Life Has No Spare Parts

A few weeks ago, I started teaching an HIV/AIDS curriculum at school to 6th and 7th graders, to fill the gap of zero point zero health talks held at the primary school. There is already national curriculum with some long acronym (PIASCY, or President's Initiative on AIDS Strategy Communication to Youth) with a glowing photo on the front of Uganda's very own president talking to a group of secondary school girls about AIDS. Despite the presence of a national curriculum, it is not taught at my primary school and as I suspect, at many other schools. This stuff just isn't being talked about. It's surprising, especially since HIV/AIDS is practically crammed down our throats, with signs throughout the village with ominous sayings such as "AIDS Kills" and "HIV is everywhere".  I'll never forget at Camp GLOW when I introduced myself to a camper and asked what she liked to do for fun, she replied "talk about HIV stroke AIDS," as if reciting from a billboard.

Our teachers modeling our HIV toolkit, teaching how HIV affects the immune system

Last week, a few of our teachers were putting up "inspirational" signs around the school, such as "Life Has No Spare Parts" and "Say No to Sugar Mummies and Daddies" (aka say no to gifts for sex. I love the mummies bit though. Would make a nice Halloween costume.) I asked the teachers if they thought the signs were effective, getting their message across to students in a meaningful way. The teachers both agreed, "Yes! Yes! They are very effective!" Research has shown that, in fact, they are not effective. The signs need to be complemented with teaching, explaining why "AIDS Kills". In fact, AIDS doesn't actually kill you, HIV simply weakens your immune system so badly that it can't fight off opportunistic infections. More like, "The common cold can kill you if you have AIDS." 

I've been trying to make up the void of HIV discussion by teaching an HIV/AIDS curriculum written by Peace Corps Uganda volunteers. The activities have been fun and interactive. This week, we've been talking about the immune system and how HIV affects it by doing a reenactment of the immune system, a volunteer for each type of white blood cell and one for antigens and HIV. Next week, we begin the tough stuff and how HIV enters the body. When I showed my counterpart the teaching aids, with "tip of the penis", "vagina" and "anus" written is giant letters, she gave me a look of both shock and pity. "Someone's gotta do it, and I'm already used to people laughing at me in this country," I told her.

I visited our sub-county's Health Center IV last week with one of our visiting medical officers. The clinical officer told me that he works twice a week with HIV positive people, about 900 in the sub-county. I was astounded by how high that number sounded, just for our sub-county alone. That seems like a big number for such as small area. Uganda has a relatively low rate for HIV for a sub-Saharan country, about 1.7 million last time I checked, but this number certainly felt more close to home. It gave new meaning to my HIV talks, since it is a very real threat in our area. I felt a little silly at first, talking about HIV and sex with pre-pubescent children, but this reassured me that knowledge, no matter at what age, is critical.