HIV/Aids project in Cambodia

Midsummer= Project implementation!

jonnabertfelt — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:16:51 +0000

After 5 very hectic weeks of planning we finally reached Midsummer and our alcohol and drug free midsummer camp took place. I must say that it was a success! As mentioned before the promotion of the camp took more energy and resources than we could ever imagine! And, it took long before youth started to sign up for the camp and we got worried that only a few would join. But as we came closer to the camp more and more people signed up and in the end we had 30 participants (15 boys and 15 girls) in the ages 13-21, the last participants signed up only the day before Midsummer. The night before the camp we were all a bit nervous and really hoped that everything would work out well! Two things worried us the most; the schedule (that we would manage to stick to it, cause it was jammed!) and the big differences in ages. The schedule for the camp was as follows;

First day: 9 am departure from Umeå to Campsite at Norrbyskär, bus and then boat

Midsummer lunch Activities (Raft building, Teambuilding exercises and tree top trail(climbing in the trees))

Midsummer cakes Midsummer Games Cambodian Games Dinner Activities (Raft building, Teambuilding exercises and tree top trail(climbing in the trees))

Midsummer dancing (around Midsummer pole) ,Tricky question walk about HIV/Aids, Food tasting; of Zambian and Cambodian Food, Bonfire/ time to pose questions to our foreign participants

Second day: Breakfast, Activities (Raft building, Teambuilding exercises and tree top trail(climbing in the trees))

Lunch ,Zambian Games

Departure from Norrbyskär

Luckily everything worked out very well. We could stick to the schedule almost all the time. At lunch time on the second day we took the opportunity to let the participants fill in an evaluation form. This is a summary of what was said in the evaluation:

Midsummer Camp Evaluation (done by participants)

1. How do you know about the camp? -through a friend (4 people) -fliers at school (4 people) -through YMCA (6 people) -Internet (4 people) -poster ( 2 people) -teacher (2 people) -badminton E-mail

2. Expectations -to meet new people -to have fun -to have good food -interaction with Cambodians and Zambians -to have special midsummer -to have fun activities

3. What was the best at the camp? -motivation from leaders -good schedule (2 people) -friends -leaders (3 people) -bonfire (magic box) (3 people) -food (4 people) -tree top trail (10 people) -all activities (9 people) -water rafting (2 people) -swimming (2 people)

4. What can be improved? -have a longer camp (7 People) -everything was good (6 people) -sleep longer (2 people) -day two of the camp was disorganized (2 people) -have more music -encourage team work among participants

5. Food -good (23 people) -enough (3 people) -ok -fruits should be provided during meals.

6. Target age group -it was good (19 people) -there was a big gap in the age group 13-18 was too much (3 people)

7. What the leader can do better -nothing (everything was good) 23 people -divide participants in a better way -give equal attention to participants -start magic box earlier -make participants stay up longer

8. Have you learn anything new? What? -learnt about Zambia and Cambodia (5 people) -learnt to interact with new people (3 people) -practice English (2 people) -where Cambodia located -learnt that you can be sober and have fun during midsummer -to be brave -learnt about HIV/Aids

9. General comments “Good venue and the camp was awesome!” “The age group was good and I was surprised, I did not feel much age difference between 13-18 year olds” “The one day camp was a lot better than my expectation hence, the leaders could not do anything better”. “I’ve learnt that I can have fun at midsummer without alcohol “ “Thank you for the best midsummer, I have not had this fun since I was 14” (20 years old) “Please organize other camp next year. It doesn’t even have to be midsummer”

The YPD program is now over. I would like to say that I am very pleased with the work that me and my colleagues have done during the past six months. The two different projects that we’ve carried out were both very successful (latest news from Cambodia about the chickens are positive, a few chickens have now been born!). I have been very interesting for me to work with these questions in two totally different contexts; Battambang, Cambodia and Umeå Sweden.

Jonna- tired and content

Week 23, moved too quickly!

jonnabertfelt — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:50:44 +0000

Last week was all about promotion! We contacted 10 different schools and got permission to visit the schools and promote our Midsummer camp. It felt good that the headmasters (who were the ones that we first contacted) were so positive- they could really see that this is a great project!

The theme of this program is HIV/Aids and reproductive health, in this project we don’t work directly towards infected people or people that are in high risk groups. What we try to do is to minimize the risk of youth drinking alcohol during the midsummer celebrations, since we know that when they do that their risk behaviour is greater. By excluding the alcohol we hope to minimize their risk behaviour when it come to sex, but also show the youths that alcohol is not a must when celebrating Midsummer.

So far in the project we’ve learnt that it is hard to attract youths to a camp like this in Sweden. When going to the schools we talked to more then 1000 youth and still we only have 13 people that have signed up for the camp. The Cambodian and Zambian participants are very surprised that it is so difficult to get participant! While us (the Swedish participants) are not as surprised, even thou we thought it would be a little bit easier! We learnt how important marketing is, and how expensive it is!

Jonna- the count down has started! 10 days to Midsummer Camp

A lot of things are happening at the moment

jonnabertfelt — Sat, 30 May 2009 13:41:29 +0000

First of all; Norrbyskär was great- all that we could hope for! Fantastic environment and some many different activities to do!

Some good news!

After tons of phone call to Umeå Kommun (Umeå Municipality) to follow up on the application we sent them I finally got in touch with a women working there who could give us an answer, and it was positive! We got 15.000 SKr from the municipality to use in our project, and that is almost all we need!

Yesterday the local press, Västerbottens Folkblad, made an interview with us. WE took some pictures and the journalist interviewed the Cambodian, Zambian and Swedish participants.

We also did quite a lot of promotion work yesterday. One Cambodian, one Zambian and one Swedish participant group together and went to a school to promote the camp to the students, they went n to each and every classroom and told about the upcoming Midsummer camp. From what I have heard so far the response was positive.

The project is really moving forward and that feels great! Thea group is great, everyone is working hard and it is very inspiring to go to the meetings. As a good teambuilding exercise we participated in the World Championships in Brännboll (Swedish game, similar to baseball) this morning, we were not very successful but we had a lot of fun!

Some bad news…

Only one thing worries me. One of the Swedish participants is hospitalized since yesterday… After quite some time of sickness and he fainted in his home and was brought by the ambulance to the hospital. The doctors have made many different tests but unfortunately they haven’t been able to figure out what’s wrong with him. And we are waiting…

Jonna- happy and worried= confused

We are going to Norrbyskär!

jonnabertfelt — Tue, 26 May 2009 10:10:01 +0000

Finally we’re going to Norrbyskär, in a couple of hours we’re off! Will spend three days at (Tuesday 26/5- Thursday 29/5), hopefully we will be very inspired.

At the moment the work of organizing the Midsummer Camp is very intense. The two main issues right now is to find funds and to promote the camp to the target group. At the moment I’m trying my best to reach the person working at the municipality that got our application, unfortunately I have now found out that he is sick and I’m trying to find someone else at the municipality to talk to- not the easiest thing when I’m put on hold all the time! Moreover we’ve also applied for funds from Booster (www.boosta.se) – awaiting a reply. Cim (also in our group) have been in contact with Volvo, the seam to be positive and promised to get back to us today.

Ratanak , Petronella and Nankonde are doing a great work contacting and visiting schools- many teachers seams to be positive and we are (in most cases) welcome to put posters in the schools and go into the classrooms to tell the students about the Midsummer Camp.

Jonna- Is eaving the work in front of the computer and going to Norrbyskär, YES!

The work is proceeding!

jonnabertfelt — Sun, 24 May 2009 21:15:18 +0000

Back in Umeå we have now started to work with our project. We have divided ourselves in to three “working groups”, focusing on different tasks. One group is responsible of applying for funds, another one is responsible of promoting the event and the third group is planning the actual event (the Midsummer Camp). I am in the group applying for money, so far we have sent applications to the municipality of Umeå, the County Council of Vädsterbottens Läns Landsting, the scout core and two different organizations working preventive towards alcohol and drugs. So far, no reply. The group working with promotion have made a logo and ordered flyers with information about the event and at the moment we are waiting for them to arrive. Posters have been printed and put up on note boards around town.

On Saturday (23 of May) there is an event called “Culture Night” taking place here in Umeå. (I don’t know exactly myself what that is but it seams to be some kind of outdoor event where organizations, companies and different groups/teams can promote them selves there activities/ products). We have been advised by our coordinator to be there and disseminate our flyer, and we will. I will give you an update on the event afterwards.

The Midsummer Camp itself will be held at YMCA’s campsite at Norrbyskär, in the archipelago of Umeå. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to go there yet, of different reasons a trip to Norrbyskär have now been cancelled twice. That is very annoying and it is making me a little bit stressed. I believe that to be able to plan the camp more thoroughly we need to see the place! At the moment we are planning to go there in the middle of next week. Keep your fingers crossed that the trip won’t be cancelled this time!

Jonna- Wants to go to Norrbyskär!!!!

Härnösand

jonnabertfelt — Sun, 10 May 2009 16:23:26 +0000

I just arrived to Härnösand. For four days (starting Monday 11^th of May) the YPD (Youth Partners in Development) group is gathering for a mid conference at Sida Civil Society Centre in Härnösand. During these four days we will present and discuss our different project proposals.

I looking forward to the conference, meet all of my friends and colleagues. To hear about the projects they are planning to do in Kramfors and Växjö and to get some feedback on our project idea!

Jonna- In Härnösand for the first time in my life =)

Writing the Grant Proposal

jonnabertfelt — Sun, 10 May 2009 16:22:20 +0000

Now when we have decided what to for a project we have to write a grant proposal, or actually two. Why two then? Because to be able to carry out the project we will need a lot more money than CIU (The Swedish Centre for International Youth Exchange) are able to give us. Therefore we have decided to apply for money from the municipality (Umeå Kommun). The application to CIU needs to be written in English and the application to Umeå Kommun (the municipality that we are working in) needs to be written in Swedish. We started writing on the application to CIU last Friday- it was a long day with a lot of hard work but we managed to finish it, the next thing to do is to translate it in to Swedish and send it to Umeå Kommun (which needs to be done as soon as possible!)

Jonna

We have a project!

jonnabertfelt — Thu, 07 May 2009 21:00:57 +0000

After endless discussions, mainly about pros and cons with the two suggestions that we were finally left with, we have now come to a decision. It took two rounds of voting before we could finally agree on which idea to go for.

So, what is the idea now?

We have decided to organize alcohol free midsummer celebration for youths (13-15 years of age) in Umeå. The celebration will take place at Norrbyskär, which is a campsite belonging to YMCA in Umeå (our host organization). The theme of sexual health and HIV/Aids will of course be incorporated in the activities at the moment we have not decided exactly how, but we have a lot of ideas!

So, In the meeting today we took a decision about which idea to go with and we also split up the group in to three smaller working groups. One of them will focus on finding sponsors (if we are going to succeed in this project we will need a lot more money then can be provided to us by CIU), another group will focus on marketing the project and a third group will start planning the actual activities that will take place during the 24h that we will be at Norrbyskär.

Tomorrow we will gather for a new meeting to start writing the project proposal, it will be a lot of work and a little bit hectic since we have to submit the proposal in the beginning of next week! (But we have the weekend too!)

Personally I like the idea but I have some worries. My biggest concern is that we won’t have enough time to pull it of. There are so many preparations! But I feel very energetic and I’m ready to work hard to make it happen!

Jonna- A little bit worried about the project but full of energy!

Trying to come up with ideas!

jonnabertfelt — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:58:04 +0000

Today we had our second group meeting in Umeå. The main task at the moment is to come up with ideas for the project. Just as last time (in Cambodia) it is not the easiest thing! So far we have only been discussing different ideas very briefly and therefore I don’t won’t to mention any of them yet but I can say that they all seam to be focusing on prevention, information/education or raising awareness and not on treatment or some other activity targeting peoples that are infected by HIV.

I get the feeling that the group is a little bit stressed about taking a decision about which idea to go for. And I must say, so am I. It is now 8 weeks left and we feel that the sooner we decide on a project idea the better. In the end of today’s meeting we decided that we would all go home and think about the different ideas and in our next meeting, scheduled to Thursday the 30^th of April, we are supposed decide for one of the ideas. At the moment I don’t have a clue of which one I find better- I got to do some thinking!

Jonna- Thinking hard!

First week in Umeå…

jonnabertfelt — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:45:00 +0000

During ur first week in Umeå we’ve been trying to get to know the city and some of its inhabitants. We have made a few studyvisits to some organisations doing social work (mainly working with alcohol and drug addicts) and we have also visited the Red Cross in Umeå. The most interesting studyvisit was the one we did at the infectionclinic at Umeå University Hospital. During the studyvisit we got to know about the HIV/Aids situation in this part of the country, there are about 100 people infected by HIV in Västerbttencounty (the total population in Västerbotten is 250.000 people).

Yesterday was the first day at our workplacments, unfortunately I was not able to show up at YMCA (which is my workplacement) since I have a bad cold but I hope to be able to go there tomorrow.

On Thursday we’ve planed to have the first group meeting, so far I don’t have any idea for a project but maybe some of the other participants have?

Jonna