awarenet coordinators and learners were invited and attended a special AIDS Day together, which was hosted by Rhodes University (30/10/12) under the theme “Getting to Zero”. It included a special address by Constitutional Court Justice Edwin Cameron on the topic “Four big issues in AIDS: prevention, testing, treatment and stigma – a Judge’s personal perspective” and a final performance of HUSH by Ubom! – The ground breaking and controversial show about AIDS at Rhodes.
Everyone was very impressed by the talk, a really personal account of the issues. In turn, Judge Cameron thanked our learners personally for coming and showing their interest and raising awareness. Several other participants also expressed how impressed and pleased their were to see some young people at the event.
After the event, the learners wrote blogs about their experience on awarenet. Here is a quote by Anathi Madinda: “WOW!! What an awesome day in R.U. and we were having a good time! Learning new things like people must not be scared to go to the test, people must not be scared to tell other people to go to the test and we were listening to JUSTICE EDWIN CAMERON telling us about his story life that when he heard that he is HIV POSITIVE he didn’t give up his life. And he said when someone is HIV POSITIVE that doesn’t mean its OVER. He said if you take good care of your life and eat healthy food and take your treatment everyday you will have a good normal life.” How amazing “Hush” is is well-known, and we were very excited that our learners got the opportunity to watch this show and also reflect on awarenet subsequently. Find some background about Hush here. Thank you UBOM! and Judge Cameron for another fantastic day that combined computer literacy and real life via awarenet!