Learning the A, B, C

"Mi Corazon": my gangsta tattoo thanks to Kelsi and a Crayola marker.

When I arrived in Panama and first visited a Volunteer, Catherine described how she'd been teaching the 6^th graders at her local school about sexual health. I thought that was neat, but wondered if I'd ever be up to it. After all, I'd had little experience giving talks at all, much less in Spanish and on awkward topics. But in my time here, I've grown in a lot of ways, and one of those is in willingness and ability to talk about sexual health. My Peace Corps friends have convinced me that reaching out to kids and adults in this matter is important and gives information that Panamanians typically don't receive in school or even at the health center. Peace Corps has a lot of ideas for giving engaging presentations on this topic, and I've had the chance to practice by helping out other Volunteers with their own activities., several of them dealing with preventing teen pregnancy and HIV. Now that the pit latrine project was scheduled to finish up, I considered what I could do next to round out the end of my service.

 

In July 2013, I organized an HIV awareness month in my district. The objectives of this activity were to train local people to facilitate HIV talks in fun and memorable ways,  to raise awareness that HIV is a growing problem in our district,  and to educate about and encourage prevention methods: abstinence,  faithfulness to one partner and condom use. There are 15 known HIV cases in our rural district,  a number that rises annually and which is infecting younger children (13 years old).  Parents are concerned for the health of the youth. Many community members work several months of the year outside the area and away from their families,  and risky conduct can bring HIV back home.  We wanted to dispel unneeded fear and empower locals to take on this problem.

 

To that end, I trained 11 community members as co-facilitators of the HIV prevention talks. Each talk was 2 hours long and covered the topics : What is HIV? How is it spread? How can it be prevented? We used games and skits to carry the message. We partnered with local schools to reach students and the parents' clubs, giving five talks that reached a total of 130 adult community members and 400 students 5th grade through 9th grade.

Our last talk, at the middle school, was the largest event, and included a march with the entire student body and their teachers through the community. The march snaked down the gravel road near the school as parents and community members crowded around to see. The teachers and students carried banners they'd prepared with prevention related slogans, and the school percussion band banged out a loud rhythm as it rounded up the rear. 

 I and other Peace Corps volunteers led the nearby students in a chant about the HIV prevention methods we were promoting:

“Give me an A. Abstinence!

Give me a B. Be faithful!

Give me a C. Condom! “

 

The enthusiastic sixth graders who were shouting the message broke down in giggles when they yelled “Condom!” So did I.

 

For the middle school event, we had some special visitors. I and the community facilitators were joined by two other Peace Corps Volunteers,  three staff from the regional office of the Ministry of Health, including the doctor and nurse that specialize in HIV treatment,  and three members of the Asociación Nueva Vida,  a non-profit from the provincial capital (David) focused on HIV prevention and support for the affected. The visiting groups co-facilitated the talks, and shared information that can help people affected by HIV connect with available resources. It was great to be able to collaborate with them.



Sixth graders and the presentation team for one of our HIV Awareness Events including the Ministry of Health and the New Life Association, with other Peace Corps volunteers Abe and Seneca and community facilitators.

 

Special thanks go to Peace Corps Volunteers Kelsi J, Seneca A, Abe M, and Jeff N, who helped with presentations and training, as well as Returned Volunteers Laura G. and Kate B. who gave me ideas based on HIV education activities and marches they'd done. The activity was substantially funded by sales of calendars facilitated by Peace Corps Panama Friends. You too can get one for 2014 and support future Volunteer activities (calendar will be available starting in November).

Coming up next:

My departure from Panama, after over 2 years of service, is scheduled for October 18^th. I'll be heading back to Portland, Oregon for the time being and looking forward to catching up with family and friends!

Our community is lucky to receive the newly sworn-in Peace Corps Volunteer Jeff N., who will be working here until August 2015, if all goes well. (Wow, seems like a long way away, but my time here has gone so quickly!) He has a blog at http://jeffnpanama.wordpress.com/ and I know I'll be keeping tabs on it to see how the work is going. Jeff is a tall civil engineer from upstate New York. Being an engineer is certainly an asset here, as he'll have the chance to build and improve drinking water systems. Being tall is a challenge as all the homes are built for short people. Jeff  likes being in these beautiful mountains and is spending his first few weeks here adjusting to speaking Spanish exclusively with a healthy sprinkling of the native language, Ngabere. His native name is Chego. Mine is Begui. We have had a month here together for me to share work related information and introduce him to the community. He promises to teach me how to salsa dance. As an introductory activity, we gave a series of talks together about dental care and toothbrushing at the local school (more on that later!).

October 5^th is my goodbye party (despedida, in Spanish) which the community is organizing to celebrate my service here and welcome the new volunteer.