FreshMinistries and Be The Change International (BTCI), visited Haiti recently to explore possible sites for implementing a peer-based HIV/AIDS prevention program there with education as its core.

FreshMinistries and BTCI representatives met with the Prime Minister of Haiti’s chief of staff, as well as representatives from USAID, Health and Human Services with the CDC, PEPFAR and the Anglican Church.

By partnering with the Anglican Church in Haiti, FreshMinistries and BTCI can utilize the existing infrastructure of 254 schools, clinics and 80,000 students to implement HIV/AIDS caregiver training, orphan help and clinical help.

 But the plan doesn’t stop at HIV/AIDS prevention.

Mirroring their 6-Point Community Initiative, based in East Jacksonville, which seeks improvements in six different areas (education, economic development, health, safety, family strengthening and affordable housing), FreshMinistries and BTCI plan to ultimately make the overseas project a holistic one, too.

“We’ve learned that the only way to bring about sustainable, positive change in a community is to push all of these levers at the same time,” said the Rev. Dr. Robert V. Lee, chairman of FreshMinistries and BTCI. “If even one aspect is ignored, the other five cannot fully develop; educating a child is useless if he’s gunned down in the street.”

By partnering with the LBL Foundation for Children, BTCI will bring educational improvements to the communities surrounding the site.

“Ultimately, the schools will become a hub from which to launch more than just the health and education initiatives,” said Dr. Lee. “Housing, safety, family strengthening and economic development can all be addressed.”

If successful, it will be the first project in the world to address all of the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals at once.

Although Haiti is currently the most likely place for implementing this new program, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Swaziland are all possibilities too.

FreshMinistries and BTCI hope to have identified the final site for their new project by the end of 2009.