VP1: Thoughts on Week 1 in Kikatiti Village

Written by volunteers Yoshi, Lisa, Kate, Even, Hellen and Hamida Last Thursday, June 19th, we had scheduled a meeting with a support group for people in Kikatiti who are living with HIV. During the day before the meeting, we started discussing how to approach the meeting. This was unlike the average teaching, one which includes the definition of HIV, its effects on the body after contraction, and how to protect oneself and the community from the disease. Their experience has clearly taught them more than anything we were supposed to tell them. We thus decided to treat it as a learning experience for ourselves about the state of HIV in Kikatiti. With regards to our conception of the problem of public health in the village and the areas of focus in our teachings, we found that the meeting was more valuable than we could have suspected.   We arrived at the church and were led around the back along a narrow path to a small clearing in between a weed-strewn, half-built, brick structure and a boarded-up building, hosting two large cows and a goat. When we arrived, we sat along the porch of the boarded building with the 12 members of the group and exchanged Shikamoo’s and Marahabah’s, proceeding to relax. The group consisted of mostly old Mamas and Babas, with a few younger women around the age of thirty, all wearing Kongas or Ketengas (one woman was wearing a Manchester United jersey, which Kate was particularly pleased about).   The teaching partners, Hellen and Hami...
Source: Support for International Change : HIV AIDS - Category: Global & Universal Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news