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| Former Information Officer receives an award from Ambassador Hooks (Photo: Yacouba Soro/US Embassy) |
Former Abidjan Information Officer Receives Meritorious Honor Award for HIV/AIDS Outreach
Just before departing Abidjan September 22, the U.S. Embassy’s Information Officer, Brett Bruen, received from Ambassador Aubrey Hooks a Meritorious Honor Award in recognition of his “Innovative, Effective and Proactive HIV/AIDS programming in Côte d'Ivoire 2005-2006.”
Brett Bruen was the Mission’s Public Diplomacy HIV/AIDS Coordinator, and under his dynamic and imaginative leadership, the embassy’s HIV/AIDS campaigns were multimedia success stories, educating national audiences and highlighting U.S. government-funded programs taking place throughout the country. Working closely with the Ivorian Ministry of Health, national associations combating AIDS, local volunteer groups, and the Center of Disease Control (CDC) staff in Abidjan, he organized media opportunities that brought reporters into city hospitals, rural clinics, and neighborhood AIDS centers receiving American funding.
Their reports and stories helped to make Ivorians more aware of risky behaviors, lessened the public's fear of being tested for AIDS, and in some cases helped to keep those infected by the HIV/AIDS virus from being rejected by their families. Brett invited the new “Ms. Côte d’Ivoire 2006” to become a national spokesperson for AIDS prevention and awareness efforts, an initiative she immediately accepted.
With our Ivorian partners, the Information Officer often hit the road and got out of Abidjan with programs for high school students and at-risk youth that combined hip music, African films, teen books, knowledgeable speakers and frank discussions about the avoidance and/or treatment of HIV/AIDS. Whether it was a school's cafeteria in Atécoubé, the grand mosque's courtyard in Yamoussoukro, a movie hall in Tiassalé, under the stars in San Pedro or at community centers, in Korhogo, Bouaké, and Ferkéssédougou, he and his teammates were able to directly reach over 3500 rural kids with their AIDS message.
