World AIDS Day 2011

For me this was the big one – World AIDS Day 2011. Judy and I had spent a good few weeks planning, organising, and worrying about funding, and in the end it all went pretty well. Most commemoration events take place in town so this year we wanted to go into a rural area and the community of Lubombo around 30mins by car from Mazabuka was chosen for the event. This was very much the right idea so we could engage with people who often don’t participate in these commemoration days but did create various logistical problems in terms of checking that the community was doing its tasks, and also in getting people from town to and from the event. The second major issue was funding – both what the Government should have been giving us and when, and what we could raise locally. Judy did a great job locally, bringing in around £1,500 from farmers, businesses and our HIV and AIDS partners. The money from the National AIDS Council did not arrive until a few days before the event which meant that decisions on what to buy and in what quantity were all very last minute.

But as I said the event went well, it attracted around 1,000 people who were mainly from the local community which is what we wanted, and not only people working in HIV and AIDS already. There were a good number of information stands by our stakeholders, and the dance, drama and music were all enjoyed; even the speeches did not last too long (I had written most of them!). However, this being the rainy season the weather was kind up to a point as around 1300 the thunder and lightning started, followed by heavy, heavy rain. This brought the day to a slightly premature end. I was the last to leave a few hours later, making sure that everyone had found transport home. And aside from a few complaints about not getting a World AIDS Day t-shirt (50 available t-shirts into 1,000 people does not go!), the Lubombo community seemed happy and honoured to have hosted the event this year.