Work in HIV/AIDs Project

Project At A Glance

Location: Moshi Start point: Moshi End Point: Moshi Duration: 2-12 weeks Hours: 30-40 hours per week Food: Local food (3 times a day) Room: Host family Date: First and Third Monday of each month

Project Summary

Like many other African countries, there is a severe and widespread HIV/AIDS epidemic in Tanzania . HIV/AIDS is a serious challenge and if left uncontrolled complications from HIV/AIDS will get worse claim thousands more lives. Many hospitals, clinics and local NGOS facilitate HIV/AIDS testing, counseling and awareness campaigns in Tanzania . Volunteers' help is needed to support ongoing activities and programs.

Collaboration with local groups and organizations help foster awareness among local communities. IFRE's volunteers, hospitals, NGOs and local groups are helping to prevent loss of life and are improving the lives of those already infected. As a volunteer in our Tanzania HIV/AIDS project you can support the ongoing efforts to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS and provide the manpower needed to comfort HIV/AIDS patients in Tanzania .

Skill/Qualification Needed

There is no specific education, experience, skills and/or qualifications needed to join our fight against HIV/AIDS in a volunteer project. However, volunteers are expected to be flexible and patient as well as passionate and have love for the poor and HIV-infected people of Africa .

Volunteer Responsibilities

Many local organizations HIV/AIDS programs are focused on two areas. First focus area includes: treatment, psychological counseling and support to whose people infected with HIV/AIDS. Volunteers within the scope of the first focus area generally visit with HIV/AIDS patients (along with a local worker) and distribute food, clothes, medicine and give mental counseling and support. Volunteers may provide basic but valuable tips to patients on health, nutrition and sanitation and may be involved in patient record keeping.

The second focus area includes: HIV/AIDS awareness or outreach programs to increase the community's understanding of HIV/AIDS. This program educates about ways to prevent the spread of the disease and how citizens can protect themselves from contracting the disease. Volunteers supporting the second focus area normally participate in HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns and/or community outreach. Volunteers focused on outreach and awareness programs often visit many schools, villages, churches and present information and media, posters, distribute pamphlets, distribute condoms etc.

Room/Food/Supervision

IFRE manages living accommodations, provides meals and supervision for volunteers for the entirety of their stay in Tanzania . During the volunteer period, most volunteers stay in our safe and secure homebase in Moshi/Arusha. IFRE's home base is located in a beautiful area nearly 30 km from the Kilimanjaro International Airport . We try to create a “home away from home” for volunteers staying at our home base. It is a perfect situation for volunteers to live safely and comfortably while making many new friends and sharing experience every day. Most of volunteers project in Tanzania are located within 1-10 KM of our home base so you may walk or ride a local bus to your project. In the evening when you return to home base, you can relax, eat dinner, explore local areas or simply share experience with volunteer comrades. Our home base provides a same-gender shared room and shared bathroom with running water and a “western” style toilet.

Occasionally, depending on volunteer traffic, available projects or distance to a volunteer's assigned project, we may also place our volunteers with carefully pre-screened host families. Our host families are socially respected and are experienced with hosting international volunteers. They have strong interest in our volunteers' safety and well being and demonstrate this with caution and care. In most host family situations, volunteers will share a room with another volunteer of the same gender. Another viable option is an at-orphanage stay. Many orphanages in Tanzania have set aside special rooms to house international volunteers.

Throughout the volunteer project, our local staff stays in contact with volunteers with either face-to-face visits or via email/telephone. IFRE's main office is in Moshi and our in-country coordinator serves as a point of contact for local volunteers. With longer placements, we visit our volunteers every 2 weeks (when possible) and volunteers are always welcome at the local office. If project placement is local, we request that volunteers stop by the office once a week to keep us posted on how they are doing with their home stay and project. If project placement is very far from our main office, then our local staff members maintain communication by either email and/or phone and the local project director serves as a volunteer's contact.