Lost idealism

I don't believe in fairies anymore....

Funding seemed so simple when the Ministry had $400,000 to spend in 2 months... a bottomless pit as far as our condom distribution campaign was concerned. But somehow it up and left, tapped, ran dry, no longer. So now we sit and wait. Corporate sponsorship... not by Monday. UNFPA is our last hope and they're already funding most of the project as it is. Tomorrow is dooms day.

I suppose it wouldn't be so bad if it was a matter of our condom distribution campaign not getting off the ground, but the National Advisory Council for AIDS (NACA) fund has left Suva- the capital city- sans a World AIDS Day celebration. Everything has been transferred to Lautoka, where buses will filled with youth and MoH staff will be piled to capacity. What?! No World AIDS Day celebration in the capital. I'm afraid not.

It's raining again in Suva, quite appropriate for the somber mood filtering through the HIV/AIDS division at HQ.

On a lighter note, we have finished most of the preparation for the campaign. The club owners/managers have been really excited about the campaign. One club is going to have $2 shots of red tequila, another has agreed to promote our signature drink- the "rub-her"... hehe. Laugh, its funny. We've also prepared everything for for the workshop/training we'll be having with our 50 some volunteers. The list goes on, but the funding does not.

Worst case scenario, we'll have to move the campaign to another week. Anyway, the saga will continue, so stay tuned.

Back and forth

It's been a while and I think an update is in order. I've been working on a condom distribution project three major cities in Fiji; Suva, Latuoka/Nadi and Labasa. I'm working with two other JICA volunteers to set up our launch to pilot the program in Suva. We're targeting high risk youth that attend night clubs by providing the bars with condoms. the intention is to increase "off-peak" accessibility to condoms.

The project began as a small campaign- just some condom dispensers, t-shirts and print material. It hasn't exactly happened that way... it's blown up into a $50,000 project involving public service announcement (PSA), billboards, and 10,000 condom carrying cases.

The launch will start on December 1st, World AIDS day, and will last throughout the week. There will be outreach along the main drag in Suva- inside and outside of the clubs. I think the owners/managers are just as excited about the event as we are... some of them have gone as far as making entire drink menus for the week with price cuts given to participants who will be identified by a stamped hand. Others are bringing in red tequila for two dollar shots - who knew red tequila even existed?

I just got back to Lautoka this Saturday and am off to a conference on Project Design and Management. When the conference is over, I'll be back to Suva to work on the PSA and get ready for the event. I wont return until I have to pick up Pops from the airport in December. Thankfully this'll be my last trip to Suva for a looonnnggg time.