Through educational programs, conferences, press and other media campaigns, GAIA VF educates the public and, in particular, healthcare providers, about HIV/AIDS and the need for a global HIV vaccine. GAIA VF focuses on creating ethical awareness for the necessity of improving the health of everyone in the community and educating people about the roles the community and individuals can play in vaccine trials.
GAIA VF has created many HIV/AIDS-focused educational programs. In the summer of 2006, with the help of GAIA staff and collaborators, Brown University undergraduate student Madeline Di Lorenzo initiated an HIV peer-education program for the community of Sikoro, a peri-urban neighborhood in the heart of Bamako. Here Bolo or Hand of Hope is a peer-education program that teaches about HIV using a simple physical mnemonic – the five fingers of the hand. The teaching tool uses the five fingers to teach five key messages about HIV: Hope for life (treatment is available – Thumbs up); Identity (testing, knowing partner’s status –Index); Transmission (how HIV is, and is not transmitted- Middle finger); Fidelity and Family (Ring finger- also Mother to child transmission); the importance of community based activism and support (fifth finger completing the whole hand). This program has been implemented in Mali by peer educators who go door-to-door teaching about the program. In the summer of 2007, Madeline and Brown undergraduates plan to incorporate HIV testing into Here Bolo. We hope to roll out a similar program in Providence, RI schools.
GAIA VF sponsors an annual conference for HIV/AIDS specialists, which is held every January in Bamako, Mali. January 2006 marked the 3rd Annual GAIA VF-sponsored conference for HIV/AIDS specialists working in Mali and West Africa.
Lastly, GAIA VF sponsors our Malian collaborators to visit the United States to attend important HIV/AIDS conferences.