World AIDS Day 2019

Lumelang kaofela!

It’s almost the end of this decade, so I thought I’d post one last blog entry before the New Year. A lot has happened at my site the last couple of months, so let me fill you all in!

First of all, the youth club that my counterpart Thabita and I are running is going extremely well. We’ve had a solid two months of meetings with great attendance. One of our meetings even had 70+ kids show up! On average, we’ve had about 40 kids consistently show up Fridays at 4, and they are really enjoying it. Thabita leads the meetings entirely in Sesotho, (from an English manual I might add… she translates on the spot!) and I do most of the work in the background. We plan lessons together earlier in the week, and then during the actual club meeting, I mostly keep track of attendance and make sure we’re not going too over time. We have been using lesson plans from a Peace Corps Manual that deals with life skills and SRH (sexual and reproductive health). The kids absolutely love Thabita. She is really funny and relatable to them, and is such a charismatic leader. We have started the club out with life skills topics like goal setting, healthy friendships, communication styles, decision making, etc. Starting next year, we are going to have topics related to sexual and reproductive health. We’ll be kicking the year off in February with two sessions on puberty! We wanted to ease into sessions that are more sexual in nature, to get the group dynamic going and to allow the youth to feel comfortable discussing in front of each other. The next step of the club is going to be getting the youth to engage in lesson planning and leading sessions. Thabita and I are going to use January to apply for a Peace Corps grant for our club, so we can buy materials like flipchart paper, markers, printer paper, and other supplies we might need. Overall, I am thrilled that the youth are so excited about this club and since they’ve worked hard and shown up for these past two months, we are going to celebrate the end of the year with a movie at our last club meeting this Friday, before we stop for the summer.

The other exciting event that I was working on at my site was a World AIDS Day celebration! World AIDS day takes place on December 1^st, every year. Each year, UNAIDS has a new theme for HIV prevention. Last year, it was “Know your Status.” This year it is “Every Community can Make a Difference.” So with that in mind, myself and the other clinic staff decided that it would be a great idea if we could have a community event, related to HIV Prevention. One of my co-workers, Retsepile (ray-tsay-pe-lay), works for an HIV Prevention organization called LENASO. His job deals with tracking HIV patients who have defaulted on their medications, meaning they haven’t come to the clinic on their scheduled date to pick up their supply of ARVs. He thought that his superiors at LENASO might be interested in sponsoring the event, so when they came to the clinic, we pitched the idea. They agreed that it was a good idea and we heard back from them about two weeks before the proposed date that they would help sponsor the event. They were able to provide lunch, red ribbons, and man/womanpower for the event, which was really excellent! During the two weeks before the event, we scrambled to reach out to members of the community who might be interested in speaking at the event. We talked to the Chief and the priest, and the HIV support group. We worked with the youth club to perform a drama about PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis). I have to say, it was an extremely stressful two weeks, and communication with LENASO was difficult at some points. But the event went off without a hitch!

We started the day by preparing sandwiches with the food that LENASO provided. We got the tent set up in the field by the clinic, and filled it with tables and chairs. When the LENASO staff arrived, most of the community members were already there, and we only started 25 minutes late which is really a feat, considering all the work we had to do in the morning. The event was all about celebrating our community and the people in it who are living with HIV. My host mom is very open about her HIV status, and she even gave a speech about stigma and discrimination at the event. She came to the event with all of the members of her support group, who all came up and stood behind her as she spoke. It was really special. A woman who had a successful PMTCT (prevention of mother to child transmission) pregnancy spoke about her experience with adhering to medication throughout pregnancy and lactation.

Our youth also performed their drama about PEP which went really well, although they didn’t speak loud enough so everyone was yelling at them to speak up. But I think everyone got the gist of the play! The drama was about a couple who didn’t know each other’s status, but had sex and the condom broke. They decided they’d go to the clinic together to receive PEP just in case one of them was positive. It turns out the guy is positive, and the woman had to take PEP to reduce her risk of infection. The drama ends with the woman telling the man that she loves him and will support him no matter his status. The kids did an absolutely great job with it, and they ended the drama with a bow and they all said together “Every community can make a difference!” It was really awesome.

We also had an award ceremony which recognized the best support group, a person who had been adhering to medication the longest, and the best adhering CAG (Community Adherence Group), and a mother who had a successful PMTCT experience. We made sure that all of the recipients were comfortable with their HIV Status being shared in a public setting prior to the event. This event was made really meaningful by people who weren’t afraid to talk about their HIV status, and I really hope that their being open inspired others at the event. There were at least 80+ kids of all ages in attendance, and I hope that some of them who are HIV positive were really able to see positive role models, living healthy lives.

The best part of any group event in Lesotho is that there are no awkward pauses between speakers. That short period of time when a speaker walks to from their seat to the front of the tent, the whole group immediately breaks out into song, and it’s just amazing. Members of LENASO sang as a performance, and the village health workers who were in attendance performed a song as well. Everyone enjoyed lunch, and it was really just a great time all around. The end of the celebration was marked by a huge flash flood and we were all stuck under the tent in the pouring rain! It was crazy. This event could not have happened if it wasn’t for my amazing co-workers who all pitched in to make this event a success. Every community can make a difference, and my community really showed that this statement is nothing but true!

(Thabita, Retsepile, and me after the event!) 

Going into 2020, I’ve been looking back on what I’ve set out to do this year, and what I’ve accomplished. At the start of 2019, I had just moved to a village in Berea, and I don’t even live there anymore. My Peace Corps service was nothing like I anticipated, and if you’d asked me what I wanted to do last year in December, my answer wouldn’t resemble anything that I’ve accomplished. There is not a single achievement that I have had alone, or haven’t had help in working towards. My goal coming into the Peace Corps was that obvious trope of “trying to make the world a better place.” I realize through this past year that this is not something I, or anyone else, can do alone. If we want to make real, sustainable change, we have to work with others and be open to doing things differently than we set out to do them. Everything works itself out eventually, and I really love the way my time here has worked out. I’m planning on going into this New Year with a positive attitude, and can’t wait to see what challenges and successes the first year of the roaring 20’s will bring me. After a much needed vacation in Durban, South Africa of course!

I hope everyone can spend their holidays with their loved ones, and wishing you all a Happy Hannukah and New Year!

Sala hantle, 2019!