YWCA of Albania reaches out to their Roma sisters
Through the financial assistance of the Power to Change Fund, another programme dream became a reality. The YWCA of Albania in January 2010 launched their project “HIV prevention and building a young women peer-educator network amongst the Roma Community.” The project, which is directed at the Roma women within Albania, focuses mainly on young women and addresses the issue of HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) in the communities of Shkodra and Fier.
The main goals of the project are to inform and raise awareness of HIV and STIs, build a network of peer educators, improve the capacities of health staff and the local government and to provide male and female condoms to local groups for use in the outreach activities and condom promotion. The diversity of the objectives allowed for a variety of programme activities to be done in order to achieve the desired goals. These included training sessions for Roma women, girls and men, training sessions for health personnel and potential peer educators. There were also awareness campaigns where condoms were distributed from home to home and Information Education Communication (IEC) materials disseminated to men and women of local villages.
The project involved and reached over 1000 people through its direct trainings and awareness campaigns. The YWCA of Albania is very pleased with the first phase of the project as they feel it was quite successful. From their evaluation of the project thus far, they have reported a significant behavioural difference among the Roma women and men; including women and men being able to sit in the same room and discuss sex, something they had never seen with groups they had worked with in the past.
Another notable achievement for the association is knowing that a significant number of Roma including health staff and government personnel are informed about HIV and STIs. In addition to that they also received training on the proper use of the female and the male condom.
With the great response received from the public in the first phase of the project, including that of the media in the Shkodra area, the association is motivated to continue into the second phase of the project. Over the next five months the association plans to hold 11 more trainings including sessions on STIs and HIV, as well as trainings for peer educators, health and government personnel in the Fier area. The outreach awareness aspects of the project will also continue with the distribution of condoms and fliers.
The Power to Change Fund is a permanent fund of the World YWCA that endows leadership development programmes for women and girls worldwide. The "HIV prevention and building a young women peer-educator network amongst Roma Community " project of the YWCA of Albania is just another example of how the fund has been making a difference in the lives of women and girls.
