In the past month, more than 60 young Ethiopians have graduated from their vocational training programs! Some are HIV+, some are orphans caring for younger siblings and some have found themselves responsible for household livelihoods as parents have fallen ill. In any case, their new skills and expertise have them prepared to embark on new vocations and ready to build a more secure future.

Vulnerable HIV-affected youth contend with multiple layers of vulnerability, including extreme poverty, stigma, isolation, and discrimination, the grief of losing parents or adult children, and, for young women especially, gender-based oppression and violence.  As a result, it is quite common them to engage in risky sexual behaviour – commercial or transactional sex work – as a survival strategy.  This coping mechanism puts them at great risk of contracting HIV themselves.  

In the past five years of our programmatic focus with HIV-affected youth, CAP AIDS has found that vocational skills development and employment support can help orphaned youth and caregivers overcome or at least reduce these layers of vulnerability – particularly extreme poverty, stigma, and isolation – and strengthen their capacity to protect themselves from HIV&AIDS.

These 60+ young Ethiopians will soon join with 50 young Ugandans who completed their training earlier this year to begin to enjoy the fruits of their hard work. In the meantime, CAP AIDS and our partners will continue to support the remaining 100 youth in Ethiopia and Uganda who are continuing their vocational training programs and who will graduate in the coming months.

We would like to congratulate our local partners in Ethiopia - Hope Bright Vision and the Tilla Association of Positive Women - who have worked tirelessly with us on our joint project Building Sustainable Livelihoods for AIDS Orphans and Caregivers in Uganda and Ethiopia. Thanks to the support of the CAP AIDS network in Canada, we are, together, responding to a great need in their commmunities and helping vulnerable youth obtain the care, support and training they need to build a brighter future. 

The Sustainable Livelihoods for AIDS Orphans and Caregivers Program and CAP AIDS' work with the Needy Support Centre is funded through the support of CAP AIDS donors across Canada and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).