You may be looking out for my Sunday post right now, but it is going to be a Monday post. Yes, it is I am afraid. The spirit was willing, but the energy has faded. The past week has been pretty intense.
Here is one of the exciting things I was doing last week. I had the honor of taking responsibility for the “Justice For All” tent at the University of the West Indies HIV/AIDS Response Program (UWIHARP) World AIDS Day celebration – “Getting to Zero…Justice for All.” My two colleagues, Latoya and Raquel, did a fantastic job engaging the visitors to our booth on issues related to stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS, the LGBT community and other groups that are often pushed to the margins of society. Raquel took copious notes! We had some fierce darts competitions, too. Elsewhere music flowed,
Some of the questions we asked during our conversations with our visitors were…
- What is the first word that would come to your mind if you are told that someone you know is HIV positive?
- Would you go up and hug and kiss that person knowing he/she is positive?
- Do you personally know anyone with HIV or AIDS? If so, has your relationship with him/her changed at all?
- Would you sit down and share a meal with a person living with HIV or AIDS?
- What would you do if a person living with HIV or AIDS sneezed in your face?
- If you were sick with diabetes or cancer, for example, how would you feel if a neighbor started to avoid you?
- If your father or your sister was sick, would you care for them and nurse them? Would you do so in the same way if they had AIDS?
- Would you feel more sympathetic towards a woman with a family or towards a young man with lots of girlfriends – both living with AIDS? Would you treat them differently
- Do you think it’s best if people living with HIV/AIDS don’t disclose their status?
- What are the questions you would ask a person living with HIV/AIDS (in a one on one chat)?
- Do you think some people (sex workers, LGBT community, homeless, drug abusers etc) “have it coming to them” because of their way of life?
- How do you think people living with HIV/AIDS feel about themselves?
- How do you think people living with HIV/AIDS want to be treated?
- Do people living with HIV/AIDS have rights?
- Do you listen to or spread gossip about others?
Finally and most of all, congratulations to the energetic and hard-working Yolanda Paul, who put heart and soul into this project. Besides being a really delightful and funny person, she can organize the hell out of anything! We had a magnificent day. Here are a few photos to give you a flavor…
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Sounds like a really great event! Hope they have more and that it actually makes positive impacts on the people who attend.
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Yes, the turnout was amazing. 90 per cent young people aged 15 to 30 ish I would say. I think it really did make an impact on many. They obtained much information, and also the discussions on our booth were really quite meaningful. We all learned a lot, I think.
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I’d be very interested to read some of the answers too.
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OK… We are compiling a report and I will share the responses. Some of them were quite surprising.
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Good luck and thanks for sharing… will you publish collectively the response to those great questions asked the visitors to your tent ? I am quite curious to hear the responses.
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Yes, we are working on a report and I will definitely share some of the responses from visitors (the majority of whom were aged from 15 to 35 years old). They were interesting.
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