Raising Awareness

AIDs day awareness week kicked off on Tues¬day 1st of December with a parade from Benguela Com¬munity Centre which went through town and finished at the waterfront. Involved in the parade were members of the Navy, Ministry of Youth workers, the Southern Youth Choir from Keetmanshoop, Exodus brass band, and Diaz Cultural Group. The water¬front was packed with locals, children and visitors to the town, all here to support the cause and raise AIDs aware-ness.
The day opened with a prayer and a scripture read¬ing, followed by all the at¬tendees rising for the nation¬al anthem. Luderitz’s mayor welcomed everyone to the event and thanked the Minis-try of Youth for holding the event in Luderitz. She stated ‘We must work together in order to solve the problem of HIV and AIDs. We need to stand together and spread the message throughout our community. This day will benefit the youth and they will be able to raise aware-ness in their own communi¬ties.’
The ceremonies were conducted by two members of the Junior Town Council of Luderitz, Valencia Binga and Lee-Monique Anderson. There were stalls with infor¬mation about safe sex and in¬formation on AIDs and HIV, leaflets were handed out to the audience and a woman with firsthand experience of HIV, Martha Nendung, told everyone how it had affected her and the impact it had on her life. This was a very moving story, and I think it will have had more impact than anything else discussed during the day.
Between the speeches and addresses various na¬tional and local groups per¬formed, including the Exo¬dus brass band from Luderitz who played twice, the Southern Youth Choir from Keetmashoop who were very good thanks to their conductor Solomon Kinda and Diaz Primary School’s cultural group who were very en¬tertaining. This event was not a one off; the Ministry of Youth had various events all around Namibia during the Christmas break as ‘HIV doesn’t go on holiday’. They felt this was the right time to raise awareness while there are festivities and people act more irresponsibly.
Other events held in Luderitz during the week by the Ministry of Youth included a gospel show, sports activities at the soccer stadium, a video screening from People in Need and entertainment from live bands.•