HIV Testing and the Qholaqhoe Mountain AIDS Ribbon

Since being back from break I have been working with the local hospital to organize two events at my school.  The testing event went really well and the painting of the AIDS ribbon is going to happen but being pushed back to next term.

The HIV testing event was coordinated at my school by a group called SolidarMED who do HIV and AIDS testing and counseling.  The organization is Swiss and a Swiss doctor and his family live at Seboche Hospital and run the organization.  A group of three counselors and two nurses came to my school for a week.  Each day they visited one grade, Form A – Monday, Form B – Tuesday, etc.  They spent the whole day giving HIV lifeskills lessons in Sesotho which allowed them to get across to many students that I was not connecting with in my lifeskills lessons because of language.  Then throughout the day the students could go to the library two at a time and get tested.  Many of my students where so scared to get tested but were eager to do it.  Rightfully so they should be scared, a positive test means the stress of knowing the disease is going to kill you, discrimination from your peers, and feeling like your lost.  However, about 180 of my students got tested about one third of the school. 

The students probably learned more in that one day of school than any other day all year.  However, many of the teachers did not welcome the visitors.  They complained it was taking away from class time, though they skip their classes regularly, and was doing nothing for the students but causing stress for the students who tested positive.  It was a good opportunity to talk to them and share perspectives on HIV and thoughts on testing.  Overall the event went really well and I am really excited about the work that the lead counselor Ntate Khotso is doing and working with him more; he is caring, fun and really believes in what he does. 

The second project that I tried to put together this term was to paint the Qholaqhoe Mountain AIDS Ribbon.  It was built in 2001 and is a landmark for the community and everyone knows its history.  Unfortunately time got cramped and I wasn’t able to organize the event details with the hospital fast enough.  The idea is that SolidarMED will do a community testing event on the day of the repainting and I will organize students and community members to take part.  Hopefully students will perform poetry and dramas to begin the event and the painting of the rock will commence during the open testing event.  The hospital is willing to fund purchasing the paint.  The ribbon is huge!  About 20m in diameter and sits about an hour hike up the mountain.  It fell through for now but will hopefully happen in the spring once it starts getting warmer and the days longer.