CECOSIDA in Haiti

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CECOSIDA in Haiti

As part of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s broader work in the Caribbean to mobilize media in response to AIDS, the foundation has been working for the past two years with CECOSIDA, a Haitian non-governmental organization based in Port-au-Prince. Kaiser works closely with the staff at CECOSIDA to develop a Creole version of the LIVE UP media campaign — ANNVIV — with local programming across more than 20 Haitian radio and television stations. The project is supported through partnerships with the Ford Foundation and Elton John AIDS Foundation.

Over the past week, Kaiser has been in close communication with CECOSIDA’s Executive Director, Roosevelt Jean-Francois, who is based in Florida but traveled to the island following the earthquake, and are very glad to report that the entire CECOSIDA team is safe, although several staff members have lost family and close friends. CECOSIDA’s building is still standing but awaiting a structural assessment before it can be re-entered. Many of the media partners in Port-au-Prince that support ANNVIV are not operating including the lead telecom partner, Digicel. TV is not working, but local radio stations are starting to broadcast again.

In view of shifting priorities, Kaiser and CECOSIDA are determining how resources may be repurposed to meet immediate needs. CECOSIDA believes it can play a role, using the ANNVIV message and media network, including members in the provinces, to provide HIV and other health-related information (food, clean water, medical services, rehabilitation, etc.). As Jean-Francois commented “Now, more than ever, we need to LIVE UP.”

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