February 26th, 2016 by Rachel | Tags: Disability, HIV/AIDS, Peace Corps | No Comments »
Last Sunday, I took an almost six hours round-trip to Small Babanki, a town just outside of Bamenda, to present HIV Prevention to another group of persons with disabilities. At the presentation, one woman asked, “At what age is the limit for women to have sex?”
“Until when they die,” I responded.
“AH!” the woman squealed.
“In fact, there are reports saying that some people who have sex at 70 years old or older enjoy it more than when they’re younger,” I added.
The woman widened her eyes and said, “Whoooo!”
Later on in the presentation, the same woman asked, “Once you stop having sex, do you become sick?”
“No,” I said.
Half of the participants at the workshop said they have never learned about HIV. When I asked them what are the causes of HIV, many shared that they believed that one can get HIV by sharing clothes with HIV+ people and also hugging. I had to get that info straight with them by telling them it is not true. At the end of the workshop, I checked with them again to make sure they now understood that it is a myth by asking, “Can you get HIV by sharing clothes with HIV+ people and also hugging people with HIV?”
“No!” They all responded.
“Good.” I responded.
Because half of the participants have received HIV education as one was a participant at the WILD Workshop and two others received education from Heifer, it was expected to see that at least half already had some good knowledge on the pre-test. However, four out of six, did say that HIV can be transmitted through sharing clothes. On the post-test, all except one wrote that it’s false. So, at least most now have an understand that sharing clothes cannot transmit HIV. On the post-test, all six participants except for one scored 100%.
