Getting Started

Sarah and Genny Teaching at Bbira Vocational, originally uploaded by amanda.milholland.

Photo of Genny and Sarah Teaching at Bbira Vocational School.

By Genevieve Parker

During my first weeks at KACCAD I have been working with six different schools teaching HIV/AIDS prevention, teen pregnancy and its consequences, the immune system, and life skills to lead a healthy, positive lifestyle. I have been very impressed with the methods that KACCAD volunteers and Peace Corps workers have come up with to help the students understand the lessons. These methods include role play for teen pregnancy, fun and interesting games for the immune system, and creative colorful charts for HIV prevention. I was also very lucky to begin teaching at another school, Bbira Primary, in which we will be teaching and talking to the teachers every Wednesday, before we teach their students every Thursday. I am very excited about working with both the teachers and the students so that once we have taught the teachers these new lesson plans and methods they will be able to continue these lessons independently.

In my first couple of weeks I have also had the opportunity to go on a few home visits in which we talk to family members who are living with HIV or AIDS. We are given the time to ask these family members how they are feeling, what their home situation is, if they have proper beddings and mosquito nets. Most importantly, these home visits allow these community members to have voices and know that they are being heard. On my first home visit, where I mostly listened and watched two other volunteers ask the questions, one of the volunteers returned to a woman they had visited about a week ago and gave her a new mosquito net because she had told them that she did not have one during the last home visit. After the questions we also leave food for the family. Thus far, I am very impressed and glad to be apart of the work going on here at KACCAD.

A Note from Nicholas Ssekiranda
On the HIV/AIDS Empowerment and Support Home Visit Program

In this quarter, we managed to visit 60 homes of people living with HIV/AIDS in Lukwanga, Ssumbwe and Nakabago Parishes. At each home we gave families food stuffs like sugar, a bar of soap, beans and rice. We also gave them counseling and taught them how they can clean their surroundings by clearing bushes, to empty all ponds which are around their homes, to wash their hands after and before eating food and also to cover their toilets. All these steps are our way of helping protect client’s health with “positive living” information and strategies.