this past sunday i had a great day. about a month ago at my reconnect conference i got really motivated to do an HIV fair with testing. Ive wanted to do this since the very begining of my time here but the doctors
have always told me 'there are no tests for that' 'theres no money from that' 'you wont be able to find anyone who will support you' 'no one will do the tests'. so i never did it. however, a year into my service
i know the workings, the ins and outs of the system. so i thought, i mine as well give it a try because with many of the things i have done and recieved people have told me were never possible. So i mention the
idea to my counterpart and bff susana and she is totally on board. she sees the importance of this amongst the youth as well as everyone in san isidro. we start thinking of what we need, who we can ask, when to
do it. I talk to some PC friends who i think might be interested in helping out. one PC friend in guayaquil says that she has 30 tests she can donate. 30 tests is a good minimum. we set a date and start working.
after taking a few trips to bahia where all of the offices and directors are we have recieved many informational pamphlets, condoms, transportation and lunch for all those who will be helping out in the ferry,
a doctor and labratory specialist with as many tests as we can fill in one day. in addition, susana has a great idea to invite a beauty school with whom we have worked with in the past to cut hair for free as a
some-what 'prize' for the women who decide to take the test. we wanted to focus a lot on rural, stay at home moms considering that around 80% of women who have hiv in ecuador are them. also the day before is a
'rural women day' so to also celebrate that. beauty school : check. everything we needed and wanted we recieved. through a donation by a special PC Volunteer (me! but i'm hoping my mom will help me out) we
bought 10 tshirts for the 10 most active members of consejo who will be helping out that day. we chose october 16, sunday because these are the days when many of the rural community members come into town to do
their shopping or visiting. the weekend before (saturday) we have a training with the youth group where i taught them everything there is to know about HIV/AIDS so that they are well prepared and education, so that
they can explain to anyone or answer any questions and use appropriate and educated termonology. we also working on conversation and convincing tecniques seeing how HIV/AIDS is a tough subject to talk about and
that many people will have reasons not to take the test we spoke about some of those reasons and smooth and not forceful ways of explaining why they should take the test. the training went super, we even did
role-playing! the sunday afterwards (1 week away from event) we went into town to start passing out sheets and explaining what the event is so that the people start getting it into their head and thinking about the
possibility of taking the test, also so that they can invite other family or friends to come. the next week was full of making posters and preparing anything last minute. day before: we have another meeting to talk
about logisitcs, with some peace corps friends we have come out to help (in the end there were 6 other pcvs who came into san isidro to help out and thank you so much to them!!). day of: 6:30 am we start preparing
and bringing everything down to the park where we will have the event; balloons, tables, table cloths, tents, tape, posters, pamplets, papers, t-shirts, tests, chairs, music, amplification, etc. At 8am we already had
a line and people asking about where they can go to get the test done. by 9 tests were being done, music was playing, people were talking and learning about HIV/AIDS. by 10am the ladies were getting their hair cut and
styled. all day there was a long line and a full waiting room to get tested. we took a lunch break and even though the doctors from bahia had left we continued afterwards to finish up the 7 more tests my friend had
left over. after the day was completed and we starting packing up, 140 HIV tests later we were still recieving patients who were interested in getting tested. The day was beyond a success and i was more than
overwhelmed by how much help we recieved and voluntud from the people of San Isidro whom i did not think would want to take the test, whom i thought were going to have many disconocimientos and whom i thought we
would have to convince to go and get the tests. Susana and i spoke before hand and said to ourselves, we have at least 10 kids from our youth group who will take the test if no one else...and we ended up truly suprised
and happy with how great the day turned out. that we are looking towards when we can do it again.
to make that day even better. even though we were so tired from so much work and weeks of preparation, this weekend was also the special olympics for our kids with disabilities in the foundation. they went to a
nearby town 'pedernales' and 4 of our guys won gold metals!! so to celebrate we jumped upon a friends 'costa norte' (bus) on top! and cheered, blew our whistles, waved out balloons and chanted "campiones, campiones,
campiones, campiones!!!!" through the streets of town. friends and motorcycle taxis joined in when they saw us following behind and also honking their horns. people waved and cheered at us from the street. it was
a great feeling a great way to top off the day.
whats next?
0 comments:
Post a Comment