SuccessStories

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Reducing Poverty Related Vulnerability for Young Girls
Three years ago, Lydia was a new bride at the age of 20. However with the sudden loss of her husband, Lydia found herself without any financial means to take care of herself and her one-year-old son.

When EVA started recruiting married adolescent girls for its Vulnerable Youth Project in Wamba local government (Nassarawa State), Lydia was relying on family members for her upkeep. With funding from relatives, she signed up to train as a hairdresser, but was unable to continue when funds slowed down. EVA stepped in and helped Lydia complete her training and arranged for business management classes and a hairdryer to help the young mother open a hairdressing salon.

Today Lydia has risen from having no income to earning 8,000 Naira a month, which is above the national minimum wage.   She has joined another set of project beneficiaries to create a self-help group (community cooperative) , which EVA through support from Chevron Nigeria, has establish a revolving loan scheme for its members.  Lydia was amongst the 1st set of beneficiaries for this new scheme and she has collected a loan of 18,000Naira to purchase a new hair dryer for her thriving business

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STRENTHENING YOUNG PEOPLE’S PARTICIPATION IN THE AIDS RESPONSE
Young Nigerian’s account for sixty percent of new HIV infections in the country.  While several youth-targeted interventions have been implemented across the country, active engagement and involvement of young people in the national AIDS response has been limited.

  
In November 2004, the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) invited EVA to serve on a six-member committee based on its contributions to young peoples’ reproductive health and HIV/AIDS issues.  As a member of the technical working committee, working closely with technical consultants from UNFPA, a framework for the establishment of a national youth network on HIV/AIDS was developed.  In addition to the framework, the group also developed terms of reference and a strategic plan on youth and HIV/AIDS issues. 

These two documents fed into the development of the network’s constitutions and the five-year National HIV/AIDS Response Strategic Framework.  Beyond the responsibilities of the technical working group, EVA also supported the operationalization of the national chapter of the youth network through the monitoring of elections and provided technical assistance for the formation of the FCT chapter. 
Today,  National Youth Network on HIV/AIDS (NYNETHA) is the coordinating body for young people working on HIV/AIDS issues and has actively contributing to the national HIV/AIDS response over the past four years.   

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Profile of Services

German Technical Corporation: Developed and managed a series of training workshops aimed at increasing HIV/AIDS knowledge and strengthening participatory facilitation skills for its partners to aid the delivery of HIV/AIDS mainstreaming activities under GTZ Employment Oriented Private Sector Development Program (EoPSD).  Broad activities included conducting a training needs assessment, delivery of training sessions and monitoring of trainings conducted by trained facilitators