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Jobs Project Trains Brazilians with HIV/AIDS
FrontLines - March 2009
By Rodrigo Dalcin
Arco-Iris beneficiaries work during their food service and hospitality course graduation ceremony. Most of the participants have already found jobs at events and restaurants..
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Brasilia—Discouraged by four years fighting her HIV/AIDS—as well as her low level of education and limited work experience—Eliana Santa Anna Silva hesitated to look for a job.
“I didn’t even have the courage to start searching for a job,” she said.
She was tired of depending on government allowances to sustain her son and husband, also HIV positive.
With over 600,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, Brazil struggles to reduce the discrimination
that affects many of them and denies them access to the job market. USAID’s mission
in Brazil has combated this issue since 2007 through PACT, an international NGO.
Silva is part of the first group of beneficiaries to improve professional skills and employability through this program. At Arco-Iris, an HIV/AIDS NGO in Brasília, Silva and nine others have been trained in food service and hospitality.
Most have already found jobs at events and restaurants.
“This workshop has made a big difference for me in terms of opening doors to the job market,” said Silva.
Sandra Barros, another beneficiary,
continued improving her professional skills after completing
the course. She is now enrolled in a two-month class, training to be a server in the restaurant
sector. “I see this as an opportunity to find a regular job in the future and stop my diagnosis
from limiting me,” she said.
According to Arco-Iris Vice President Antonio Lisboa, the USAID program fulfills a long-standing need for professional qualifications and income generation
for people living with HIV or AIDS.
“These people have never had an opportunity to improve their job skills, mainly due to their HIV/AIDS diagnosis. For them, having the chance to work again also means an improvement in many other dimensions of their lives, such as their health, education
levels, civic participation, and social life.”
To bolster job placement of graduated trainees, the program also plans to develop databases of job opportunities in the community
and establish a professional
center with comprehensive
job-related programs.
Apart from the job training and placement, the program improves quality of life by recognizing
the need for a holistic approach to health and well-being of people living with HIV/AIDS. The strategy includes physical activity courses, psychosocial
support groups on living
successfully with AIDS, and proper nutrition education.
★
FrontLines is published
by the Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs
U.S. Agency for International Development
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