more MYAA

Month of Youth Against AIDS (MYAA) is wrapping up. The second week of March, we hosted a HIV/AIDS Youth Forum in Gumare. We had 31 students show up. Surprisingly, it wasn’t hard to get students to come on a weekend. The teachers attribute it to boredom, although I think part of it has to do with the fact that the teachers tell them they have to come. 2 other PCVs and 2 counselors from the Gumare Counseling Center help facilitate the workshop.

We used interactive, learning activities and games to teach the students about HIV myths versus facts, risky behaviors that transmit HIV, how HIV affects the immune system, and how HIV spreads through sexual networks. The students also learned about topics like STIs, the ABCs of HIV prevention, healthy living, behavior change, gender-based violence, decision-making and communication skills. Discussion was especially animated around topics such as Love, Sex, and Dating and Gender. We also did condom demonstrations; unfortunately, there is nowhere for youth to access condoms, even though 33% of 15-29 year olds are HIV positive and 33% of all pregnancies in our district are teenage pregnancies. Some of the issues that the students brought up as problems in schools were teachers who have sex with students and young girls having sex with men in the village for “presents”. At the end of the forum, the students discussed how HIV/AIDS affects their community and strategies they can use to help work against HIV/AIDS in their school and in Gumare.

Last weekend, Richard, the other PCV in Gumare, and I helped the GLOW/PACT club at the primary school do two mural projects to commemorate Month of Youth Against AIDS. One of the murals carried this year’s MYAA message One Me, One Partner, One Life (which is aimed towards reducing multiple, concurrent sexual partnerships that are fueling the HIV epidemic here) and the other one was a AIDS ribbon with We Want Life written in Setswana. The kids were very proud of the murals when they were done. Next week, they are going to do a drama and read a poem to the school to teach the other students about HIV/AIDS.

Things in the office have really picked up for me. I am usually busy during the morning/afternoon. We have been working on reports, following up on the Child Welfare Networking Forum by creating a directory for our area, etc. There will also be an Ark for Children Therapy Camp for orphans, sponsored by our office, next month. I’ve also been trying to get funds to hold a GLOW regional camp in our district in August. I am also helping the Health Education Officer plan an Employee Wellness Fair in May. We have already assembled a committee to help us arrange activities. Richard has been busy helping his office coordinate all the MYAA activities going on this month, as well as prepare for the upcoming quarterly TAC (Technical Advisory Committee for the DMSAC) and the District Multisectoral AIDS Committee. He is also working to raise funds to renovate the village’s community center so people have a social outlet, other than bars, and kids can relieve some of their boredom.

I have been going to the schools in the late afternoons, a few times a week, to work with the PACT/GLOW clubs at the primary school and the junior secondary school. I am also starting to mentor seven Form 3 (equiv to 9th, 10th grade) students from the Junior Secondary School. Richard is also mentoring four Form 3 students. Hopefully in May, I will be able to get a Students Against Malaria group going once the students are trained by a teacher who will come from Gaborone.

The weather is starting to get a lot cooler now since it is almost winter. It goes down to the low 60s at night, which is nice because I no longer start sweating the minute I get out of the shower. It makes sleeping a lot more pleasant. We are still fighting to get a refund for our plane tickets to Madagascar, but it doesn’t look promising. I think we are planning to go to Namibia next month instead. We finally bought our plane tickets to visit home in September. We will arrive in NYC on September 1 and leave September 14th. We are really looking forward to seeing our family and friends, as well as eating at all our favorite restaurantsJ

For those who are keeping tabs, we are up to 3 dogs and a cat. The third dogs we dubbed Not Our Dog even though he is looking mighty comfortable in our front yard these days. Unfortunately, all three dogs (two have been in our yard since we moved in) are dogs people left behind when they moved. Since they are very loyal to us, we don’t have the heart to eject them from our yard; however, we don’t claim ownership. I guess it doesn’t help that we go around collecting scraps for them whenever we can (they refuse dog food).

MYAA

It is Month of Youth Against Aids in Botswana so we have been busy with several events in our district. Last weekend, we did a mural project with the PACT/GLOW club at the junior secondary school. First, the students had an art contest to pick a winning drawing. They then took the winning drawing and sketched it on a wall at the school. Finally, on Saturday, the club members took turns painting the mural. It was a fun day of painting, playing Frisbee, and having a group discussion about HIV/AIDS. It started raining in the afternoon, but luckily we were able to get the majority of the painting done.

On Friday, we will be attending an HIV/AIDS event for students at the junior secondary school in Sepopa. This weekend, we will be facilitating a 2 day HIV/AIDS Youth Forum in Gumare for 30 junior secondary students. Next weekend, we are going to have the PACT club members from the junior secondary school help the PACT club members at the primary school paint a mural.

On Thursday and Friday, February 26 and 27th, we held the Child Welfare Networking Forum in Shakawe at the Fishing Lodge. After weeks of preparation, the two days went very well. We had 28 people come, representing S&CD, the DAC office, and 10 NGOs involved with orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) in our district. There were a lot of relevant discussions about how NGOs can work with each other and come together as one voice to advocate for OVCs. This was also an opportunity for S&CD (Social and Community Development office- gov. organization that provides benefits and services to OVCs and their caregivers) to clarify some issues pertaining to its role. The forum ended on a positive note, with all organizations expressing interest in meeting again in the near future, although no specific action plan was created. We are now working on a directory so that the organizations have each others’ information, including focus area and services offered, so it will facilitate referrals in the future.

The Saturday after the forum ended, Botshelo Trust, the NGO I was working with to produce the Child Welfare Networking Forum, sponsored an event called Shakawe Music Festival/Have a Heart for Kids day. At this event, all the NGO’s who came to the networking event had a booth where they provided information about their organization to the public. There was also talent show and traditional dancing, which people enjoyed. Unfortunately, it ended up raining quite a bit and the star act Chris Monto7 ended up backing out at the last minute.

The weather has not been nice for the last week. It has been raining heavily nearly every day. As a result, the roads have been hard to walk on because of all the mud and huge puddles of water. Luckily, the temperature has cooled as a result of the rain.

Sadly, my planned trip to Madagascar next month has to be cancelled due to the riots that have been happening in the capital. Peace Corps could not approve our trip due to safety concerns. I was really looking forward to seeing all the creatures (especially the chameleons and lemurs). We are not sure if we will go somewhere else yet, although we will be ready for a little R&R in the near future  The good news is that Jen P. has booked her flight and will be come visiting us in July, which will be a nice birthday present.