I’m counting down the days until the International AIDS Conference. Although I haven’t received any responses through my blogs, I’m not discouraged. My nerves are starting to creep up on me because I don’t know what to expect and I want to be active in some of the workshops. My main idea that I think I can bring to the table will be at the workshop about HIV/AIDS in Botswana, the country where I had my 6-week intership.
Here’s my idea: Youth there, and really youth everywhere, have a hard time getting accurate information about topics like sex, STIs, relationships, etc. It is definitely difficult to talk about these subjects with your parents or older people. That’s why I think it would be great to have a free phone number that youth can call and ask questions. The person who will be giving advice will also be a youth. Therefore it is a confidential, accurate, and a comfortable way to ask questions. I’m not sure who should start this, how they would get resources like money, a location, and people, and if it will actually work. But I thought that it was a good idea and that I could bring it to the table.
Speaking of furniture, I am having my first charity garage sale this Saturday. The idea came to me as I was looking at my pile of used stuff taking up space in the hallway. A garage sale would be nice but what if I donated all of the proceeds to my placement at Sedibeng? With excitement and inspiration, I e-mailed all of my friends, family, and even professors at my school asking for donations and volunteers for the garage sale. They could donate stuff like furniture, toys, books, clothes, really anything under the sun. Both my hallway and garage are now filled with the items I received. My friend asked me to help her paint her new house and I told her that I would as long as she donated at least 3 items to my garage sale. She said that she had tons of stuff that she could donate. Yesterday I put an ad in the local newspaper and created creative signs to post at street lights/stop signs. Today I got an idea that if I put pop/water in a cooler, I could sell the ice cold drinks for 50 cents each. My fundraising goal is $200. Wish me luck!!!!!!!!!!
