Featured Project: TCE Namibia

Campus California Together we can make a difference one shirt at a time!

and helping those in need. This type of work is filled with challenges, confrontations, small triumphs and small fail-ures. It can be very demand-ing at times but also very re-warding; the following lines are about the challenges I faced working with those who needed to know the basic facts of the disease and the extra push to not give in to HIV. It was one of the most eye opening times of my life and without a doubt, the most positive! Namibia is one of the coun-tries with a growing rate of HIV. Located in Sub-Saharan Africa, it is roughly the com-bined size of Texas and Okla-homa, but very sparsely pop-ulated (only 2.1 mil). My pro-ject, TCE or Total Control of the Epidemic has the goal of reaching every single person with basic information about HIV/AIDS and encouraging them to take the next step: knowing their own status. I believe that if everyone would know more about the disease and where they stand, it could help with de-stroying it. I fell in love with this idea and this is what would keep me focused later when I was working in the villages.

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By Graham Dawson

The Strength To Remain Positive

Originally from Miami, Florida I became a Development Instruc-tor working in Namibia with the TCE project. After leaving school, I became fascinated with working in the field of HIV

In this Issue:

TCE Namibia— The

Strength to Remain Pos-

itive

New DA Team

Postcard from Child Aid

Belize

Ideas and inspirations, Local and Global

“Typically no one

wants to find out that

they have HIV and

some people turn to

despair or give up

hope completely when

they find out they are

HIV Positive.”

Visit us at: www. Campus-California.org

Female Condom Demonstration outside a Shabeen (bar) in Okaku, Na-mibia

Every Field Officer receives training in facts about HIV and in mobiliz-ing their communities against the disease

Working with Positive Living Typically no one wants to find out that they have HIV and many people turn to despair or give up hope completely when they find out they are HIV Positive. This not only affects the individual but also their families and communities. As part of my duties I was delivering hope in the form of information and ideas. By reaching out to rural areas with the con-cept of ‘Positive Living’, many of those infected could learn to live a healthier and longer life. Positive Living, in the Namibian scenario is primarily adopting the habit of eating well balanced meals, practicing good hygiene, exercising and becoming active. How do you introduce proper Positive Living to people who cannot afford the most basic things? It is a big challenge! For proper nutrition, we established small vegetable gardens and gave access to seeds. In Oshakati, the town where I was working, people planted millet, to-

matoes, onions and Mahangu (a local cereal). These are all good for strength-ening the immune system which is main-ly what the HIV virus targets in the body. We gave presentations on simple ways to generate income. For example, how to raise chicken to sell the eggs or make bricks from the amounts of sand all around. Positive Living clubs were formed to involve the HIV positive within the communities to meet and talk to each other and later to the open public. It was difficult to find willing volunteers for this because of the stigma that comes with carrying the virus, but we usually found at least a few individuals willing to come out.

Challenges with Myths and Misconception

In my opinion, the number one chal-lenge we faced were the misconceptions people had about HIV. In most places where we held discussions with local tribes or small communities people had

the same general concerns. The most common questions and the responses we gave were: Can I get HIV from mosquito bite? No. I am not at risk because I am not gay! Actually more straight people are infect-ed with the virus than gay people. Usually an HIV infected person tends to lose weight rapidly. The key word is: “Usually”! The virus can live inside a person’s body for years be-fore they know it. Bottom line is: Get tested!

Featured project… continued

Page 2 Campus California

Millet, locally known as Mahangu can be used to cook a variety of nutritional meals.

A Typical village house in Oshifo, Namibia

Workshop on Positive Living. Everyone is TCE Certified!

Last month we welcomed the new Development Action Team. Jein-Hee, Ji-Eun, Mauricio and So-Young have started on the road that will eventually take them to development projects in Africa and Central America. One of the first outreach tasks was to repre-sent Campus California at the Cinco de Maio celebration and fair in San Francisco. A day was filled with “south of the border” food, music and sunshine, but there was still a lot of interest in more serious topics as well.

Having HIV does not mean immediate death! Anti retroviral drugs and Positive Living choices have been proven to extend the lives of HIV infected by many years. Can I get HIV from casual social contact? No. So far, we only have evidence that HIV is transmitted through blood, unprotected sex and in some cases breast milk. Holding hands, hugging, kissing or sharing a cup or a spoon will not transmit HIV from one person to another.

There is a lot of work to be done worldwide to combat HIV & AIDS; it will take a lot of dedication from many people for a long time to come. However I can absolutely say that whether you are infected or not, Living Positive, with a Positive attitude is something we can do right now!

Page 3

New DA (Development Action) Team

A support Group in Okalongo, Namibia The outreach campaign touches every household.

Our Child Aid project is located in Xaibe. We work with 25 fami-

lies, our effort is connected with children in different ways. We

help to start vegetable gardens to improve nutrition and the fami-

lies are happy for what we do. Now, at the end, almost all of the

families have a functioning garden!

Postcard from a Child Aid Project in Belize

Campus California was incorporated in 2000 and our main activities cur-rently are:

To train and place volunteers in development projects abroad (The Development Instructor program)

To operate a clothing donation program in the Bay Area to raise funds for the Development Instructor program and to promote the need to care for the environment through reuse and recy-cling.

The Development Instructor program trains people for projects run by Humana People To People Federation. CCTG offers complete packages for adults who wish to volunteer in various areas of development work in Southern Africa or Central America. The program includes:

Different durations ( 9, 14 or 18 months); food, lodging & pro-gram related travel expenses included,

Choice of project type (Education – children or adults, HIV/AIDS prevention, Child Aid, Environment – Tree planting, soil conser-vation, secure water sources or others),

Choice of the destination country (Mozambique, Zambia, Namib-ia, or various countries in Central America),

Theoretical and practical preparation – In the USA (The San Fran-cisco Bay Area, sister campuses in MI and MA and other loca-tions for different components of the program)

Travel arrangements including visas, vaccinations and other ne-cessities when traveling to a third world country

Regular contact and support during time in Africa or Central

Campus California 15501 San Pablo Ave. # G323 Richmond CA 94806 Ph: 510-932-3839 Fax: 510-215-5820 A non-profit organization, sections 501(c)(3), 509(a)(1), 170(b)(A)(ii) Federal ID 94-337-1033, State organization number 2238562 www.campus-california.org

… and one of their vegetable gardens Kwang-Sok (on the left) and his teammate Pyl (on the right) with a local family participating in the project...

We greatly appreciate the support of all the companies, organiza-tions and private do-nors that have donated space for collection boxes.