To me, World AIDS Day is one of the most important days of the year, and I wanted to do something for it. One of my counterparts/gym owner and I decided to have a dinner with our Zumba ladies and their partners at a restaurant in Jalapa on December 1st to educate them about HIV/AIDS. We presented a slideshow about the statistics in Nicaragua and they asked many questions and learned a lot by the end of the night.
Only 3 ladies and their children showed up. I was a little disappointed by the turnout, but the ladies who did show up are always at my classes and I really appreciated their presence.
Slideshow Presentation
Marvin answering questions about HIV/AIDS
The following Monday, our women's shelter, Oyanka, put on an HIV/AIDS fair, with the help of Cruz Roja (Red Cross), and NGOs like CEPS, ProFamilia and myself. It was a nice event. We did condom demonstrations, free rapid HIV tests, giveaways (t-shirts and condoms) and education about HIV/AIDS.
Hopefully next year I can create more excitement and do a bigger event on my own, rather than tag along to someone else's event, but only time will tell!
Preparing the ribbons we handed out to everyone who attended the fair
CEPS banner: "Nueva Segovia united for a global response"
"I have AIDS in mind, so I don't have it in my body, I use a condom"
The setup
Putting together condom packets to hand out
Putting together condom packets to hand out
Condom Packet: "I can protect you! If you use me always and correctly in every sexual relation"
Me with Don Condón
"Vive Informate Humanizate (Live, Inform, Humanize)"
One of my CEPS buddies proving that a condom can never be too small!
Demonstrating how to correctly put on a condom
Receiving information from Oyanka