The SEEP Network HIV/AIDS and Microenterprise Development (HAMED) Working Group and the CYES Network have partnered in order to raise awareness of critical issues related to improving the well-being of children and youth affected (directly or indirectly) by HIV and AIDS through better economic develpment programming and integrated solutions. This partnership is characterized by, among other things, expert post contributions from HAMED Working Group facilitators, Jared Penner and Kristen Eckert. The following is an invitation to engage in HAMED's 2009 activities. For more information, please contact Jared Penner at jpenner@meda.org. Find HAMED-related content on this site by using the keyword "HAMED".

Invitation to Engage
Colleagues:

On behalf of the SEEP working group on HIV & AIDS and Microenterprise Development (HAMED), we would like to extend an invitation to all interested parties to participate in our 2009 learning agenda. We will be exploring best practices in integrated health and economic development programming for communities affected by HIV &AIDS.

We plan on holding three online conferences over the course of 2009 on the following themes as they relate to HIV& AIDS and microenterprise development:

1. Microinsurance
2. Savings led approaches
3. Cash transfers/ social protection interventions

We will be developing case studies of innovative projects in the field to guide us in our discussions throughout these online conferences. We would certainly invite any individuals or organizations with a promising idea for a case study to approach us regarding participation in the HAMED learning agenda. We would hope that you can all participate in our public, virtual discussions through our regularly scheduled conferences that take place at the Microenterprise and HIV Café on the Microenterprise and HIV website. We invite you to familiarize yourself with our website at the following address: http://communities.seepnetwork.org/hamed .

Economic strengthening for vulnerable children and youth is an important cross-cutting themes for us at HAMED. We believe that it is impossible to separate discussions on youth from discussions on appropriate financial services (microinsurance, savings, cash transfers) for communities affected by HIV & AIDS. Therefore, we are quite interested in the potential for collaboration between the CYES Network and the SEEP HAMED working group to investigate how health, financial and social services can best be designed, implemented and monitored to support the holistic development of children and youth affected by HIV & AIDS.

HAMED will be having our first working group meeting in Washington, DC on March 30th, 2009 (time and location TBD) to review some promising case studies and prepare ourselves for the upcoming online conferences. This meeting will be open to all HAMED working group members and new members are especially invited to attend. After this meeting we will post a more detailed schedule for the online conferences and the promising practice case studies that we will be examining.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or comments on how you can get involved with HAMED.

Sincerely,

SEEP HAMED Co-Facilitators
- Kristen Eckert (Lions’s Club International)
- Jared Penner (Mennonite Economic Development Associates
- Carrie Miller (Catholic Relief Services)

_________ _________ _________ _________
Kristen Eckert. A recent addition to The SEEP Network as the Lead Facilitator of the HAMED Working Group, Kristen manages a regional blindness prevention program at the Lions Clubs International Foundation, where she has focused on public-private partnerships. She is a Latin American development professional (Mphil, University of Cambridge) with a primary focus on public health and integrated programming.

Jared Penner. Jared is a Microfinance Consultant and Project Leader for MEDA as well as a co-facilitator for the SEEP HAMED Working Group. He is experienced in programming related to microfinance and microenterprise development in Africa where he worked in Mozambique as a program coordinator for MEDA’s HIV/AIDS and Microfinance Project. His areas of specialty focus on the social cross cutting themes in microfinance, such as HIV/AIDS, gender and youth. He has worked with MFIs operating in both urban and rural environments and has developed models for serving vulnerable youth populations with microfinance and workforce development services. He is currently involved in a joint youth workforce development project, Afghanistan Secure Futures, which is being implemented in collaboration with AED under the USAID STRIVE Program.