Cote d'Ivoire
AIDS Prevention, Health Care Education, and Agricultural Training for Youth
July 2002 - June 2003

1.This is the road from Abidjan to Brobo. Usually, it takes about 4.5 hours for one way, but since the war started from 19 SEP, 2002, many roads are under control, so we had to take the other route which took us 9 hours. In one round trip, there were 14 times of ID and baggage check by the army.

２.　This is the main street in Brobo. Before the war, this road was crowded with people going to Bouake and to the market by car and buses. The round wood in the middle are rolled up with barbed wire and stopping the cars from speeding up. In every 200m, there are Senegal Army and Cote d'Ivoire army. They have once a month shift and after 18:00 the ID and the baggage check becomes more strick and sensitive.

３.　The ICA Brobo members. They have a strong avidity for the HIV/AIDS projects in Brobo. Introduction from the right, HIV village trainer Beatrice, Accountant Eugene, Village health trainer Konan, Village health trainer Vanson, Village health trainer Zoro-bi, Health trainer Antoinette and the Agriculture trainer Daniel .

４. In Cote dﾕIvoire, they eat Fish, Chicken, Beef, Pork, Corn and Yams, and many other vegatables. But this AGOTI(mountain rat) is one of their favorites. Size of their body is about 50 to 70cm. They also eat 15cm snail, cut them in to small pieces and add them in the hot pepper soup.

５.　These are the traditional medicine in Brobo. They add the roots of plants and leaves of the trees and many other plants. They make rounded balls about 7cm in diameter and dry them. You can crack the ball and drink with water when you take it. Its good for malaria, they believe. One ball costs 500 FCFA (about 100 yen).

６.　This is some kind of worm we found in the school yard. The villagers say This will be a big butter-fly.ﾓ It does not carry poison, but the needles and the color of its body looks very frightful. Its body is about 15cm. There are more big insects, 10cm grass hopper which looks exactly like leaves, also Chameleon, expensive pet in Japan are hugging the ground.

７.A girlﾕs name is DADA (on left) 9 years old. Elementary school in Cote d'Ivoire has 3 holidays a week which are SAT, SUN and WED. The school is from AM 7:00 to PM 3:00. DADA is very smart and she is able to salute and count numbers in Japanese in just 3 days.

８.　and other villages, they still have plural marriages. In one family there is about 10 children and their mothers are different, but that is not a special story in Cote dﾕIvoire. Older child takes care of small

for the Teachers and Leaders

９. Borrow the space in the Brobo junior high school and held the HIV/AIDS seminar. On the drop curtain, its printed Project: Education of HIV/AIDS Prevention for the population in Brobo. The slogan is Good behavior, Well development.

１0. He is Mr. Jacob the HIV/AIDS Ecucation trainer for 3 days seminar in Brobo. All kinds of questions were gave to him, and he slowly, correctly and clearly answers those questions during the seminar. In Abidjan, he also does many activities for HIV/AIDS prevention with the NGO RED RIBBON.

１１.　The first day of the HIV/AIDS seminar. The trainer Mr. Jacob pass outs the questionaries to the participants to know how much they know about HIV/AIDS. Teacher from the elementary school and doctor from Brobo hospital were participating, so there were many kinds of answers. What do you think you can learn about HIV/AIDS in this seminar? Jacob asked to the participants.

１２. This is one of the scenes from the HIV seminar. 35 people participated, but after the 2nd day and the 3rd day, more people participated and there were about 45 participants at the last day. Mr. Jacob's lecture did not make the participants tired at all, his lecture was close to their life. All the participants were relaxed and they had questions about their family and Brobo area and tried to solve the problem with every body.

１３.　This is the scene of learning about Infection route of HIV/AIDS. The number of HIV positive in Cote d'Ivoire is now has the highest rate in West Africa, and that is a very serious problem. The participants are taking notes seriously what they have learned in the lecture.

１４.　The group picture with the participants. Japanese staff Naomi Sato from ICA Japan participated the seminar, too. There were questions about the HIV/AIDS situation in Japan. The participants advised, You should hold many seminar like this for the leaders in companies and organizations in Japan, too.

１５. In the afternoon on the 3rd day, we held a ceremony to give out the certificates to the participants in the school yard. About 150 students and 150 villagers gathered together in the school yard.

Giving out the Certificates

１７. The head master of this secondary school and also participated the seminar gave the certificates to the participants. To show his appreciation, they shake hands and knock their forehead 3 times. That is the way for men. Kiss the cheeks 3 times to salute women.

１8. The toilets built in the elementary school in Pindikro village. Students in the school and the villagers from 2 villages are using it. Like the head master promised, all the toilets were clean and taken good care and were in public use.

１９. Popular toilet style in Brobo. Simple dried concrete type. When the concrete container is filled, after long time it will decompose and infiltrates the surounding soil naturally. Until they had this toilets, they had to do it in some yard or the river and that was not a good health environment and caused many diseases.

２０.　The toilets built in Bounda village. Japanese staff Naomi Sato is visiting and checking the condition. Toilets in Sinanvessou village and Jamalakro village are in public use, by the students, teachers and the villagers. One agency is building all the toilets, so the designs are all the same.

２１.　The Toilet Key investitureﾓ. Daniel (ICA Brobo) hands the key to the head master of Pindikro elemantary school. We promise these toilets are in public use and to keep it clean. We really appriciate things you have done. Thank you very much.ﾓ he said. 9 other teachers participated the investiture and they are going to manage the toilets together.

２２.　The sign on the toilets. It is printed ﾒHIV/AIDS prevention project, supported by Ministry of Post and Telecommunication Japan: ICA Japan, ICA Cote d'Ivoireﾓ

２３.　These are the toilets built in elementary school in Pindikro village. About 250 stuents and the people from 2 villages are using these toilets. They did not have toilet before and they had very bad health environment and that caused the infectious diseases and was one of the reason for other diseases, so the people are very happy to receive the toilets.

２４.　The Solar pannel which was established in 2001 project. It is set on the roof of HIV/AIDS prevention center. Right after the war, the center received about 20 displaced people and did meaningful contribution. Now, it is use for the HIV/AIDS seminar for ASC and the villagers. 3 times a month, about 1000 beneficiaries.

２５.　This is the sign on the Prevention Center. After 3 years of projects, most of people in Brobo knows MPT (Ministry of Post and Telecommunications) and ICA Brobo.

２６.　The implement to get the energy from the solar pannel. ICA Brobo and the members of ASC is taking good care of the machine, so it is functioning without any problems. There are 2 rooms in the Center and the electricity is in both rooms.

in Brobo

２７.　One of the activities in Brobo village. There were about 70 participants this time. They are watching HIV/AIDS video. After every seminar, ICA Cote d'Ivoire contributes condomes or brochure with many HIV/AIDS informations.

２８.　The HIV/AIDS enlightenment activities in Sinanvessou village. This seminar was held with the ASC members. Member of ICA Brobo and ASC often visits villages and try to keep in touch with the students and villagers.

２９.　The Nutrition cooking seminar with the ICA Brobo Health trainer Antoinette in Pindikro. Using corn, yam and cassava and try to make high nutritional value food. Since they are cooking many foods, children participated in this seminar, too.

３０.　One scene of the HIV enlightenment activities. Held a video seminar in the HIV/AIDS center in Brobo with the members of Stop Aids Club. The name of the video was Action or Life. About 40 people participated and watched the video seriously.

３１.　 The scene of HIV enlightenment activities in Bouakro. ICA Brobo members visits the houses in Bouakro and listen to their family problem and contribute newsabout HIV/AIDS to them. Explaining about HIV/AIDS includs the sexual phrases, so even the local staff, it took more than one year to start explain about HIV/AIDS. In some family in the village, it took more than 2 years to talk about HIV/AIDS.

３２. This is the female condom. Diameter is 7cm, about 16cm long and it costs 900 FCFA (about 180 yen) for 1 piece which is quite expensive and not easy for women in the villages to buy. But we still recomend female condom in our seminar so that they can prevent STD or HIV/AIDS even when their partner refuse to use men's condom.

３３.　Menﾕs condom in Cote d'Ivoire. 100 FCFA (about 20 yen) for 4 pieces. This is the type which we use for ICA - HIV/AIDS seminar.

３４.　The training for Stop Aids Clubﾓ held in the Job technical training center. Right after the war, many displaced people was living in the center, but after 7 months, every body moved to the south, living with the villagers and moving to their relativeﾕs houses. The center is now functioning as a public center again.

３５.　The HIV/AIDS seminar for women by ICA Brobo HIV prevention trainer Antoinette (woman in the left) and the health trainer Beatrice (woman in the right). Usually, they are quiet in front of large number of people, but during the seminar of small group by the female trainers, they are able to ask many questions. It is very important to hold many seminars in different sex and small groups, because we have sexual contact phrases. This time, Antoinette is teaching them how to use the condoms.

３６.Member of STOP AIDS CLUB. Visits the junior high school and families in the Brobo area. As the times goes on and the area of the activities are getting wider, they have a confidence and knowledge and realize that they are doing very important activities for Brobo. This is the picture after the seminar with the condoms in their hands.

Training in Abidjan

３７.　The training for the ASC Brobo members; the activity plan was in Bouake, but since the war, we changed the place to Abidjan. We visited the Health Center etc in Abidjan (Treichvile).

３８.　The lady in doctor's smock is the obstetrician and gynecologist in Abidjan. This maternity clinic takes care of HIV negatives and positiveﾕs. In Cote d'Ivoire, the blood test is free, so she is recommending it to lot of people. This day, there were 2 person taking a blood test. If you use the kit called rapit, you will be able to know the result in 45 minutes and 95% accuracy.

３９.　We get information about HIV/AIDS situation in Abidjan. These are the great opportunities for the Brobo ASC members to get the updated HIV/AIDS informations. They take notes from the doctorﾕs information and ask many questions. The ICA Cote d'Ivoire director Md. Koffi is serious like the others. 25% of the HIV positive pregnant women, has HIV positive babies. If you be careful during the pragnancy, you will be able to have HIV negative babies.the doctor said.

４０.　We met 2 HIV positive ladies. They created a organization FACI (Female Active Cote d'Ivoireﾓ 2 years ago and they have 400 people in it. The medicine for HIV is 35,000 to 300,000 FCFA (about 7,000 to 60,000 yen), womens average salary is about 35,000 FCFA, so it is very difficult for them to buy a good medicine and they need lot of support they said.

４１. ASCmember visited the HIV/AIDS Center in central Abidjan. The number of HIV/AIDS information and the scale of the center are very different than the center in Brobo, ASC members are trying to get ideas to develop the quality of Brobo HIV/AIDS center. In Cote d'Ivoire, individual organization has a disclosure of intimate data of HIV/AIDS and cooprates each other for HIV/AIDS prevention activities.

４２.　Before, when they blood test 14 people, 5 to 7 people was HIV positive (50%), but now, testing 400 people HIV positives are 30 people (7.5%) and decreasing. For the youth, they make HIV prevention cartoonﾓ in the HIV Center, and they have a game space so the center can be more attractive and easy for the young people to visit.

４３. Visited the Nutrition garden in Sinanvessou village and Bounda village. It is taken good care by the members of ICA Brobo and ASC. Kinds of vegatables they have are Cabbages, Tomatoes, butter beans, Green peper, Eggplants, Cucumbers, Okra, Corns and Yams. In one season, they are able to pick 3000kg of vegetables. 1000kg of them were eaten by the villagers, 2000kg were sold in the market.

4４.　They are able to pick these corn after 2 weeks.

４５.　 This Okra is about 10cm long and very fat.

４６.　Eggplant which are 15cm long (photo above), bucket full of small eggplant (photo on right). You whip the small eggplant and put it in a soup or boil it and eat with fish.

４７.　Garden of cucumber, cabbage and tomato.

４８.　Garden of cabbage in Sinanvessou village.

４９.　Mrs. Koffi (ICA Cote dﾕIvoire director) is checking if all the garden in Brobo area are taken good care.

５２-1,2.　The Center in Yamoussoukro where received about 1000 displaced people from North and West area. Even its 7 months after the war, they donﾕt have any where to go and living together. They have lots of risk of HIV transmission. There are many people coming from the area where does not receive any information about HIV, lot of people does not prevent HIV on their intercourse. If a person who is HIV positive is living with them, HIV will spread very fast in this situation. In Cote d'Ivoire, blood test is free, so we are advising them to take it. But they say,What am I going to do if I really am HIV positive, I don't want to know. ICA member teach them rather not knowing that you are HIV positive and spread it and die, test and if you are , you can study about HIV and cure yourself in the right way and live longer is a good way.

５３.　Her house was located in the North area, so even she was 8 months pregnant she refuged to the south Yamoussoukro. She is poor and can not buy milk. This center has a roof, but not enough food, water and medicine, so they can not give the babies enough nutritious food. There are many people who past away during the escape to the south.