STOP SIDA!!

Stop SIDA!

December 4th, I celebrated two years in West Africa.

It 2008, I came with no expectations. I did, however have this subconscious idea that everyone in Africa lived AIDS. I’m sure I shared this notion with lots of other Americans (and anyone in fact who does not live in Africa), but I do believe that is my job now as an experienced worker to inform others that this is a horrible myth. Just like I came to West Africa to share a different culture and mentality and possibly change behavior, I will return to the US with the same goal in mind. An exhange, quoi, if you will, and there is no other time like the present to begin.

The HIV/AIDS rate is Senegal 0.7 percent. Percent wise, there are more people living with HIV and/or AIDS in Washington, D.C. than there are in the entire country of Senegal. However, due to the rapid growth of gold mining and the region of Kedougou slowly becoming a transient city when the international route it sits on will one day be the gateway to Bamako, Mali (if they ever finish that bridge), the increase of prostitution continues to soar as we literally watch how rapid Kedougou grows each week, and given that prostitution rates and the number of HIV/AIDS cases go hand in hand, we sadly watch how more cases pop up and the region of Kedougou is now calculated to have 1 in 10 inhabitants infected with HIV.

Although there is a great difference in numbers between a city and a village, it is important, however, to educate those on the disease and teach prevention methods to avoid it becoming a plague. This is what we did on December 2 in my village in honor of World AIDS Awareness Day. On the calender, WAAD is marked on the 1st of December which fell on a Wednesday this year. However, in my village, the weekly market day falls on a Thursday, so we went for market day in hopes of a better turnout.

After talking with the infirmiere of the heath post and 13 community health volunteers in the region who were all on board we looked toward the helping hands of local non-governmental organization for financial support. Thanks to partners like World Vision and ANCS, Alliance National Contre Le SIDA (a USAID subcontracted organization) we received funding for our Stop SIDA activities along with 4000 condoms and 50 t-shirts.

We started the morning off by showing a film on STDs and SIDA to the college students, however, most of the village came and participated.  We gave out over 500 red ribbons and educated them on it significance.  After the film the community health volunteers and matrons (as well as myself) put on a skit about testing and acceptance followed by a radio crochet we posed questions to the community and rewarded great responses with gifts (soap, milk powder, oil, etc, t-shirts).  Throughout the entire day, we had team come from Kedougou to do free, voluntary HIV testing.  The hospital district of Kedougou donated female condoms and we educated women on their usage.  We also asked the OBGYN from Kedougou to come up and do consultations (we tested all pregnant women who came in for consultations).  All in all, we had over 100 tested and gave out 4000 condoms.  We also gave out t-shirts to the top college students of each class and participants of the activity.  

Although we had some issues with microphones (hence the megaphone in the photos), the activity was a success.  We held a meeting with all the officials of the village prior to the activity.  At this meeting, the village formed a VIH/SIDA committee supervised under the infirmiere.  This committee decided they will continue to do this activity every year, so hopefully each year will improve.  The communitee health volunteers, infirmiere and myself are now putting together a report for the committee to follow next year.  It is basically an outline of what worked and what didn't.  I am very pleased about the outcome (over 500 people from not only my village but surrounding villages as well) and the participation from village officials and members of the health community.  People are still wearing their ribbons around town