100 Projects for Peace Grant (awarded in 2007 & 2008 only)

Priya Sury & Fidel Desir

Project:

• HIV/AIDS Education Initiative

Abstract:

• We are interested in working to curtail the spread of HIV through an education and research initiative aimed to provide AIDS prevention education to underserved populations in the nation's capital, Santo Domingo. We will provide preventative education by holding seminars in our partner hospital in the Dominican Republic, and will develop the content of these seminars with the aid of materials developed by Students Teaching AIDS to Students (STATS) and Video Opportunities for Innovative Condom Education & Safer Sex (VOCES), our partners in the global AIDS education community. Through our work, we aim to extend the educational tools necessary to make healthy decisions, which in turn will positively impact the social conditions of the community and make progress towards peace.

Aryan Weisenfeld

Project:

• Shoot for Safety: A Hepatitis C Awareness Network for Youth in Cairo, Egypt

Abstract:

• The primary purpose of this grant application is to secure funding to enable the implementation of a support network to help Egyptian youth deal with the hepatitis C epidemic that has ravaged the country. I will recruit and train a core of educated young adults to spread the message of hepatitis C awareness to their communities and social circles. I will then use the mobilization of these youth to leverage the establishment of several youth-focused Hepatitis C support groups that will provide a forum for dialogue and discussion for those who have the disease or have relatives/friends with the disease. To support my efforts, I have partnered with the Missouri/Kansas chapter of the American Liver Foundation, and Freedom, a well established NGO based in Cairo that is targeted at reducing substance abuse in youth. Ultimately, it is my hope that my program will energize and inspire youth to take action now to forestall the possibility of a more serious disease epidemic in the country in the future.

What did I learn?

• My involvement and execution of this project has been a tremendously enriching and fulfilling experience. However my project was not without its share of surprises and unforeseen circumstances. I communicated regularly with my contacts in Egypt as I was designing my project, but I learned no amount of research here in the United States could have substituted for actually being immersed in Egyptian culture. My experience led me to act substantially to modify many of our materials, despite all of my prior preparation.

What advice would you give others?

• There are several elements that go into writing a well-written proposal. The best advice I can give is start early and meet often with past grant recipients as well as members of the grant advisory committee. They will play invaluable roles in the application process as they have written many grants before. Additionally, make the project as wide-spread as you want, but just remember that the most important thing is to be able to implement your project successfully, so don't say that you want to establish your project in eight different countries in one summer (as I initially did).

How would I describe the Grant?  

• The 100 Projects for Peace grant is an amazing opportunity to do wonderful community work on a global level. $10,000 will go a long way!

What am I doing now? 

• My partnership with the students in Egypt opens up opportunities for my initiative to be spread to thousands of young adults across the country, helping to make my Hepatitis C initiative a permanent fixture in Egypt. I also have arranged to work with Egyptian branches of UNAIDS and UNICEF to augment my outreach efforts. Also of note, I have been in communication with a community health organization based in Canberra, Australia that is working on hepatitis C awareness. They have expressed interest in my youth-focused project, and I currently am discussing ways that I can help them with hepatitis C efforts in their community. To prepare for the wider visibility of my project, I have changed the name of my organization from “Shoot for Safety” to “Don't Worry, Beat HepC!” and hope to create a website for my organization in the next year. Overall, my project was very successful and all goals were not only met, but the results have exceeded my expectations. In the coming months, I look forward to following the progress of my first group of volunteers, and to continue to oversee the further expansion of my youth hepatitis C awareness initiative.

How did the Grant influence me? 

• It helped me cement the notion that a career in medicine/public health is the correct one for me. I now realize how much I enjoy global health initiatives and hope to one day integrate that into my profession.