Health Buddy program
Page last reviewed 17.4.2024
Hivpoint’s Health Buddy program aims to find motivated and enthusiastic people to be our advocates. The Health Buddies spread knowledge about sexual rights and sexual health including HIV and sexually transmitted infections in migrant and refugee communities. The Health Buddies can choose what kind of methods they would like to use. The trainings can be workshops, online discussions, story telling evenings or anything else!
The goal of the program is to raise awareness of HIV and sexual health in communities we are not reaching at the moment. Sexuality and sexual rights are sensitive topics and sometimes hard to discuss openly. Health Buddies as our sexual health advocates have a great opportunity to share knowledge about safe sex, sexual health, Hivpoint and our services.
Do you want to become a Health Buddy?
Next training will be held on 4th -5th May in Helsinki. The application period for the training has ended.
Every year we train new Health Buddies to promote sexual health.
When applying you don’t need to have any training in sexual health issues beforehand. The most important thing is that you are interested in sexual education and willing to learn. We train all our Health Buddies before they organize training or workshops.
You can be our new Health Buddy if you….
- Moved to Finland from somewhere else / have a multicultural background
- Are interested in sexual health and rights
- Are brave and not afraid to speak up about difficult topics
- Have the ability to speak about sexual health and rights in other languages except Finnish and Swedish
- Have a community or group in mind where you could conduct the sexuality education workshops
- Can follow the training that Hivpoint will organize for the educators in English
- Are over 16 years old
We require
Before applying you should already have a group or community in mind for which you will organize the workshop. We also appreciate good communication skills and willingness to step up in events. We require that you have a respectful attitude toward sexual and cultural diversity. You also need sufficient language skills for English to be able to attend the Hivpoint training on 4th -5th May in Helsinki. The initial training of Health Buddies is free for all participants and Health Buddies will not be paid to attend this training.
Applicants must commit to conduct five sexual health workshops and write one blog text by the end of the year. Subject of the blog text can be anything related to sexual health. You will get paid for organizing workshops.
Working hours and reward
The reward for Health Buddies is 30 euros per hour. The reward for one workshop is 100 euros, which includes workshop preparations, organization and reporting. The work is very flexible as the Health Buddy decides how and when to hold the workshops.
Each Health Buddy must hold five workshops and also write a blog post. The reward for the blog post is as much as for organizing a workshop (100 euros). The amount of the Health Buddy reward is 600 euros in total per year.
You don’t need to be an expert on sexuality education yet, as we will train you on that!
Apply for Health Buddy training
The application period for the training has ended.
Additional information
Health Buddy program
Laura Keskinen
laura.keskinen(at)hivpoint.fi
