Field report (HIV/AIDS) from Niamey, Niger

"I can go to school again!"

Ahmadou is 18 years old. He has lost his mother and his father to AIDS. The family strengthening programme which SOS Children's Villages Niger started in March 2005, aims at preventing him - as well as many other children and youths - from also losing his hopes for the future.

Ahmadou was enrolled in a welding course. After having completed his course, he will receive financial support for starting his own business. "Once I start working, the money I will make will help me support my small brothers and sisters. I will be able to pay for their schooling, for their food and for their clothes", he said, while collecting the iron fragments which were lying here and there. "I have been wanting to go to school or attend a training course for five years, but it was impossible. The more time passed, the more difficult the situation was to deal with. I feel really relieved now", he added.

Ahmadou and his brothers and sisters are not the only AIDS orphans who benefit from the family strengthening programme. In total, the programme currently reaches 25 families with about 150 children and youths from the areas surrounding SOS Children's Village Niamey.

Sanou, eight years old, was also identified as a vulnerable AIDS orphan. Since the death of her parents she was living with her aunt who couldn't afford sending her to school. Thanks to the family strengthening programme, she was able to return to school. "We registered her in a public school with the start of the new school year in September. We provided her with books, school stationeries and uniforms; we also paid her school fees. Now, she is a regular pupil and works hard in her studies", said Mrs Rufaï Hadiara, the coordinator of the programme.

For Moussa, 14, the family strengthening programme came just in time. "Both of my parents died within six months. I had no hope to go to school this year, because I knew there will be nobody to pay my school fees. Thanks to SOS Children's Villages, I was able to go to school and I am very happy because I will write the common entrance examination which will enable me to go to the secondary school next year", he said.

Other activities

The family strengthening programme in Niger also comprises monthly foodstuff distributions and weekly visits to the supported families. "Once a week, we visit the families to see if the children eat well, if they go to school regularly and if people who are diagnosed positive take their drugs as prescribed", said Mrs Hadiara.

Women whose husbands have died of AIDS are trained in income-generating activities so that they can care for themselves and their families when the programme ends. Thanks to funds provided by the national programme for fighting against HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, medical expenses - e.g. for antiretroviral drugs - for people who are diagnosed positive and people living with AIDS are covered. Beneficiaries of the programme are also treated free of charge in a clinic which operates in partnership with SOS Children Niger.

Further projects such as the construction of a sewing studio which will be open to the girls from the children's village and those from the surrounding communities, and the construction of a community health centre which the European Union has accepted to finance have already been scheduled.

For privacy reasons, we have changed the names of the children and youths.

SOS Children has been working in Niger since 1990 when the first children's village opened just outside the capital of Niamey. The children's village here runs a programme to support those affected by HIV/AIDS in this West African country.