|
Talent
Youth use
talent to fight HIV/AIDS
By Our Correspondent
Last Saturday Arusha area youth gathered at the Arusha Meru Football
Grounds to use their talents to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS. In the
Second Annual Talent Competition, sponsored by Global Service Corps (GSC),
sixteen schools and youth from Mkombozi Centre for Street Children
competed with songs, dances, and dramas themed to raise awareness of
HIV/AIDS and communicate to those in attendance what they need to know
to avoid infection. “Use one condom each time you have sex to escape HIV
and pregnancy,” “Don’t have sex if you are still a student because it
might damage your future,” “Don’t have sex for money or gifts because
you could get HIV,” “Parents make sure you know what your kids are
doing,” and “AIDS is dangerous,” were just some of the themes of the
performances. Despite this year’s scorching temperatures, over 600
people including students, community members, and teachers attended the
competition.
Students from Kimaseki Secondary School, dressed in costumes, and armed
with props presented a drama metaphorically explaining how quickly HIV
can spread in a community and subsequently took home first prize.
Kaloleni Secondary School won second place, and Arusha Meru Secondary
won third. All winning schools received funds for their school health
clubs to be used to further spread the message about healthy living as
well as T-shirts for the individual winners saying “Show your talent.
Fight HIV.”
Global Service Corps is a non-profit, non-governmental organization
which focuses on providing communities with training in HIV/AIDS
prevention and sustainable agriculture. They currently work with 20
Arusha area secondary schools to provide peer education training and
HIV/AIDS and health information through school health clubs. For the
past two years, GCS has sponsored a talent competition for youth
involved in their school’s health clubs. The competition gives students
the opportunity to use their talents and creativity to raise awareness
of the dangers of HIV.
|
