We Need Your Help!

As you may know I have been working with the local HIV/AIDS group in my community for over a year now. After many trainings, meetings, and research we are getting a huge project off the ground. And you can help!

By making a donation, you will help one of the 13 families living with HIV/AIDS to start a small agricultural business to be run out of their home. Ten or twenty dollars could go a long way to help in this worth cause.

Here is a description of the project and the link to make donations:

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=493-162

Business Development for those Living with HIV/AIDS

The summary below was provided by the Peace Corps Volunteer and the community administering this project.

Map of THAILAND

Members of the Non Khun Person’s Having HIV/AIDS (PHA) Group, “Friends of Non Khun” aspire to start small agricultural-based businesses to operate out of their homes, in order to supplement incomes used to support their families. As adults living with HIV/AIDS, group members face the reality of maintaining good health while combating local social stigmas, spreading awareness, and caring for their families all the while. While recognizing daily responsibilities and obstacles, the group often discusses financial shortcomings, only exacerbated by having HIV/AIDS. In rural Thailand, where livelihood is still commonly labor intensive, the financial burdens of PHA’s are particularly harsh. Since HIV/AIDS persistently weakens the immune system, PHA’s are often not well enough to perform the hard labor of planting, farming and harvesting rice. Therefore, supplemental income through alternate business ventures is necessary for most PHA’s in rural Thailand to subsist and support their families. With additional income provided from small-scale businesses, the PHA’s will able to make a valuable contribution to their families while engaging in relatively simple labor, thus preserving their health.

Participants have chosen their business ideas, written preliminary budgets that were then finalized by the agricultural office, and done the related market research on their products. Businesses will include raising crickets, catfish, and ducks for local sale in the community. All of these businesses can be conducted out of the home and products will be easy to sell in this largely agricultural based community.