December 1, 2005
Today is World AIDS Day. The day started off with a radio address on all the Grenadian radio stations. They played an interview between the Minister of Health and an individual living with HIV. this man is the first Grenadian to make his HIV status public knowledge for hope of helping to end the stigma and discrimination. He figured by making people aware, he could also increase his chance for survival in terms of new medications and tests. I had the very fortunate opportunity to meet him a few months ago and speak with him. He is a very colorful person, very outgoing, and extremely positive. He is very respected within his community, and many people know of his status. Hopefully, he can show communities around the island that being friends with people living with HIV/AIDS is harmless.
In terms of the large worldwide initiative of Lessons for Life, schools around the entire island were supposed to conduct lessons and activities about HIV/AIDS. We worked very hard to reach out and provide accurate information. I can only hope they followed through!
In St. George's town, there was a big rally with the message of "Joining Hands" to fight HIV/AIDS. Everyone in attendance joined hands to see how far we could reach. There were a few schools in attendance, which was great. One of the few schools was a school I did a teacher training at, so I was very impressed to see their participation. It was a very moving moment to be joining hands with people that I had never met with the understanding that we're all people, we all deserve respect, and we can work together to deal with HIV/AIDS.
Here are the students from St. George's Seventh Day Adventist School. I did a presentation at their school.