THE STORY OF HOW I STARTED A HIV/AIDS LIBRARY PROJECT IN MY COMMUNITY THAT TURNED THINGS AROUND.

In the year 2001, in the remote community of Mgbala Agwa with a population of about 350,000 people, there was high rate of death, especially youths. In one particular month 15 people died. In the first quarter of 2001, over 35 people have died. It was like an outbreak of a strange disease, the community was confused and frightened. The elders begin consultation with the gods, they were placating ancestral gods, making rituals and accusing people of being responsible for the deaths. But that could not solve the problem. I came back from the city on Easter Sunday of that year. I visited some of the sick people around, and noticed a very similar progression and manifestation in many of the sick people; I know that HIV has crept into my community with a ferocious attack. The lifestyle of youths in my community was no good to write for a second reader. As poor as the community is, yet the young boys and young girls are very fertile in reproduction. Every young boy in the community of about 16 years either has a child or has a child in the making. Young girls are proud of having children in their parent's house without marriage, thus young girls from 14 years old are either a mother or they are pregnant. Unprotected sex was very common in the community. The reason is not far-fetched. The economy of the community is very poor, and they find succor in making babies as alternative to joblessness and idleness. Now back to the sickness, when I notice that HIV/AIDS was responsible for the many deaths, I started a campaign to inform the community about the disease. I was mocked and taunted by the male. They said I was trying to expose their promiscuous life, and as well propagate white men’s agenda to them. The Agenda was that White men introduced HIV as a killer disease to reduce the population of Africa. I was frustrated, but I never relented. I came back to re-strategise, this time I involved the youths. I started a local community youth organization called Mgbala Agwa Youth Forum.(It was this youth forum that gave birth to Centre for HIV/AIDS and STD Research -CHISTRE) The idea was to educate the youths on HIV/AIDS, and they will in turn join in spreading the message of HIV.However,there was a big challenge, My own knowledge about HIV was inadequate to carry the education, it was not enough to educate the youths properly, especially with all the myths and misinformation. I thought of how to obtain some literatures and newsletters about the virus to increase my knowledge and understanding of the HIVIDS epidemic. I went back to the city where there are internet services. I started research on how to get volunteers to help us with materials on HIV, and that was how I got in-touch with Netaid. Netaid was then a UNDP supported online volunteering program, before it was later changed to United Nation Online Volunteer UNV.I contacted them, and requested that they allow me use their website to get volunteers to research for HIV/AIDS newsletters, fliers, posters and Books donation to help educate the rural youths on HIV. My application was accepted and I registered with the online program. The first online volunteer that applied was Yasemin Gunay (Please see a report on Yasemin's contribution) See the internet link http://www.onlinevolunteering.org/en/vol/stories/online_volunteers_of_2003.html#10 After one month of engaging online volunteers, books, poster, fliers, and CD ROMs started pouring in. The world was so generous; we collected over 600 books and other materials in just one month. With these materials, I opened a Library in the community Primary Health Care centre. Members of the youth organization begin to read the materials and as they gain more knowledge about HIV/AIDS; they started from their own immediate families to pass HIV/AIDS information. Gradually the message of HIV/AIDS became popular in the community. People begin to get adequate information about the epidemic, and there was sweeping change in the sexual lifestyle of the people. Unwanted pregnancies reduced, because we introduced the use of condom, we also talked about abstinence in schools. In one year, I have collected over 1500 books far beyond my imagination, and beyond the scope of the youth organization. I decided to expand the scope of the library. It was within this period that I called some community members to support me in registering Centre for HIV/AIDS and STD Research as a National NGO with board members, and structures created to make the service more effective and organized. We also started other HIV intervention programs. The Library now became the center of attraction for young people, some came to look at pictures, some came to watch films, and some even come to make research. Students from Universities begin to patronize the library. It gained a national status, and our organization and I received several awards from students unions, community and others organizations. There was one particular CD ROM that made huge impact, “The clinical manifestation of HIV".The pictorial presentation in the CD was so scary, that people begin to get scared of sex.The rate of teenage pregnancy dropped. Suddenly, people begin to ask us several question on how they can protect themselves, and those infected wanted to know how they can get medical supports. The youth organization became very popular in the community and communities within. There was rush by youths to become member of the forum, and to be part of the activities. We also received donations of condoms with which we began safer sex campaign; we distributed condoms to adults, and refer infected people to hospitals to seek medical helps. In September 2002, we had already referred 50 positive people to bigger hospitals .We distributed 2500 Ansell brand of condoms in three months. Attendance to the Library has increased to 40 visitors daily. In 2003, Yasemin Gunya, the Volunteer that organized other online volunteer for the collection of the books was awarded one of the best online volunteer of the year by the united nation Volunteer. (See Link. http://www.onlinevolunteering.org/en/vol/stories/online_volunteers_of_2003.html#10 This further increased the visibility of our organization to the international community. Yasemin a student from Turkey became a celebrity in her country. The UN award changed her and she became part of our youth’s organization in diaspora.In all these, we have never seen any of the volunteers face to face, but we communicate through emails. They ask me questions and seek for information regularly. That was the power of informational technology. I became more interested in the system. I appeared in several TV program in my state, where I talked so much about the ICT program. Many organizations from Nigeria begin to register with the UNV, and lives in the communities were touched. In 2003, because of the impact of the Library and amount of books generated from the project. United Nation Development Program UNDP decided to send in two external evaluator to evaluate the impact of the project.Mr Jacob Silberberg (Phone +6174138659) from America, a photo journalist and Tony Iyare, a correspondent with Newyork Times newspaper were sent to our community to evaluate the project. They spent three days in the community asking questions, taking photographs and visiting clinic and traditional birth attendant’s homes. Please see their report in a UNDP Choices magazine published in December 2003. See internet link. http://mirror.undp.org/somalia/december2003.pdf Apart from the Book donations, I posted two other assignments on the united nation website. Another assignment was ‘online volunteers to design a website for us’.Again, a volunteer from United State of America, Stephen Brent, applied with many other volunteers, but Stephen workplan was more attractive. We engaged him. He designed a professionally made website for us in 2005.He also won one of the best online volunteer of the year 2005 It was through the website, that we got a partnership from Sweden, which attracted a $20,000 funding. Please read more about this on the website www.mgbala-agwa.org,(now down because we could not pay for the hosting)