Educating one person, saves many from HIV

Dear GlobalGiving Donors,

We are thrilled to share with you that Fundación SiFuturo turned 20 years old this month - and we are extremely grateful with you, our GlobalGiving donors, who have helped us get to where we are right now! We count on your support to continue to have a positive impact in the communities we operate! 

We also wanted to let you know that Luz Beatriz, our current director, has chosen to pursue personal projects outside of our charity but will continue to support our efforts in a sporadic manner. We want to take this opportunity to thank her for these past years of dedication and hard work and we wish her the best of luck in her new endeavours.   

This month, Luz Beatriz will be handing over her tasks to our new director, Mónica Sáenz, who brings extensive experience in the non-for-profit sector and was recommended to us by one of our partner organizations. We are very excited about the new ideas she will bring and hope we can continue to grow as an organization next to her.  

We have also decided to continue strengthening our team with a newcomer - Valentina Yepes, who will help boost our psychological, social and nutritional efforts in the communities we operate who live, are exposed to or are affected by HIV/AIDS.

In addition to that, our team will be laser-focused on two key areas during the second half of 2022: 

1. Expanding the scope of the population that participates in educational workshops aimed at promoting Sexual and Reproductive Health
2. Establishing new alliances that allow us to generate synergies, complement capabilities and continue expanding our services in the communities we operate

In this way, we reiterate our commitment to the fulfillment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, specifically SDG 3 to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, but specifically the targets:

• 3.3. By 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases, and
• 3.7. By 2030, ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes.

We count on your support to continue to have a positive impact! 

Today, we wanted to give you an update on our ongoing partnership with Incolmotos Yamaha. 

Incolmotos Yamaha is a non-profit entity whose purpose includes the promotion and development of culture, sports and health of children and the elderly. Since 2005, Incolmotos Yamaha has contributed to enriching the knowledge and quality of life of the communities where we operate -and that is the point where our missions as organizations intersect. 

We have been lucky to count on Incolmotos Yamaha´s support since the year 2014. On average, 18 of our benefitiaries have been granted one of the ToKANDO Scholarships every year. Those scholarships provide training and musical initiation to children who are in a situation of social vulnerability. 

The scholarships instill in our benefitiaries valuable knowledge, skills and competencies for life. Music offers countless benefits when it comes down to the development of cognitive capacity and multiple research shows that musical training increases attention and concentration. It also facilitates the resolution of complex math problems while promoting new ways of expression and channeling of emotions. 

We are very proud to see the values of discipline, perseverance, commitment and teamwork being reinforced through our partnership with Incolmotos Yamaha. 

This wonderful allianca has allowed that the studentes present themselves in concert in the Medellin Metro, in the University of Antiquia and participate virtually in the concerts offered by the Incolmotos Yamaha Foundation during the years 2020 and 2021.  And even prouder to see our benefitiaries take on larger challenges transitioning from the flute to the acoustic guitar over time!  

This partnership is one of the ways we try to adress the integral development of our benefitiaries. We are super grateful to them, and also to you -without your ongoing support, it wouldn´t be possible for us to have a positive impact! 

Dear GlobalGiving donors,

We wanted to let you know that since the last time we updated you on the progress of our project, we have managed to carry out a total of 21 training workshops covering the following topics:

• Adherence to antiretroviral therapy
• Coexistence with the diagnosis 
• Healthy lifetyle habits 
• Parenting guidelines and life projects 

Thanks to the work our social workers advance backed by the funds coming from GlobalGiving, we realized that there is a need to help the families we support navigate through the challenges posed by the transition to the new normal. It is because of that reason that we have decided to roll-out a series of awareness workshops in addition to the support we usually provide that includes: 

• Psychological and psychosocial support
• Treatment follow-up and
• Nutritional support 

In order to do that, we have gradually resumed our face-to-face workshops, facilitating safe meetings spaces. 

The face-to-face, going back to normal workshops have been well-received by our charity's beneficiaries who have repeatedly expressed their gratitude to you, our GlobalGiving donors. At SiFuturo, we want the role of our charity to go beyond the workshops, to be able to provide our beneficiaries with a solid support network for people living with HIV. 

Dear GlobalGiving donors, 

Immersed in the context of the pandemic, we saw the need to rethink our approach to sex education. Because of that and during the past 2 months, we decided to run some focus groups on the role of virtual sex education. The focus groups were conducted by an external psychologist with the aim of guiding the foundation's strategy on sex education, as well as the way we run our workshops in the new normal. Among the participants, we included a representative sample of people living in the communities where we operate. 

Among the findings of these workshops, we wanted to highlight:

• Most young people and adults who participated consider sexuality to be a taboo topic to talk about at home
• Young people welcome the opportunity to discuss sexuality with subject matter experts at schools
• It is an imperative to bridge what happens in schools vs. what happens at home regarding sex education 
• The training of adult caregivers, teachers and other professionals on the subject is a matter of central importance, and they are requesting more practical, action-oriented workshops for them in a train-the-trainer approach
• In general, young people prefer not to have virtual sex education, but they perceive anonimity as an advantage of this type of formats
• Access to quality virtual sex education can be the key when there is no endorsement of sexual education at home or in schools
• Men who participated in the focus groups emphasized the importance of also considering their doubts and questions about their own sexuality, since they often see an enhanced focus on pregnancy and orientation to women, overlooking topics that impact men 

These focus groups delivered two main messages we will act on:

• On the one hand, the importance of implementing a strategy that includes different ways to reach young people (e.g. through social networks like Instagram or Tik Tok) supporting and complementing face-to-face workshops by using various forms of interaction (posts, lives, stories, question boxes, games, contests, etc., potentially gamifying learning)
• On the other hand, the importance of a train-the-trainer approach targeting parents, teachers, and other professionals close to young people, so that they are given the necessary tools to guide and counsel them in sexuality-related matters, breaking taboos

Thank you for your attention! You know we rely on you to continue to have a positive impact! 

Dear GlobalGiving supporters,

This time, we wanted to do things a little bit different with our project report and give you a glimpse into our comprehensive care action line.  

As you already know, we work towards a generation free of HIV / AIDS aligned to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Thanks to your donations, we are able to boost our efforts to prevent the HIV infection while fighting stigma and challenging misconceptions.

On top of that, we also work towards providing healthcare, social, psychological and nutritional support to carriers of HIV and their families. Every year, and as part of the work our social workers advance with the families, we hold interviews to assess how the diagnosis of the infection has affected them.

Here 3 extracts from their interviews:

Sandra

"HIV has affected us so much... my daughter died because of the infection. We buried her 4 years ago, but I think about her everyday."

Maria

"I vomit almost every day because the medicine is very strong, I hardly visit my family anymore because I don't like being seen sick. I have distanced myself a lot from people, at the beginning I didn't know much about the infection and was afraid I could pass HIV onto them."

Gina

"We have to continue to fight for the things we want, get a better job and get ahead in life". Regarding the infection, she said: "it did not affect us at all, because my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and brother are aware of my diagnosis but they have fully accepted me. I know I need to stick to my treatment and everything will be allright."

Our patients are people just like you and I. Living with HIV can be challenging but we count on you to continue to have a positive impact!

Names have been changed to protect the patient's identities.