikeGo, Grassroot Soccer and other southern Sudanese partners to train 350 coaches who helped educate more than 7,000 Sudanese youth about HIV/AIDS. NikeGo provided more than $6 million of apparel and equipment to the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports to be used by youth-serving organizations throughout Sudan.

Seminars on Health In Colombia, Mercy Corps helps 6,000 displaced people adjust to urban life after being evicted from conflict-torn rural villages. With local partners, we organize classes on HIV/AIDS and reproductive and sexual health for girls and women who are at high risk for HIV.

Empowering Adolescent Girls In China, ethnic minorities are among the most highly impacted by HIV/AIDS. Mercy Corps and the Nike Foundation are empowering 2,850 ethnic minority Yi youth with life skills, health knowledge, and economic opportunities to address the root causes of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. We work with the Liangshan Yi For Empowerment Center and PATH to expand poverty alleviation programs.

Skills and Knowledge for Youth Empowerment

In Niger, the word for HIV/AIDS means "welcome to the grave." Mercy Corps uses a peer education model to bring needed skills and a more hopeful message to 1,500 young people. By training youth to teach HIV information to their peers, we empower young people to break the social stigma attached to HIV/AIDS in one of Africa's poorest and most socially conservative nations.

Nurturing Environments for Children Orphaned by AIDS

Almost 25 percent of children in Zimbabwe are orphans, most due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Mercy Corps ensures that 5,000 orphans in ten rural communities live in a nurturing environment. We help rehabilitate schools in exchange for tuition scholarships to orphans and help communities form Child Protection Committees. After-school clubs provide vital psychosocial support – a place where children can process grief, gain skills and play.

Helping Migrants at Risk

In 2004, Mercy Corps’ HIV/AIDS Prevention Education Among Youth & Migrant Workers program in Tajikistan helped distribute, monitor and evaluate the impact of 20,000 HIV/AIDS awareness/prevention brochures and other materials. We also implemented a similar program in Central Asia’s Ferghana Valley to increase HIV awareness in six communities. Training and educational materials were provided to doctors and nurses.

Empowering People with HIV/AIDS

Mercy Corps' Empowerment of Persons Living with HIV/AIDS project bettered the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) in Uzbekistan. Our coalition-building work to support legislation protecting the rights of HIV-positive people resulted in the founding of the first organization in Uzbekistan run by people living openly with HIV and AIDS. In Honduras, Mercy Corps’ Community Health and Microfinance project links PLHA to microfinance opportunities to ensure that HIV/AIDS does not deepen the cycle of poverty.

Strengthening Local Partners

In India, Mercy Corps works with the Darjeeling Earth Group. With funding from Tazo Tea and Starbucks, we support nine local organizations and 310 peer educators to carry out an HIV/AIDS education program benefiting more than 32,600 people. Mercy Corps also works with the Shanker Foundation/Darjeeling Network of Positive People to open drop-in centers for counseling and support of HIV positive people and their friends and families

In rural areas of Guatemala and Honduras, Mercy Corps helps local government officials, health care workers and residents become more aware of HIV/AIDS issues, and of the need to care for and support people living with HIV/AIDS. In Guatemala we support the local youth club Jovenes Por La Paz to educate young people on HIV/AIDS issues. Our work in Honduras provides all community health workers – who serve more than 400 communities – with HIV/AIDS training. Training is also given to caregivers for people living with HIV and AIDS.

Additional HIV/AIDS Programming

Mercy Corps employs an integrated response to address HIV/AIDS issues that includes the following activities around the world:

• Mercy Corps has partnered with The ONE Campaign and Make Poverty History to help in the fight against AIDS and extreme poverty.
• Mercy Corps’ The Film Connection sponsors films that express the experiences of living in a world with HIV and AIDS.
• Global Citizen Corps, a Mercy Corps initiative educating youth on international issues, runs an HIV/AIDS “Act Now” campaign to increase youth participation in fighting HIV.
• And in Pakistan, Mercy Corps will work with the Ministry of Health to support HIV/TB collaborative services.