HIV Village Outreach

As an honorary member of the Peace Corps Belize HIV/AIDS Committee, I recently took a trip down to the Stann Creek District to take part in some outreach activities in the villages around Dangriga. I met up with five other volunteers on a Friday in November, and we headed over to the POWA office in Dangriga to get our briefing. POWA consists of a group of boisterous, raunchy, straight-talking Garifuna ladies who have made it their business to educate their fellow Stann Creekers about the risks of HIV transmission and the need for empathy and compassion for those infected with the virus. We hopped on their “Bashment Bus” with Crystal, the condom-filled mannequin, and headed out of town as they sang and danced in the aisles. You just cannot keep a group of Garifuna ladies from dancing – it’s a physical impossibility.

I was paired up with a woman named Maria for the day. We stopped in three different villages, and each time Maria would grab her clipboard and holler for me before blazing through the village lanes hunting for anyone who looked like they had a free minute. She was fearless – it was amazing. We knocked on doors in Sarawee, crashed the pre-lunch crowd at a roadside barbecue joint in Silk Grass, and played transmission card games at a bar in Hopkins. Talking about HIV/AIDS has never been so much fun. Get ‘em laughing, and you can pass on all sorts of important information while they’re not even looking. My thanks to Maria for inviting me along on her mission of informational merriment.

The POWA ladies get their dance on