Teresa is empowering women and educating her community on HIV
Teresa and her husband live in Obeyemi, Ghana. Their children are all married and work in other villages.
Teresa has been involved with The Hunger Project since they started in her area, and she was actively involved in the construction of the epicentre building. She was also selected to train as an HIV animator.
Teresa decided to be involved with the epicetre because her community works together in partnerships in other communities. They were promised a bank and a clinic, and the promises were kept. That’s why she’s still motivated and still working at the epicentre.
“Personally, I benefitted from the clinic. The bank has also been important because I have been able to take loans.” The training as HIV animator has also helped her to protect her and her family. She has been able to educate her family on how you attract the disease and what you can do to protect yourself from it.
Teresa hopes that the clinic will be expanded in the future, so her community won’t have to be referred to any other clinic and that they will be able to do everything themselves in the epicenter clinic. For herself, she wants to get a job at the clinic.
“I don’t face any challenges being a HIV animator, not even with my husband. When I have to attend meetings or trainings outside the community my husband allows me to go. When we organize meetings the community members attend”.
In Teresa’s area, HIV cases are decreasing “First [HIV] was quite high, but with the education from both The Hunger Project workshops and the government it has reduced drastically”.
Thanks to her work with The Hunger Project she shares what she has learned with other women in her community. “There are many examples of that, especially concerning marriage. The way the women relate to their husbands in marriage. I have educated them in that, and on how they contribute to community work”.
Words by Claire Robilliard
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