I. Background and Rationale : Problem we are addressing:
Pandemic spread of HIV/AIDS is (as predicted by World Health Professionals) threatening to ravage the world especially the African Continent. The Coming Aids Pandemic is one that we can prevent saving millions of lives and billions of dollars in future related health care related and economic loss.
The key to our success: The vital element is prevention. Quickly and effectively explaining the third world natives, especially those in the poorest and least educated, least accessible areas about AIDS how it is spread, that it is a death sentence but completely preventable and to exhort the youth to abstain from sexual activity outside of monogamous lifelong relationships. Because Commercial Sex Workers (CSW) have been a major source of spreading this disease there needs to be a concerted effort to identify CSW in each community and to persuade them to insist on the use of condoms by their customers and to try to move them to a less dangerous line of work. Education needs to be by group instruction and by one to one interaction with native and indigenous persons. In addition, we must attempt to move group cultural opinion away from the practices that put persons at risk.
This will be a three-pronged attack:
a. Teaching in classroom settings with instructional aids the facts and need for abstinence for absolute protection and the use of Condoms for limited protection by those who will not use abstinence.
b. Use of “stars’ and musical and other talents to present concerts or group events, festival style to promote the ideas that will help prevent the spread of AIDS and other STD’s. This is an attempt to create group dynamics and stem the tide of at risk behaviors by the teens and young adults and CSW. We will extend this same effort to adult populations identified as likely to participate in random and regular sexual activity with divers partners or likely to be customers of CSW.
c. One-on-one reinforcement of these ideas using peers and native and indigenous persons to promote abstinence by their target audience and awareness of how serious this problem is and how easily they, the youth of Africa can save their society from serious destruction by adjusting their behaviors.
This is a necessary activity, which is not being addressed effectively in Africa, especially in emerging countries and cultures in central Africa. There are many thinking about and discussing doing it. Very little information is actually being spread. There are those ready to do disseminate it on the ground in certain parts of Africa. They do not have the literature, tools or the funds to carry this message to their neighbors.
Part of the process of this grant will be to create universal picture based literature and other literature in the various languages used as first language by the divers groups in Africa. We are asking language translators at Bible Translation Societies and persons retired from them to help. We must not just reach the public minds with facts but their hearts with motivation to protect them. Not just to take a stand and commit to abstinence and monogamous relationships but to in fact mean and intend to do so and to give them help to carryout those intentions given the human tendency to be effected by the thoughts and desires related to sexual activity and the age groups targeted. There are some feeble attempts being made by governments and education systems and through the media in Africa to spread this message, but there is a need for a grass roots effort. We have identified individuals across central Africa who are capable to carry this out. They need funds. Some of the persons we have identified especially those related to Christian and Muslim religions are already trying to spread the message. They do not have literature or condoms to distribute. It would be wise to fund them. They may be the most effective.
II. Goal and Objectives: Not just to communicate the message but to communicate it in an effective way so that the receivers get the idea and adapt their lifestyles to the information. This will require carefully checking, by following up and polling the communities in which the education has gone forth to see if there is any apparent change in behavior and change in opinions about sex, abstinence and the necessity to use a condom for those who will not abstain. It must be made clear also that a condom is not a 100% guarantee to safety and that the only sure way not to get aids through sexual contact is to practice abstinence and monogamy. The use of religious leaders is important because they can connect persons to groups of other peers who will support one another in the commitments they have made to a safe lifestyle. These groups are often already there. They are a part of the structure of a society, whatever their religious beliefs are they have the means to help enforce the changes in behavior sought. It will be easier to identify our effectiveness. The program will create groups or associations of those not willing to interact with a religious group. It will establish in each community a fellowship to help those willing to commit to abstinence and monogamy a support structure to help them with other issues of life, whether it be their desires to further themselves with education, skills, or to deal with basic life issues.
III. Project Design and Implementation Plan : It will be necessary to break the groups down into countries and native groups. The use of High School Graduates monitored and overseen by University Graduates is essential in that it allows a cross section of peers who will speak a common language used at the University but who amongst them will speak many of the various native languages and dialects.
One factor that could inhibit the spreading of this message may be governments and government officials especially those who may see a large amount of money being spent and deciding they should like to get some of that money by graft and other means. This is an issue we are ready to deal with as best possible, It is also why in many cases we shall use established organizations and groups to help spread the message. One would hope that most governments would encourage and help this information distribution, however, Africa is deft with class struggles and struggles based on the native origins of various populations. There could easily be interest in some ‘leaders’ to see a disliked group decimated by AIDS.
Ignorance and prejudice are widespread in Africa and they shall be our greatest obstacles to overcome. At the same time, there is the Internet and many places where the populations have access to it. This is cutting across cultural divides and helping to get information to individuals where it once was harder to do. We have identified individuals on the ground in at least six countries including Sierra Leone, Ghana, Cote d’ivorie, Nigeria, and Kenya. We have the ability (with funding) to identify individuals associated with organizations having a basic grass roots efforts desire to help others. They are idle. They can and would do this but for funding. Some are graduates but sleeping in the streets for lack of available work. Others are more fortunate but in need of money to continue their education. Still others are either Pastors or Imams, who are eager but limited for lack of literature, knowledge about how to get effective results.
Upon agreement to fund this effort, a plan will be put into action:
A. Identify each necessary language in which to prepare literature and groups who should get this message.
B. Setting up individuals who will oversee and hire those who will be sent to spread the message.
C. Establish and set up exciting and interesting events to promote this message.
D.Create or have created one or more movies or other cultural for profit business based presentations teaching information, supporting and promoting the idea of the importance of abstinence and monogamy.
E. The collecting of the tools and teaching helps necessary to help the workers be effective.
F. At the same time it will be necessary to deal with each government where this activity will be done to make sure there is no interference and to determine where it is best to work with the government and where it is necessary to carryout these activities through religious and other community groups.
G. Our goal in each case is getting workers on the ground teaching in the quickest and most effective way.
H.Also, it will be necessary to establish a grass roots effort where we are enlisting volunteers from each community, teens, and young adults to promote, encourage and exhort their peers to follow practice safety.
IV. Monitoring and Evaluation: The University Graduates will each be assigned areas to oversee. In some cases, their areas will be geographic in other cases they will be according to a particular native group or indigenous language group or culture the graduate knows. The African population is mainly in two groups those who are in or near larger urban and more modern population, centers and those who are more rural in nature and less attached to civilization. There also are two groups as far as intellect and sophistication goes. There are those seeking the modern lifestyle and those who are more traditional. The spread of aids is complicated. Those places that have monogamy as a clear cultural norm will be less likely to contract HIV/AIDS and have it spread. Those who do not recognize abstinence and monogamy will have the risk of widespread infection.
However, it is important to recognize that even in cultures where monogamy and Abstinence are valued and promoted culturally there are still individuals (even leaders) who will say one thing publicly and do another. This is just as true in small rural villages and larger urban societies. Monitoring this issue then becomes a real sticky wicket. In addition, waiting to see what statistics show up as to infection is to wait too long. This is an expensive and vital effort. We must find ways to make it work and employ the communication model as we go along to see to it that the message is well received without interference and that the message is translated into activities and lifestyles, which will help protect the individuals and these societies. The University Graduates involved will implement statistical samplings of those who have been targets of our outreach to see if there is an understanding of the message and to determine if there is any change in lifestyle by those who have been audiences of the message. This will require a tactful development of ways to discuss this issue, which will be culturally acceptable and yet effective in clearly telling individuals at risk of the truths surrounding this issue. Because of this it is difficult or beyond our present financial ability to create each of the individual cultural and language based means to determine our effectiveness without first employing and using the knowledge and skills of the various individuals who would carry it out. We will make adjustments along the way to cause our message to be effective. The effectiveness of this campaign will be a substantially less than predicted incidence of infection of HIV/AIDS.
V. Organizational Capacity : Our organization is small. We have not as an organization carried out any project of this nature on an international scale before. In most cases, an organization is made up of individuals. Ours is made up of our founder and all those willing to help. The founder of this organization has been on the Internet dealing with many persons from central Africa who are using the internet to scam Americans. Especially from Nigeria. There are two groups of these persons. One group is the bosses, the persons who greatly benefit from the crimes. They are the overlords of this activity. They seek and hire others to spend hours on the Internet each day communicating with those who respond to the many bogus offers of millions of dollars. This second group doing the work are often mostly woe-begotten individuals who know how to read, write, and use the Internet, many are high school graduates, each one is desperate to make a living. In many cases they are also thinking they are actually doing well. We have tried to identify and have identified many of them as individuals and have gotten the person to admit their complicity in this illegal activity. Then some have agreed to stop. They realizing they are putting themselves at risk of being arrested. They are not criminally minded. They are persons who need to work. They need income. They are living under a bridge. They are very capable. Because of our founders efforts to try to find a way to help these persons knowledge of him has spread through the underground network. Persons are contacting him from various countries across this region. Religious leaders, individuals who have abilities to make this sort of things work, and persons in great need. Some of them are ready to go out and spreads this message. They need literature and they need help. We (Read the Bible America, Inc.) are not interested in doing this and having your foundation make a big announcement of it. We are not interested in doing this for publicity. We want in fact to do this with no publicity so we are doing it to help others and not for vainglory. In addition, it would be best for those we are dealing with (especially at first not to know the extent of help behind the effort.) This organization consists of the founder, his mother who is on the board and one very service to others motivated engineer in New York on the board. We are not looking to get rich through this effort. It would be nice for a change not to have to live in poverty as we have done but we are ready to continue to do it to get something worthwhile done to serve our fellow man and stop this evil of millions of deaths from aids from occurring. We hate waste of money and misuse of it. Our goal will be to find as many ways to stretch every dollar we spend and to connect every use of money as we can to make sure we are getting more than one benefit from the monies that are spent. We are seeking and will seek persons to carry this out who think they are volunteers and who would do it anyway just to help others. They will in the end get paid well for what they do. Rather than paying them in cash up front we will work towards offering them things like give them money to start a business with after serving for three years. If they are unemployed and a college graduate, they are a soul whose abilities are being wasted. Let’s help them set up in business and see if they cannot help stimulate their economies. Also those who are ready to go to University, they have graduated High School and passed their tests but have no money to go. After they spend three years serving we shall help them pay their tuition and have a modest sum to live on while they go to school, and we shall have support services available to them during that time to make sure they as individuals succeed. We are a group, or our founder is a person interested in doing good not enriching himself. Moreover, he does not want to create an institution where there is a large group of persons relying on the continuation of the institution and evermore funds for their livelihoods, as is the case with too many large international organizations today.
VI. Budget Total needed over three years period
,750.000.00 Total over three years.
,000,000.00 = (2000) Individual Instruction Workers @ ,000/year for 3 years.
,800,000.00 = (200) University Graduates @ ,000/year for 3 years
,000.00 = to grant seeking organization for overseeing grant.
,000,000.00 = Literature, Training, Infrastructure support, transportation follow up evaluation and Condoms, instructional devices, to help create popular movies or videos, and to bribe government officials where and if necessary. In addition to provide the infrastructure, offices where necessary, transportation, instruction and preparation of workers. Some teams will need transportation. Motorbikes may be the best things to travel on African country roads or other transportation. To over see the monies that would be saved in escrow or trust for the workers to receive after they complete the mission. Each worker will receive a small stipend during the three years and a stipend while going to school or starting their business afterwards to help make sure they succeed. Part of this money will go towards condoms to distribute. In addition, to provide refugee to any Commercial Sex Workers who agree to forsake their means of living. Also to identify those on the way towards entry to those professions to either divert them or make sure they are instructed in and aware of the need for safety. We shall help any religious organization that is in fact doing some thing effective to help accomplish this. A School will be set up in Ocean City Maryland, and Clearwater Florida, possibly to bring the workers form Africa to here to prepare them and train them to do their work. That is because it can be established to do that here without very high costs. In addition, it may lend some importance to the effort and help create the air of importance we hope to create for he persons we will employ. It will be necessary to try to create amongst the African Population the idea that his is a very important thing everyone must do. That to do what these teachers are going to teach about is important. That following the way they are following is going to be good for everyone to follow. This is the way to success in life, this is the way to getting what they want. The fact is that using these two locations judicially will provide a free infrastructure at which to provide the instruction. For example, the housing in Ocean city Maryland is vacant for eight months out of the year. They are paid for by the vacation rents they receive. So, it would be possible to own 500 of them at no actual cost and to use them during six months during the winter as housing for the students. 500 would house four at a time and that is 2000 students. This is an example of how this organization tries to use one stone to kill two birds and to stretch and make good use of monies put into its hands to manage. The whole town is empty during those six months. They would be so happy to have 2000 persons there spending money and eating food etcetera they would make meeting space and class space available for free. In addition, the housing would be paid for by the summer vacation rents. Therefore, they would not actually cost anything. The only expense would be air fare form the students across the ocean twice. In addition, it may be that in some cases rather than paying some one for this work especially in the case of the college graduates who will set up a small business it may be a loan, which they must payback if successful. This will help us extend the use of this money to further accomplishments. If we can end up through this three year funding immediately get the message out to at least 75,000,000 persons which is our goal and then continue out of the benefits developed under that same funding to spread the message further and re-spread it again we Read the Bible America, Inc. its founder and board would feel very successful and realize we have accomplished much. If we could do it in anonymity, we would even feel more of an accomplishment. Also, to provide for on going evaluation of the effectiveness of our programs to see if persons are changing behavior as a result. To provide follow up and to try to establish many local groups which exist for ongoing instruction in this issue and to hopefully provide a residual effect. This is a total of ,000,000.00 over a three year period. We are assuming that interest from monies saved, for example the monies we are holding or having held in escrow will generate some interest income to help pay the costs and we intend to set up and hold a series of events in the United States where we hold rallies, festivals or events to raise monies to help two African men. We hope to get 200 Americans in each community we hold an event in to pledge to give .00 each a month. Each group of 200 giving .00 or a month would sponsor one of these teams. For ,600 a year per team. This is an effort to allow Americans who want to help to help. Anyone here can give .00 a month and not have it harm them if we can get several hundred such groups here existing we can support on an ongoing basis the same sort of ideas expressed herein.
