At one of my English Clubs — a place for students to practice their English — last Tuesday, 140 7th and 8th graders crammed into a classroom that shouldn’t be able to hold more than a third of them. They were there to learn a few English words and watch the American put a condom on a wooden penis. I was there to teach them about HIV/AIDS. The class started by discussing what HIV/AIDS is and how it affects the human body. Then, I showed them some statistics about people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. I told them that sub-Saharan Africa has the highest number of infections, and that 1.2 percent of the population of Burkina Faso is currently living with HIV/AIDS.

Next, we discussed the different ways you can contract the disease. I explained to them that it can be transmitted through blood, from mother to child, and through sexual relations. The human reproductive system and sexual education isn’t taught until the 9th grade here in Burkina. So, I asked them if they knew what sex was. After the initial laughter died down, I taught them what sexual relations are. You may be thinking that these children are too young to be learning about sex, but quite a few of them are probably over 15 years old and are already having sex, not knowing the risks involved. Many of the girls, unfortunately, may not even feel they have a choice in the matter.

My job is to explain to them the importance of protecting themselves and presenting all the options on how to do just that, including abstinence. When I brought out the wooden penis the class erupted into laughter — but by the end of the hour-and-a-half session, every student in that classroom knew why, when and how to use a condom.

SEE ALSO: Back to Africa: Finally a Peace Corps volunteer!

Peace Corps volunteers around the world have English Clubs. They are one of the many ways we are able to get across more important messages about health issues, human rights and more. Toward the end of this month, President Obama will be releasing his annual budget proposal. As ONE members, we need to remind him the importance of the United States’ international aid and development programs. My 7th and 8th grade English Club wanted him to know that they appreciate what the United States does to help them so they took this picture with me. Fifteen million kids are alive today because of US efforts.

Nadine is 14 years old and in the 7th grade. She wakes up at 4 a.m. every day to sweep the courtyard and house before her father wakes. Then she walks to the pump to fetch water for the entire family for the day. She then prepares breakfast, most likely a type of porridge made from millet. The younger children eat first and if there is any left, Nadine might get a little. She readies the children for their day at school or in the fields. After quickly washing up, she bikes the 20-minute ride to get to school. She usually arrives just in time.

At lunch, Nadine bikes home and immediately begins cooking with her sisters, while her brothers sit and review their lessons or play soccer. Again, she serves herself last, and once finished, washes the dishes. Then she bikes to the market and helps her mother sell peanuts, after which she bikes back to school. Once school is out, she bikes back home, and she and her sisters start preparing dinner for the family as well as washing the family’s clothes.

After everyone has eaten, she cleans the dishes and finishes the laundry. By this time, the sun has set. Nadine’s family doesn’t have electricity. So she pulls out a flashlight, which has batteries that last for an hour, and attempts to quickly do her homework and study. She falls asleep and wakes up a few hours later to start the whole cycle all over again.

Nadine’s story is typical to most Burkinabe girls. Add to it the violence and sexual harassment they face in schools and you can understand why many aren’t able to succeed in their education, which is an incredibly important factor in the development of a country. In partnership with educators and parents’ associations, I am trying to convince parents to share household chores between boys and girls equally.

In January, Peace Corps Burkina Faso will be having a week-long “Doorways” training seminar. The “Doorways” training program was designed by the USAID-funded Safe Schools Program to enable teachers, community members and students to prevent and respond to school related gender-based violence. These are just a couple ways that Peace Corps volunteers like me are fighting the challenges that girls face here in Burkina Faso on a daily basis. With 2012 finally upon us, there is hope in this new year for Nadine and all the girls just like her.

You can find out more about “Doorways” here.

I was born in Texas but because my parents are missionaries, and as a result, I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to travel the world. We actually spent a lot of time in Senegal when I was a child, but I don’t have many memories of living there. I do, however, remember falling out of a swing and having the wind knocked out of me. And I remember watching a lizard climb up a tree. But even with a lack of memories, I’ve always felt as if Africa was my true home. And after having been away for more than 17 years, I’m finally back.

My father, a licensed social worker, and my mother, a registered nurse, were very development-oriented in their work. They instilled in me a compassion for the rest of the world and the desire to help those in need. I went to school to study cultural anthropology and social work, in the hopes of one day going into the field of humanitarian aid and international development.

After graduation, my next step was clear: join the United States Peace Corps.

Now, here I am, living for the past three months in Burkina Faso, a small landlocked country in West Africa and one of the poorest countries that Peace Corps volunteers serve. After three months of arduous linguistic, cultural and technical training, I’m out in the field getting my hands dirty, both figuratively and literally as some of my work is agricultural in nature. My primary assignment is in the education sector, focusing mainly on promoting education for women and girls and gender equality in schools.

But that doesn’t mean my work stops there. It is very cross-sectoral. I tutor primary school children but I also plant trees for reforestation. I teach children and adults about HIV/AIDS, malaria and proper hygiene, and I also help start girls’ clubs at nearby schools.

As a ONE member, you ask the US government to continue funding important international aid programs, like the Peace Corps. Over the next few weeks, I’d like to show you how some of that funding translates into work on the ground. Hopefully, by the end, you’ll see how being a voice for the voiceless truly does make an impact. And I’m sure that we’ll all learn something along the way.

Williams also touches on a subject ONE Blog readers are no doubt familiar with: food security. Excerpts below, full interview here.

And now a new departure has been the new food security initiative. Secretary [of State Hillary Rodham] Clinton is very interested in food security; it’s going to be one of her primary initiatives and has the full support of course of the Obama administration. It is a priority at Peace Corps, and we’re going to do more to expand our work in agriculture. Agriculture has always been an important part of Peace Corps’ involvement in working at the community level.

Q: What would you like the Peace Corps in Africa to be doing in three or four years?

I would like to see us continue our program in education; we’re very much involved in teacher training … hands-on involvement with teachers in the schools. I want to see us continue to expand our work in health, not just in HIV/Aids, but also in malaria and tuberculosis. We have trained skilled volunteers who work at the community level, really strengthening the capacity of NGOs at the grassroots to work in these areas.

I want to see us having a broad, expanded role in food security, especially because in Africa women play an instrumental role in the agricultural sector. I want to see us reach out to women who are involved in agriculture. I want to see us reach out to young people and introduce them to the importance of agriculture and food security. So those are the areas [where] I’d like to see us really establish a broader presence and deeper involvement at the community level.

Using advanced collaboration technology, members of the ARC community can comment and improve upon each other’s ideas. Recent ideas range from those focused on entrepreneurship, to agricultural best practices, to technological solutions, to education, and beyond.

Africa Rural Connect is also holding a competition awarding cash prizes every month to help implement the top 3 ideas, and awarding a total of $20,000 to implement the best idea in December. We have already awarded prizes in Round 1 and Round 2 to ideas from Senegal, Ghana, Malawi, and Nigeria, and have hundreds of ideas spanning across East, South, and Central Africa as well.

Whether you have a background in agriculture, architecture, business, engineering, business, NGO management, construction technology, communications, or education, your insight could prove integral to the creation of a plan that will improve the livelihoods of rural communities in Africa.

So we invite you to join Africa Rural Connect- post an idea, start a discussion, and collaborate with like-minded individuals around the world to turn your ideas into action.

-Lissan Anfune, National Peace Corps Association

A lot happened in Accra, Ghana today. First, President Bush met with President Kufuor of Ghana and they held a joint press conference. They about talked about, among other things, the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA). Ghana has received a compact from MCA to build roads and improve infrastructure. MCA compacts go to well-governed countries, countries who fight corruption and invest in health and education for their citizens.

Then it was on to a lunch with Peace Corps workers in Ghana. Ghana was the first country in the world to welcome the Peace Corps. The first 52 Peace Corps workers arrived here on August 30, 1961. Since that time, more than 3,700 volunteers have served in this country (including two of my good friends Monica and Alex Smith – who met when they both served as Peace Corps workers in Ghana and the Cote d’Ivoire and later married. Monica was a water and sanitation specialist and Alex educated people about HIV/AIDS).

The Ghanians have a special bond with Americans who serve in the Peace Corps and gave them a big welcome at lunch. The lunch guests, including President Bush and Bob Geldof, heard harrowing tales of Peace Corps life in rural Africa, including one woman who was bitten by a cobra and then discovered that the local clinics had run out of both poison anecdote and pain medication! (Don’t worry – she survived and told her tale to the President in person today.)

After lunch was my personal favorite part of the day: a tee ball game! We watched some Ghanian youngsters play ball – the Little Dragons vs. the Little Saints. I;m not sure my travelling companion, Sir Bob Geldof, understood the intracacies of the game, having grown up in Ireland, deprived of the World Series…but we all enjoyed it, nonetheless.

We also met Jordin Sparks, last year’s American Idol winner. Jordin was here with Malaria No More and visited Maamobi Polyclinic with the Presidential delegation.

In Ghana, one child out of every nine dies before his or her fifth birthday – many of these deaths are the result of preventable diseases.

At the Maamobi Polyclinic, Ghana and the United States are working together to eliminate two preventable causes of death in children: malnutrition and malaria.

PMI was launched in Ghana last December, and in its first year, the initiative will provide $17 million for malaria treatment and prevention. The US will also support Ghana’s National Malaria Control Program to provide more than a million mosquito nets for children and pregnant mothers’ beds.

We also saw a big market and a US sponsored trade hub in Ghana – more on that tomorrow!

-Taylor Royle