AIDS Day in Sikasso

As you know – or should know – International AIDS Day is December 1st. Here in Mali, though the AIDS rates aren’t nearly as bad as in other parts of the continent, there still are awareness campaigns and a drive to protect yourself again contracting the disease. My friend Trinh – oddly enough who I went to school with at GWU – lives in the southern part of Mali, the region called Sikasso. She lives in the regional capital and had been working really hard on putting together an AIDS Day event with a local youth group. After vacillating back and forth, I finally decided to get my butt on public transport and get down to Sikasso. Her event was a great success. There was a lecture in the morning and a basketball tournament in the afternoon with an information fair.

Here's Trinh giving her introduction speech. So nervous, but she did a great job!

Apparently Malians wanted to see American girls play basketball so some PCVs got together and played. Of course, they didn’t know they were playing against Malian men, but, what’s a little surprise here and there. Of course, afterwards there was a men’s game and a women’s game. The women kicked ass!

PCVs and Malians shaking hands before the game. We lost, 4-0, but it was only a 5 minute game. It could have turned around!

Here's part of the girls' game where they kicked butt!

The information fair was really awesome too. There were stands handing out free condoms with demonstrations of how to use both the male and the female condom. PCVs headed tables giving the facts about contracting HIV/AIDS and asking kids to define themselves using, “I am…” as a beginner. That was a little tougher to convey, but we got some good ones.

This table was dedicated to putting acts, both sexual and non sexual, into the risk categories of contracting HIV/AIDS. I think it was brilliant.

Here's Sarah trying to get Malian kids to define themselves using "I am," "I can," or "I want" as leading statements. She wasn't too thrilled with the outcome, but it's an interesting exercise nonetheless.

Here they set up a tent to do confidential HIV/AIDS testing. We were in charge of getting people testing, but it's a difficult job.

It was a really great event and Trinh put a lot of work into it. So, thanks to her for dealing with Mali and thanks to all of the other PCVs who showed up to support the cause.