i*EARN Sierra Leone Attends HIV/AIDS Workshop at US Embassy

by Alimamy Sekou Bangura
Freetown, Sierra Leone

It is not coincidental that iEARN Sierra Leone currently provides a best practice network for linking youths and schools along priority issues, public health line for educational and empowerment of youth to make a difference in their lives, families and communities. This is done through meaningful constructive online web-base forums and linkages and exchanges for development and solutions for community health.

It no doubt that for this reason, iEARN Sierra Leone was invited to the HIV/AIDS workshop organized by H.E.Peter A Chaveas, American Ambassador to Sierra Leone. This event took place at the U.S. Embassy Auditorium, Walpole Street, Freetown, Sierra Leone on the 10th of October, 2003.

Alimamy Sekou Bangura(Facilitator HIV/AIDS iEARN Sierra Leone) and Andrew Benson Greene(National Coordinator iEARN Sierra Leone) attended this very important workshop. There were other participants from youth organizations such as Peace Links Sierra Leone and United Nations of Youth - Sierra Leone, (UNOY), to name but a few.
The guest speaker was Sydonia Davis Taylor from New Orleans, LA in the United States. She led the highly interactive session on Best Practices of HIV/AIDS in Our Communities. According to her, lack of self-esteem among girls can lead them to prostitution.
She offered a common phrase: ‘If it is to be, it is up to me’. This became a refrain throughout the workshop, meaning we are all responsible for our well-being and safety, and if HIV/AIDs are to get hold of one, it is the responsibility of the individual. This is a symbolic phrase that buttresses the fact that if anything is to happen to you, it is your fault. It was a clear way to show how people can build self-esteem.

I was also able to demonstrate to my colleagues through role-plays the significance of best practices, abstinance and the use of condom practices as a real safegurading principle, enlivening the gathering of young advocates with the HIV/AIDS song composed by a leading iEARN Sierra Leone song writer and musician Rashid Peters. The song, 'Aids Is Real,' admonished all participants about the dismal fact of the reality of AIDS in our world.

Many Memorable Demonstrations
A little hand shaking and role play is a demonstration that was made to
tell us how a person can contract and spread HIV/AIDS to thousands of
people. This contact can be made from male to female, female to female, male to male, and female to male.

The symbolism of the red colour that is normally portrayed as a HIV/AIDs
sign means danger. The role play of a mother passing virus to her baby
from the baby age by breast feeding, shows how dangerous and fearful it can be, and how we all must be cautious.

People Living With Aids (P.L.W.A.) was such a real thing that it was role
played in a basketball game. You know one among them affected of
HIV/AIDS, among these people who to be fair, all or the person affected? Answer all because of cause we of the affected and others we don’t know.

The soda method was a very powerful method that was used for self-protection and protecting others as well.

S - Selective Safe Sex

O - Option
I am to do it or not to do it

D - Decision
Let me do it or the opposite

A - Action
I won’t do it or the opposite

Dispelling Myths About HIV/AIDS
An American worker at the US Embassy in Freetown spoke on the issue of malaria and HIV/Aids. According to her statement from the start of the epidemic there has been concern about the transmission of HIV by biting and blood-sucking insects, such as mosquitoes. However, studies conducted by CDC and elsewhere have shown no evidence of HIV transmission through mosquitoes and other insects even in areas where there are many cases of AIDS and large populations of mosquitoes. Lack of such outbreaks, despite intense efforts to detect them, supports the conclusion that HIV is not transmitted by insects.

The results of experiments and observations of insect biting behavior indicate that when insect bites a person, it does not inject its own or a previously bitten person’s or animal into the next person bitten. Rather, it injects saliva, which acts as a lubricant so it may feed efficiently. Diseases such as yellow fever and malaria are transmitted through specific species of mosquitoes. However, HIV lives for only a short time inside an insect; unlike organisms that are transmitted via entering a
mosquito or another insect, the insect does not become infected and cannot transmit HIV to the next human it bites.

There are also no fears that a mosquito or other insect, whilst biting with HIV infected blood left on its mouth parts, can transmit that to another person bitten. Several reasons explain why this is so. First, infected people do not have consistently high levels of HIV in their bloodstreams. Second, insect mouth parts retain only very small amounts of blood on surfaces. Finally, scientists who study insects have determined that biting insects do not travel from one person to the next immediately after feeding on blood.

Ending on a Positive Note
At the climax of the workshop, participants weaved a web from a colourful thread that was knotted. Each strand of the dissecting thread that formed the web symbolized a show of solidarity and commitment amongst all generations of people to unite in the battle against HIV and AIDS and how all of us can help to make our world a better place through sharing the message of protection and best practices.
Mr. Alimamy Sekou Bangura of iEARN Sierra Leone currently spearheads this initiative linking youths of Sierra Leone schools to their counterparts in USA, Netherlands, Canada, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Lebanon and Japan. He can be contacted at alimamybangura@iearnsierraleone.org.