TIES - About

What is TIES?

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Presentation on the TIES program

ICCHM is home for a TIES (Training, Internship, Exchange, Scholarships) program sponsored by USAID which represents a partnership between the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), San Diego State University (SDSU), El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (COLEF) and Universidad Autonoma de Baja California at Tijuana (UABC). We are jointly committed to developing an HIV/AIDS program to improve the binational response to HIV/AIDS in northwestern Mexico and surrounding regions.

About TIES

In response to the Association Liaison Office for University Cooperation in Development's (ALO) thru the Training Internships Exchanges and Scholarships Initiative (TIES), the University of California, San Diego, (UCSD), San Diego State University (SDSU), El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (COLEF) and Universidad Autónoma de Baja California at Tijuana (UABC), have joined together in a partnership to develop an HIV/AIDS Prevention program to improve the binational response to HIV/AIDS in northwestern Mexico and surrounding regions.

Our training program is designed to meet the demands of the emerging HIV epidemic in North Western Mexico, Tijuana in particular. In terms of didactic training, we will annually offer a certificate program (diplomado) in San Diego and Tijuana that will include didactic lectures, field trips and an internship that allows students to put their new skills into practice (total: 120 hrs).

Internship opportunities include the VIIDAI field course in Baja California, rotations in HIV/AIDS prevention research, medical care or laboratory diagnostics or NGO HIV/AIDS service providers. Alternately, we will sponsor 3 students per year to attend a one-month HIV/AIDS Diplomado in Cuernavaca organized by INSP. We will also host a visiting scholars program to enable researchers from Mexico and California to share information and work on reports to influence policies on HIV/AIDS prevention in the US-Mexico border region.

Our training goals are to: 1) Create a binational infrastructure for training Mexican nationals in HIV/AIDS prevention and program evaluation; 2) Facilitate educational opportunities at the Master’s level for Mexican Nationals in Tijuana in HIV/AIDS prevention, program evaluation, and policy making; 3) Create sustainable mechanisms whereby undergraduates, graduate and medical students in Tijuana and San Diego gain hands-on experience in HIV/AIDS prevention activities in Baja California. Participating faculty from these institutions have a history of working together and are involved in joint HIV/AIDS research. Our program is consistent with the USAID Mexico country plan and the goal of Mexico’s National HIV Prevention Control Program to contain HIV/AIDS and mitigate its impact on the health in the border region, with a focus on high risk and vulnerable populations.

Click here for more information on the TIES program.