Preventing HIV/AIDS is the goal of EDC’s partnership with the University of the West Indies. EDC’s Health and Human Development Programs (HHD) is strengthening the capacity of educators by promoting advocacy and leadership development to address prevention, voluntary counseling and testing, and care and bereavement. The program also addresses quality control and coordination of the variety of services that non-governmental organizations provide. Four countries (Belize, Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago) will pilot tools and strategies for interventions such as peer-to-peer education and youth drop-in centers.

“The education sector offers real hope for combating HIV and AIDS. It leads the way with education as the best preventive vaccine,” says EDC Senior Vice President and HHD Director Cheryl Vince Whitman.

Carl Browne, project manager of the initiative in Guyana concurs: “The lessons learned from this unique partnership and project capacity building program may inform HIV and AIDS prevention work around the world.”

The program is funded by Inter-American Development Bank, acting in its capacity as administrator of Japan Special Funds and UNESCO funds, executed by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat.