Fulbright-mtvU Fellows

Goodbye For Now…

For my final blog entry, I will provide an overview of the work I did while in Uganda, discuss project sustainability and future plans, and share a few lessons learned from my Fulbright experience.

The Overview

The goal of my Fulbright project was learn how the Hip Hop Therapy Project (HHTP) could be strengthened to better serve the young people participating in it. In this effort, I conducted a needs assessment exercise with the aim of using the findings to inform the project’s growth and development.

After speaking with over 30 young people and meeting with other project stakeholders I decided to focus my efforts on:

Developing more training, performance, and competition opportunities for project
members

Increasing the number of youth benefiting from the project

Increasing access to age-appropriate HIV-, sexual-, and reproductive healthrelated
information for project members

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Tags: Aids, Dr. Dre, Gulu Youth Center, Hip Hop Therapy Project, HIV, National University of Ireland, Uganda

Hip Hop Meets Health Education

During the recent needs assessment exercise I conducted with children participating in the strong>Hip Hop Therapy Project (HHTP) two of the needs that emerged were:

1.The children expressed a need for more information around sexual and reproductive health.

2. The children expressed the desire to showcase their breakdance skills and talents.

In an effort to respond to the first expressed need, I decided to partner with Straight Talk Foundation. Straight Talk Foundation is a Ugandan health communication organization that promotes communication for social change through print, radio and face-to-face interventions for adolescents (ages 10-19) and young adults (ages 20-24). Straight Talk Foundation also operates the Gulu Youth Centre, which provides free tests and treatment for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STD), counseling services, and health information materials for young people.

Straight Talk Foundation has agreed to provide space at the Gulu Youth Centre for breakdance classes to take place. This will help to expand the size of the Hip Hop Therapy Project as well as increase direct access to sexual and reproductive health education and services for the young people participating in the project.
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Tags: Aids, Breakdance Project Uganda!, Gulu Youth Center, Hip Hop Therapy Project, HIV, Straight Talk Foundation