This morning, I begin collecting new information and publications about HIV and AIDS, including updated HIV and AIDS country profiles for Kenya, Mali, and Guinea, and prepare them for dissemination on the United States Agency for International Development's Bureau for Global Health web site. The Population, Health & Nutrition Information Project (PHNIP) is an initiative that supports USAID's dissemination strategy. I find my work—helping to facilitate and share important HIV and AIDS information about prevention programs, technical support to the field, and funding for countries in need of help—is valuable and necessary. Helping to make news and information readily available to help USAID and others respond to the global pandemic is crucial in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

Erin Broekhuysen meeting with Adam Kennedy at the PHNI Project offices in Virginia

I convert the three African country profiles into web pages, and spend some time editing the content and layout to make sure it is consistent, easy to read, and as user-friendly as possible. After I send this information to USAID to post on their web site., I disseminate and submit the country information to various electronic newsletters, bulletins, and other publications. By promoting this new information as best I can, I help to ensure that clinicians, African mission staffs, and other professionals in the field receive this information. After all, the more knowledge and information we gain, the greater impact we can have on the HIV and AIDS epidemic.

My second task for today is to monitor the progress I've made in promoting USAID's Global Health HIV and AIDS web site. Over the past few months, I have been working with many different search engines, such as Yahoo and Google, to build more of a presence on the World Wide Web. When I started as Web Manager for PNHIP in October, 2002, the USAID web site didn't appear anywhere in the search engine rankings, so no one searching for HIV and AIDS information could find USAID's web site. or its wealth of HIV and AIDS information.

When I begin searching in www.google.com for "HIV and AIDS," I find that the USAID HIV and AIDS site now ranks in the top five web sites listed in the search results for this topic. This is fantastic news! It shows significant progress because it means that many people looking for HIV and AIDS news and information will now be able to find USAID's information about preventing new HIV infections, providing care and treatment for HIV and AIDS, and addressing the needs of children and families affected by AIDS, along with USAID's records of accomplishments in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

Although many people might think that my role as a web content manager is dry, technical, and not particularly relevant to the field, without JSI employees like me posting HIV and AIDS materials to the Internet, important and new information might not reach those who can use it to help reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS.

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