Changing it up

After two straight days of the director not showing up for the program, we became a little disheartened, having traveled half way across the world to be part of this project, we felt our time could certainly be put to better use than just sitting and reading our books, while the ladies made the jewelry. Time in Kenya seems more theoretical than factual. So we decided to change it up. It’s all well and good to assist these few ladies who know their status and are open about it, but we both feel that prevention is the key, and more could be done to educate the children and others in the community about HIV and AIDS, hopefully persuading them to go get tested and use protection if and when they have sex.

Kathryn (the other volunteer) has a friend in South Africa who works with community HIV education and he offered the materials he has created for us to use a base. Coupled with the South African materials and some research into the situation in Kenya, we spent a few days creating education materials to be used with students in the local schools and seminars that Tumaini puts on when they have volunteers. We have also created a series of laminated posters featuring key points about HIV in Kenya which will be used at both seminars and talks to the students. Hopefully the materials we create will become the basis of future community HIV education, where subsequent volunteers can use them to inform more and more people about the issue, what it is, and what it isn’t.

The trial run of the materials was used with the Ngando primary school during Guidance and counseling with both boys and girls aged 12 and up. Some of the children knew a lot about HIV, like how it can be transmitted, what it stands for etc, but we also got to dispel some of myths which occur in the Kenya, like that HIV is a hex someone has put on you, or that it only affects poor people. We also spoke about sex, and how it’s very important to wait till you’re ready etc. The class concluded with a condom demonstration, including how to put it on (using a banana) and the basics of how it works. It’s pretty embarrassing telling 50 kids some as young as 12 how it all works, but it’s a small price to pay if it means they go and use a condom when they start having sex, it could save their lives.