With support from American Jewish World Service, GYCA has awarded its first five grants to help outstanding young leaders working on HIV to successfully implement projects in their communities. Over the course of 2008, GYCA’s small grants program will award ten grants of $1500 to e-course graduates. GYCA’s first grants will go to the the young leaders listed below for the following projects:

• Faith Phiri, Blantyre, Malawi: “Building Capacity of Girls to Reduce Their Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS”
• Amare Abebaw, Bahir Dir, Ethiopia: “Enabling AIDS orphan children to live a continuous decent life in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia”
• Christabell Opudo, Nairobi, Kenya: “Young People Living with HIV/AIDS in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS Stigma”
• Gulalai Ismail, Peshawar, Pakistan: “Awareness Raising about HIV/AIDS Among Young Women”
• Jean Luc Ugirashebuja, Huye, Rwanda: “Voluntary Counseling and Testing Campaign Project”

Over the six months of their project period, grant recipients will be posting regular updates from their projects on this blog. Please check back regularly to read about their projects’ process!

Applications for the 2nd round of GYCA’s small grants program will be available in the fall of 2008.