Lester BC; International Conference on AIDS.
Int Conf AIDS. 2002 Jul 7-12; 14: abstract no. ThPeF8102.
U.S. Peace Corps, Yaounde, Cameroon
ISSUES: Developed over 2 years in rural Cameroon, the Global Feasibility Study addresses youth delinquency and risky behavior alongside issues of financial management, information asymmetry and adult unemployment. The informal sector, especially post-adolescent youth, is often segregated from formal institutions such as banks and community-based sensitization. Presented with complex personal decisions that call on life-skills, it is daunting for these youth to engage in formal sector activities (small business start-up) without adequate business skills especially if risky activities that are acceptable culturally or within the shadow economy seem easier (prostitution, contraband transport). The latter examples, over time, set a pattern for the youth that disengage critical thinking, self-awareness and other life-skills. This in turn bears on sexual health (AIDS susceptibility) and thereby forms its intersection with work capacity. DESCRIPTION: While instructing business classes for two youth categories (200+ club members & young professionals) the GFS was conceived as a framework by which social, health and career concerns could be discussed in an integrated forum. This framework emphasizes the commonality of skills used for addressing these diverse, yet interrelated concerns. The GFS shows feasibility to be a life skill and a business skill encouraging youth to strategically approach decisions that concern their sexual health just as they would if they were doing business. LESSONS LEARNED: The GFS workshop turned theory into practice with apprenticeships demonstrating both income-generating options and community-based health campaigns. RECOMMENDATIONS: Youth need access to funding via micro-lending institutions. This access will come when credibility increases, as they move from the informal to formal sector. The GFS is a concrete tool that can bridge this gap. Career success will then legitimize the use of feasibility as a criterion for personal decisions.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
- Adolescent
- Adult
- Cameroon
- Demography
- Employment
- Feasibility Studies
- Health Planning Guidelines
- Health Services Needs and Demand
- Humans
- education
Other ID:
UI: 102252133
From Meeting Abstracts