Once again behind on blogging – this time it is due to trying to do job applications for when I return (and the usual lack of reliable internet!!)
We’re working with a group called Youth Impact – they promote HIV and AIDS awareness and prevention to young people around Liwonde. We have arranged to give a series of 10 presentations to different groups they are in contact with.
The first one was last week – we all got on our bike taxis (a bike with a seat on the back) and headed south to a group called Simatele. It was the middle of the week so most of the members were away at school, so we met the leaders, the local village chief and some of the villagers. Since this was the first time we’d done the presentation we asked if we could treat it as a dress rehearsal and get feedback from them. They were more than happy to oblige!
We started by asking if anyone knew what HIV and AIDS are. We then went into a game about stigma. We had a series of statements about HIV, the facts, myths and stigmas that can be associated with it. People had to go to one side of the room (not a room but a series of stone benches build to make a meeting place) if they agreed with the statement and to the other side if they disagreed. Some were very easy “Drinking the urine of an old women stops you getting HIV” (This is a real myth that is believed in some villages!!) and some more difficult, “You can tell that someone has HIV by looking at them.” But we did well. We then split the group with one half listing transmission methods and the other prevention. We all feedback together and covered any gaps that were missing.
The event was well received and Gilbert (our boss in this) was able to start making connections for his new project; a network of villages supporting each other - more on him will follow very soon.
On Tuesday and Wednesday we were in Salima having the mid-phase review of our time here (hard to believe we’re already half way!!) It was awesome to see our friends and hear about their work, share what we had been doing and to re-evaluate and plan for the second half. My proposal that we start to document the stories of people living with HIV who have experienced SSDDIM (Stigma, shame, denial, discrimination, Inaction and mis-action) was well received by our partner agency MANERELA and is now going ahead full swing.
It was also good to get the chance to see Lake Malawi “You can’t come here and not see the Lake!!”
Back in Liwonde we went, again on our bike taxis to a village who are running a CBCC, this was a chance for us to share best practice and widen the network we are building with Gilbert. The journey was interesting, at pointed we felt just like Livingston (if he’d had a bike!) and there is a real sense of working together with the driver when you are both trying to lift the bike up a hill! The organisers at the CBCC had told a local youth group we were coming and said we might stop in – so back on the bikes and into the hills where we arrived and totally disrupted the morning classes of the school where the youth group is based (oopss!!!). Having met them we are now trying to find time to give our presentation to them too. On our way back down the hill we came across some journalists (Gilbert’s mother law was to be interviewed because she killed a hyena with a spear – don’t ask!!) who were interested in us and came round afternoon and record a short piece about us. We were able to talk about Progressio, the work we’re doing and our mission to collect peoples’ stories of discrimination due to HIV. It will be broadcast on Monday morning, so we’re planning an early morning trip to Gilbert’s house to watch!
To end a busy day we observed the 2 minute silence for the armistice and all had the realisation that in 1 month it will all be over and we’ll be back in the UK. But we’ve a very busy 4 weeks before that!!
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