projects

sorry for the delay in response ya'll. Things have been kind of busy here. so what have i been up to?

Still fighting AIDS. We got a lot of projects planned for the next few months and i believe that I'm going to be even busier than now. First of, lots of meetings have taken place. We're trying to set in place the regional Committee for the Battle against AIDS, the creation and development of this committee has been going on for the past 3 months but I think it is finally working. The committee is set-up to coordinate the activities, share information and collaborate amongst all the different actors in the fight against AIDS here in Kedougou. We PCVs are coordinating projects, with money set aside by USAID, in the fight against AIDS. One project is training radio jockeys on how to communicate information about AIDS to the population. Another project is the training of 60 health relays in the region on better practices of passing information in regards to AIDS. There is a visual marketing campaign in which we are going to set-up billboards along the routes and poster on big cotton trucks that go to every village (these visuals will have messages about AIDS). Also I'm hoping to celebrate international women's day with an AIDS theme, training and educating the female population in Kedougou. And most of this is happening in the next two months.

So that was just AIDS. We just submitted a proposal last week for a project in which we (the PCVs of Kedougou) would distribute mosquito nets to the whole population of the region of Kedougou... yeah, that one is going to be crazy, still waiting to hear back though.

There are some American Ophthalmologists who are coming for two weeks in March in order to conduct cataract surgeries as well as eye check-ups and consultations. This is a really great opportunity for the population of Kedougou; because most people don't have access to eye health care, so many people go blind from cataracts here.

Also still trying to get some things going concerning waste management in hygiene, although it's taking last priority.

Amidst all that next week all volunteers are going to Dakar for WAIST (see last Feb's blog). I'll be there for almost two weeks. It's going to be a crazy two months. But I keep reminding myself that as soon all this stuff is done and I'm less busy, I'm going to take a vacation.... now where to???