My husband, Ben, and I were Volunteers in the rural village of Mokuruanyane, South Africa from 2007-2009. I was a Community & HIV/AIDS Outreach Project Volunteer and Ben was an Education Volunteer.

My primary project was working with four women educators to develop Chrysalis Girls Club, an after-school girls empowerment program for the 75 7th grade girls in our village. In the 2008 school year, six weeks of our program were devoted to women’s reproductive health, sex education, and HIV/AIDS awareness & prevention. The girls designed an HIV/AIDS mural, and Ben worked with five male students from the secondary school to sketch the mural onto the wall of Abbotspoort Higher Primary School.

While I worked with the women educators to provide HIV/AIDS education, Ben supervised the girls in painting the mural. Ben took this photo in November 2008, at the end of our first successful year of Chrysalis Girls Club. The mural faces the main road that runs through Mokuruanyane.

Peace Corps Community Development Volunteer Susia Barr-Wilson

(Source: peacecorps.gov)

“This mother was one of the first women in my village to receive PMTC (Preventing Mother to Child Transmission) treatments. She is HIV positive and her baby Ausi Bonolo was born HIV negative. This photo was taken in a remote mountainous district of Lesotho, where over 23% of the population is infected with HIV/AIDS. With the increase health care opportunities in Lesotho, help of HIV support groups and village health care workers, Ausi Bonolo has a greater chance of growing up in an AIDS-free generation.” - Peace Corps HIV/AIDS Volunteer Pamela Rogers

AIDS-Free Generation Photo Contest - First Place - Reducing/Eliminating Stigma and Discrimination 

Fatima’s Gift  by Peace Corps Volunteer Molly Green (Morocco, 2011–2013) 

A student in Morocco holds some of the ribbons that were distributed during a local music festival. Volunteers, a Moroccan HIV/AIDS organization, and local high school students conducted outreach and HIV testing. 

Every minute, a young woman is newly infected with HIV

Peace Corps Volunteers work with PEPFAR (the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) around the world to bring about the reality of an AIDS-Free Generation. Check out this infographic to learn more about PEPFAR

(Source: pepfar.gov)