Commercial sex workers, mobile populations, truck drivers

Prudence male condoms are sold in Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, and Cameroon.

Protector Plus male condoms and Femidom female condoms are sold in Togo.

West Africa Ambassador Fund
The West African Ambassadors Fund (WAAF) was initiated in response to the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic and requests from US Ambassadors in West African countries without a USAID Mission for resources to help support local HIV/AIDS programs. Through this initiative, AWARE-HIV/AIDS provides support in the form of sub-grants to local or international non-governmental organizations in each participating country to work on specific HIV/AIDS activities identified by US Embassies.

• In 1998, SFPS launched PSAMAO (Prevention du SIDA sur les Axes Migratoires de l'Afrique de L'Ouest), an AIDS prevention project targeting mobile populations such as long-haul truck drivers, seasonal workers and commercial sex workers. PSAMAO has since expanded to Togo, Benin, Cameroon, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire and Chad. Under the AWARE-HIV/AIDS project, PSAMAO will be consolidated in these eight countries offering the following services: IPC with peer educators, mass media campaign (TV, radio, billboards), male and female condom social marketing, promotion of STI treatment and HIV testing. Over the next five years, the PSAMAO network will be expanded along the migratory routes throughout the ECOWAS region.
WAAF grant recipients reflect the multidimensional aspect of HIV/AIDS prevention and care. Funding and technical support have been provided to organizations working in the following programmatic areas:

— voluntary counseling and testing
— behavior change communications
— HIV/AIDS training
— condom social marketing
— income generating activities
— advocacy
— care and support for orphans and vulnerable children
— care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS

Interventions target vulnerable populations, including youth, women, sex workers and people living with HIV/AIDS; as well as opinion influencers, like health professionals, religious leaders and traditional healers.

In fiscal year 2004, 11 countries were eligible for WAAF funding. Ten submitted proposals to AWARE-HIV/AIDS. Out of these ten countries, eight received funding, including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Mauritania, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

Since its creation, WAAF has enabled US ambassadors, particularly in non-presence countries, with a means to provide strategic assistance in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the ECOWAS region. Among Round One implementation success stories, some supported projects have particularly demonstrated the fact that a significant impact can be accomplished at the grassroots level with a limited amount of available resources.

• Over the next 5 years of the AWARE-HIV/AIDS project, PSI plans to reinforce its existing network and to expand to additional PSI non-presence countries such as Guinea and Ghana and to leverage funding from other donor sources to support its expansion process.