Wednesday, December 1st, was World AIDS day.
The GAR program worked with the Compassion program here in Najile to put on a big event. We had performances by our GAR school peer educator groups (3 groups of 15-20 students each) and Compassion children of songs, poems and dramas about HIV/AIDS. All performers received t-shirts with various mottos and phrases about HIV/AIDS (the yellow and blue shirts) and all staff had new shirts with the AIDS message as well.
We also had various leaders from the community who gave speeches. But the moment that made me most proud, was when one of our program clients came up and shared her story with the audience. Her ability to speak openly about her status and then challenge the community to overcome stigma and recognize how you can live positively with the disease was awesome. She shared how her faith in Christ and the assistance of the program had been crucial in changing her life. This is why we do what we do... We had hoped to do a parade of sorts with everyone lined up singing, carrying the banner, sporting their nice t-shirts, walking through the area, but the rain flooded us out! Who could ask for a greater blessing on the day than the first big rain in months?
Esther, Isaac and I were all a little tired, but happy when the day was done.
