Through Voice Up!, Nicolas and his colleagues learned how to create a Facebook and Twitter presence, including the use of hash tags to spread UNICO’s messages. Furthermore, the rare times they do receive treatment, the medical personnel are poorly trained.”

Therefore, to avoid stigmatization, many are reluctant to seek proper treatment. Those who contract the disease consider it a humiliating experience.

“The main cause of concern is the lack of access to health care for those in need. “The Voice Up! project has come at the right time as the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate is staggering among key populations in Côte d’Ivoire,” says Nicolas. Internews’ Voice Up project trains community organizations in Côte d’Ivoire how to get their messages out. Voice Up! helps civil society organizations to communicate effectively and advocate for human rights using social media and other online outlets.

Since Côte d’Ivoire’s media does not cover these issues adequately, Nicolas took advantage of Internews’ Voice Up! project to learn how to advocate for HIV/AIDS issues through other channels. He is now head of a network called the Union Against HIV/Hepatitis/Tuberculosis Co-infection (UNICO), which is a coalition of close to 40 local associations representing members of the LGBT community, drug users and sex workers. His “retirement” didn’t last long though – conditions for people with HIV/AIDS were desperate in Abidjan and Nicolas felt compelled to help after former associates sought him out for advice. He left the Red Cross and returned to his home town of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire to set up a restaurant selling “maquis de crabe,” a crab specialty from his wife’s village. Nicolas Vako worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross for twenty years, traveling all over Africa and Eastern Europe.

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