Gracias por su ayuda!

Thanks to all of you that contributed, this year´s World AIDS Day event was a huge success! Together with Arte Accion, Com Vida, Vision Mundial, Vida a la Vida, and the local health center, we were able to organize a series of events to raise awareness for HIV/AIDS. I personally worked with a youth group (Com Vida) throughout the month of November and trained them in subjects such as gender, stereotypes, self-esteem, and HIV/AIDS prevention. The majority of participants in the group came from aldeas (very small villages) in rural areas and had recieved no prior training in such important issues. The Com Vida kids played a key role in organizing this year´s event, by preparing information stands in the parque and helping to answer questions. I am hope to continue working with them in 2008. Here are some photos and descriptions of the day´s activities:

This is the Com Vida group I have been working with.

We literally kicked off the day with a soccer tournament that lasted until 1pm- we had 12 different teams participate in the tri-county area! Afterwards, we talked with the participants about HIV /AIDS and encouraged them to look at the information stands in the central park.

Later, in the afternoon, we set up tables in the central park with information corresponding to the various aspects of HIV/AIDS, including stands for general information, transmission, prevention, statistics, and a table for the health center. We also had a 25-question "test your knowledge" quiz available at the general information stand. Those that scored above 90% won great prizes such as free meals provided by local restaurants.

The Com Vida murals on display in the park.

We were able to buy tshirts for the Com Vida kids as well as for the other event organizers. The slogan reads "Assume leadership, stop AIDS, keep the promise!"

We held a "mototaxi parade" whereby the mototaxis circled the town of Copan and distributed condoms to the public.

The local health center provided free HIV testing in the park. (Obviously privacy norms are a bit different in Honduras.) The personnel reported that they were able to test 50 people!

Below are the information stands that we set up. It was packed!

The statistics stand. Honduras has about 35% of all AIDS cases in Central America, while it only represents about 17% of the population. Que baribaridad!

People observing and learning! In the background there is a posterboard with faces of various people. Participants had to guess who had HIV- the point of the activity was to demonstrate that HIV has no symptoms and that you cannot tell just by looking at someone.

Here are some kids taking the "test your knowledge quiz". We gave away over 40 prizes for those that scored over 90%.

The Com Vida group put together condom packets with instructions.