So my big final event before heading back to the states in December for Christmas was organizing World AIDS Day within the high school that I work with. The Cuanto Sabes youth HIV education program lasted through the end of November, with the graduation celebration the first weekend of December. Sidetrack for a moment: The program was such a great experience for me. The youth that taught their peers about HIV/AIDS demonstrated a great change throughout the duration of the program, from being very timid the first day to pulling of pretty complicated activities with confidence by the end. And the “indisciplined” youth that participated in the program were nightmares at the beginning but by the end they were so great. In reality we only planned to have 6 sessions but the last week they argued with me, claiming I told them we would have one more week. I was so impressed by their desire to continue (giving up their Saturdays by the way) that I agreed we could meet one more week. We ended up using that week to have a graduation celebration. I know these kids usually don’t get the opportunity to show their talents and be reinforced for good positive behaviors, so I decided to make a really big deal out of it. I made invitations and told the kids they had to invite their parents, and could invite friends or other relatives if they wanted. With the youth promoters, we planned who would bring what refreshments, and I promised them I’d make American style sweets, like chocolate chip cookies and brownies. The day of the event came and some of the kids showed up alone, but many brought a friend, a boyfriend/girlfriend, a parents, or a sibling. We played musical chairs then the teacher that helped organize the program said a few words. I also noticed the principal was there that day so I asked him if he would say a few words. Finally, I told the kids and parents how proud I was of the accomplishments the group had achieved, and gave each of them certificates for completing the program. The youth told me they want to do a program with me again the next year, which I intend to do. Finally we took a group picture and sent them home. Overall I feel like I learned a lot about these kids and how youth here think, and think I was able to reach and teach them through the duration of the program. I would say it has been one of my best experiences thusfar in Peace Corps.
(Photo of the Cuanto Sabes Graduation group)
For World AIDS Day (Dec 1) myself and my Cuanto Sabes group participated in the community-wide events, from the parade to the open house in the park. During our Cuanto Sabes program when we were talking about goals and the future, one of the boys mentioned that he was a professional clown for a couple years with his father, who is also a clown. He talked about decided to go back to school instead of pursuing clowning long-term, but that he liked entertaining people and making them laugh. So when I was thinking about what we should do for World AIDS Day, I realized I had some great talent available. I selected 8 of the youth who had regularly attended and participated in the Cuanto Sabes program and asked them to help out for World AIDS Day. With the high school I coordinated our participation and got permission for the youth to miss class that day. As far as our participation, I asked 4 of the boys to dress up as clowns, so we could present our message in a more fun way. During the parade they were hilarious! They were doing all sorts of clown stuff, from making human pyramids to doing the clown motorcycle skit, etc. I made a roulette board for community members to play a game and receive one of 3 prizes: condom, candy, or toy. I also had balloons to make balloon animals, and taught all of the youth how to make giraffes, dogs, and a couple other easy animals (which I myself learned how to make the night before via internet – thank you youtube!). So the clowns ran around being goofy, handing out balloon animals to the kids, and getting the adults and youth to play the World AIDS Day roulette.
The parade ended in the central park, where we were going to have an open house with other organizations from the community, including the maternity clinic, health center, etc. I had asked the health center for condoms to give away at our stand, so we had about 400 condoms to give to community member. I had asked the youth promoters to come and help by doing condom demonstrations and talk about the important topics like transmission of HIV. So they were doing a great job with that. And the clowns surprised me by also doing some condom demonstrations (correctly!) with some of their friends and other youth they knew. They did an excellent job! And 2 of the youth promoters even went on stage and demonstrated how to use a condom in front of the entire crowd – I couldn’t believe that these were the same youth who could barely speak in front of their peers the first day of the workshops! At the end of the event we were out of everything – condoms, candy, toys, and balloon animals. The balloon animals were a huge hit, as most people had never seen anything like it before.
The end results of World AIDS Day were that the youth demonstrated to their peers that being informed and preventative can save your life, which is ultimately the most effective way of youth education; that these “indisciplined” youth got to have an opportunity to shine and gain self-confidence in a positive manner; the high school saw that these kids aren’t lost causes, that they had a great amount of potential even though they require some extra effort; and I saw that even though I had worked with these youth for 6 weeks, I was still underestimating them and their abilities. It was an amazing, albeit stressful for me, day. And so that each and every one of the youth remembers that day and the potential they have, I printed copies of our group photo for each of them.
Photos of the World AIDS Day Activities
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