Y'all. I can't even begin to explain the high I'm on right now, but I'll try.
For the past 5-6 weeks, our SOLID team and I have been preparing for a community-wide HIV testing and awareness event for World AIDS Day. This is a surprisingly large undertaking, and I'd be lying if I pretended that there were not some points in the past few weeks when I'd regretted having decided to try to put on this event. We called on and met with various groups around our health center's catchment area including HIV support groups, drama groups, students at the secondary school, and community based organizations to prepare the program. My primary counterpart and I may have been the head coordinators, but it was our dedicated SOLID team that really pulled through with the action side of things.
We had our final confirmatory meeting with all the groups on Sunday where we made sure that everyone knew what to expect. I used the money from my INCREDIBLE support system (thanks AGAIN GoFundMe contributors) to purchase all of our materials (raffle prizes, food stuffs for cooking demonstrations, refreshments for invited guests and performers, red ribbons for people to wear, etc) and with the help of a kind friend and her car (you rock, Barbara!), we managed to get everything to Bondo. The SOLID group divided up responsibilities for the day and executed them perfectly.
The lowdown on our event- our primary goal was simply to encourage testing to know your status. In hopes of de-stigmatizing HIV testing, we came up with the theme "Know your status and be a hero." We painted a simple mural at the location prior to the event with our theme and a red ribbon drawn on it. To give people extra incentive to go for testing, we had a raffle drawing with a prize giveaway for people who were tested. All of the people who came to volunteer their time, skills, or encouraging words were given a red ribbon to wear and a refreshment. At the end, we allowed everyone who had gone for testing to put their hand in paint and to place their handprint on the mural to symbolize their contribution to de-stigmatizing HIV in our community by knowing their own status. We also had tables set up featuring a variety of topics related to HIV such as malaria/HIV co-infection, the importance of nutrition (featuring peanut butter and soy milk cooking demonstrations), and example menstrual pads for women.
The day started early. I spent the morning up until 10:15 or so preparing all of the materials to take to our venue-the primary school-about a mile walk (uphill) away. Without a car, it took lots of people carrying things to get all of our katundu (stuff) there, but we made it. I was SO surprised at how smoothly the preparations ran. The SOLID team had prepped us well- setting up chairs, cooking thobwa (a traditional maize drink), and finding a "home base" aka one of the school rooms where we could keep all of our stuff. When I arrived, it was all about distributing things to the right people and making sure that everyone felt supported and ready. Maybe I had just organized well before I left my house or maybe I'm just becoming much more used to chaotic situations where everyone is calling your name all the time. Regardless, we got everything set up relatively quickly and only started our event about an hour and a half later than expected (not bad in 'Malawi time'). Since the event was at the school, it was mostly kids around in the beginning. They had gathered because of the PA system playing malawi dance songs. However, as the day continued, and as support groups and CBO members arrived, more adults and youth filed in. We even had a special visit from a nearby volunteer who rode his bike all the way UP to the venue (yay, Justin)!
We set up our HIV testing space, prepared the programme, set out materials, and then we were off! A prayer to start of course, followed by a folk song by the support groups. Then, my wonderful assistant program director for our health sector in PC Malawi, Eliza, arrived. She was already in the southern region doing site development work, but it was so great to have that support by Peace Corps! My counterpart and I made some opening remarks-I tried in Chichewa and did pretty well until I had to try to explain about our mural (my vocabulary isn't THAT advanced). Then the performances began!
We had traditional dances, dramas galore, songs, choirs, storytelling, poems, games, and a special certificate presentation for our freshly graduated SKILLS Girls at the secondary school. We also had a time when our invited guests moved around to all of our educational tables and saw the activities we've been learning/teaching here in Bondo-pads, peanut butter, soy milk, malaria prevention. And they got to taste the peanut butter and soy milk which they all loved, of course!
The event continued all day, and honestly, I don't think we had ANY hiccups! I can only say that now since it's over! We had a great turnout of chiefs, invited guests, youth, village groups, etc. My primary job was simply to enjoy and capture the event! I ran around in the HOT sun all day photographing and taking videos of our incredible performers. At one point, I went over to the HIV testing space because I was worried that maybe the performances were distracting people from going for testing. Welp, I shouldn't have worried because there was a line out the door for testing!! What a rewarding sight! At the end of the day, I heard from those who were conducting the testing and counseling that they had tested 84 people. Considering the turn out was mostly children (who don't typically go for testing), that's a high number, and I was very pleased to hear it!
Today will probably go down as the highlight of my Peace Corps service. Yes, I did a lot of the planning and delegating, but our SOLID group really took ownership of the event. They were absolutely inspiring today, and I was awestruck at how well the event flowed. I plan to write up all of the notes and expenses from the event and hand them over to the group in hopes that next year, even without me here to help, they'll feel prepared to continue the tradition of a World AIDS Day here in Bondo Village.