Every volunteer wants to do at least one big thing in their village. They want to do something they can immediately see the results of and know that an impact was made at least for a day. I’m no different. A few months ago- October- I applied for a grant to do a teacher workshop and do a big event for World AIDS Day on December 1, unfortunately the grant money didn’t come in
time and I wasn’t able to do that event (I took GLOW girls to meet former President George W. Bush instead). I hadn’t even heard that my grant had been approved so it was kind of upsetting. During my COS conference in January I was finally told that I got approved for the grant….but
had 3 months before the end of my service and the project had to be completed.
Since World AIDS Day was over I had to come up with a new program. There was already a Zonal Workshop component but I needed something else. I don’t know what made me think of the idea but I thought it would be fun to have a Zonal Quiz and Debate competition with all the schools in the Zone. But with getting the money in February and having other projects as well, there
wasn’t a lot of time to prepare.
The teachers were already aware that there would be a workshop but they didn’t know when and they didn’t know the topic of the workshop. Since the grant was a HIV awareness grant, the topic of the teacher workshop and the quiz and debate were all focused on HIV awareness, prevention,
stigma and Orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). I wanted to focus on these issues anyway seeing as there are a lot of orphans in my area and the stigma surrounding condom use, getting tested and being positive is really high and I wanted to address these issues with the teachers as well as with the community.
The guidance teacher and the m/patron of the AIDS Action club were invited to this workshop. There were a total of 10 teachers present. During the workshop we discussed HIV transmission, risk behaviors, the ABCs of safe sex (Abstinence, Be faithful, Condoms), stigma and why stigma exist and OVCs. The teachers did so well. They were involved in the workshop the whole time. I lead the sessions so I was afraid they would get bored but they didn’t. They seemed to be really taking to the conversation. We had some really good conversations about what to do when
its obvious that abstinence only education isn’t working. I told them we have the same problem in the States. I enjoyed the workshop myself. I love leading things like that and having discussions with the teachers and getting their opinions. It was also cool to have some of them chime in and explain things totheir collogues who didn’t know the information. You could tell they learned some new things and also they got to see my style of teaching since I haven’t
been able to teach at all the schools. They all said they want more workshops, wish I would’ve know that before the end of my service but maybe the new volunteer could help in that area.
A week later we had the zonal quiz and debate competition where all the schools sent pupils to compete against each other. In addition to the quiz and debate, we also had a clinic worker talking about prevention of mother to child transmission and a mobile clinic doing HIV
testing and counseling. There were 6 kids from each school (3 for quiz, 3 for debate) and one teacher. There are 5 schools in my zone. The kids were given a “study guide” to help them but they weren’t given the questions for the quiz. They got their debate topic and the school they were debating against the night before the debate so everyone had the same amount of time to prepare. All the quiz questions were related to HIV. The categories were: HIV transmission, the
ABCs of safe sex, Acronyms (since there are so many relating to HIV), Voluntary Counseling and Testing and Living positively. The quiz was set up as a jeopardy game and they got to pick their category and point value, they did not have to answer in the form of a question.
The debate was all focused on stigma surrounding HIV. The motions were based on real conversations that happen in the village. The three motions that were debated were: People with HIV should be removed from the community, Condom Demonstrations shouldn’t be allowed in schools and People with HIV shouldn’t be allowed to have children. There were two schools that
debated in English and the rest used local language.
The day was so amazing. I was so proud of the kids and was happy everything worked out. The day before I was bitten by a dog and knew after the event I needed to go to Lusaka so I was dealing with a lot of emotions, but everything worked out as it always does. The debate was great. The kids got really into it and you couldn’t even tell they were nervous. The presented their points and made great interjections. So proud of all of them. The District Education Board Secretary was there to watch and he was also impressed. It was evidence that just because
these kids live in the village it doesn’t mean they are dumb. It was also a motivator for them; people actually DO care about them and their education.
There were so many members from the community there which was great because they also got to learn some things as well. They enjoyed watching the kids debate and were picking their sides according to the arguments. At the end of the day there were over 250 people at the event and
113 people were tested for HIV. This was big because people are so afraid to be tested. Even one of my teachers told me she was afraid and wasn’t going to go check her status; she was the 113th person to be tested that day! There was a raffle for people who got tested. The prizes came from Americaland (Thanks mom and dad and Maryville College J-term trip!!!!) and some in country donations. Everyone had a good time and I think learned something.
The money from the grant paid for food, transport, and prizes for the quiz and debate winners. I lived off of the high of that program for a few days. I was proud of myself for pulling it off in a few weeks time and not being overwhelmed with everything. It was one day but it changed me to
see how involved the community was. It was even more surprising because the event was not in my village; it was at a school 8km away during rainy season. Two strikes but it worked out just the same. They were invested in their kids and their health that day. They wanted to know their status and keep themselves safe. It was great to see everyone coming together and hopefully they’ll use and remember what they learned.
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