5) Description of health product/service offering: Rape and HIV prevention in communities well known for youth conflict. The main services we provide are training and interventions computer skills rape prevention and HIV prevention. Our major beneficiaries are the youth in the community, who seek an income generating skill like computer which is in high demand as a means of self sustenance. The computer skills make them marketable to business centers that will pay well free computer skills to attract them then take them through a 12 week program of computer and other skills. Any other place will charge them a high premium for the skills they are getting nearly free.

6) Description of innovation: The difference is the incentive in that we use free computer skills to attract them then take them through a 12 week program of computer and other skills

7) Operational model: Basically since the organization is mostly manned by volunteers and a hand full of professional staff. The organization focuses on the computer program, discussion meetings with peer educator and other community youth and distribution of organizational educational material and commemoration of special days like the candle light memorial, World Aids Day etc

8) Human resources: We have an executive director who has in addition to a first degree in Mass communication from University of Lagos, an MPH from University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, A program coordinator with a postgraduate degree in Management from University of Calabar, A program officer with Bachelor in Pharmacy from University Lagos and A program Assistant who is just rounding up her BA degree in University of Calabar

9) Key operational partnerships: We have partnership with the government through registration and they always send representatives to our programs, we also Partner with the Rotary club of Calabar and we worked on a joint program together

10) Financial Sustainability

          • Fees charged to clients?: Yes

          • How do you assure affordability?: we do charge a fee, but an extremely minimal one which is used to procure materials develop a diploma and throw a graduation at the end of their tenure, we decided to ask for a fee because free things are looked upon as low quality or inferior

          • Earned incomes as a percentage of operating costs: 2%

          • Other funding sources: basically it is not yet, the computers we got from two projects we had executed in the past. The teaching software was a donation and we keep hitting on friends for support financial and none financial support.

          • Strategy for long-term sustainability: we are currently working on an organizational final plan

11) Current and Future Impact

          • Total number of clients: 700

          • Clients in the past year: 70

          • Percentage of low-income clients: All

          • Impact: As a result of their training some of the youth have opted for voluntary counseling and testing of their HIV status, some of them have opted to get back into the formal school system towards seeking a degree and some have gone ahead to get jobs in business centers. Some volunteer as peer educators for the organization, they have developed a drama troupe to spread the information in the community

          • Overall "market": There is a magnitude of demand that we cannot meet because the organization is small with limited number of computers and instructor. For every one computer you have at least 10 people who want the skill, the organization initially had seven computers which dwindled to four from usage and electrical problems.

12) Scaling up strategy

          • Stage of the initiative: Start Up stage.

          • Expansion plan: We have solicited and procured 10 computers, from individuals and institutions in the US pending funds to export and set up, we believe the more computers the better services to our clients we are also partnering with secondary schools to provide computer skills to their students during the holiday. Most of all we keep looking out for fund raising initiatives to build our program which we have been able to maintain by keeping our overheads low

13) Policy change: the top policy change for Nigeria will be decentralization of power and resources from the center and giving these powers to the state these ensures more grassroots and efficiency governance.

14) Origin of the initiative: The Initiative was driven by Effanga-Aye Henshaw the program coordinator. Born as the sixth child in a family of seven she had never experience such youth violence attained in her target community. Trained as accountant Ms Aye-Henshaw was concerned about the problem of conflict and rape surrounding her school area and in 1998, persuaded her sister who was working a national NGO to join he in the initiative, trying different strategies to address youth violence, reproductive health and HIV Prevention. After running three funded workshops in this community she concluded from the youth input and comments in the workshops that unemployment and lack of skills were a great incentive for conflict, hence rape etc. based on this she put heads together with her sister and came up with computer skills for development initiative

Contact Information:
Effanga  Aye-Henshaw
Project Coodinator
Reach Services
(NGO)
37/46 Magnus Henshaw Street
Nigeria
Tel: 2348037249855, 23408026652508
Email: reach_services1@yahoo.co.uk