"It should be understood that the aim [of international voluntary service] is not charity or to develop a poor country, but to experience a different reality and share knowledge with the other people taking part." – Coordinating Committee on International Voluntary Service (CCIVS), a division of UNESCO, 2002
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In the end, I believe that this constant self-surveillance paid off. So what impact did ten weeks of preparation in the U.S. and two months of work in Tanzania have? What did I bring to Nduruma Primary School that would have been lacking otherwise? Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that the only unique message I could meaningfully convey as an American undergraduate privileged with access to cutting-edge HIV research was this: “We are all in this fight together.”
This was no small feat; I provided contact between two cultures, between one that can barely imagine the other exists and another that doesn’t bother to do so. More than the details about HIV transmission, I believe the lasting memory my students will take from my lessons is that a white American student traveled from another world to talk to them personally about stopping the epidemic. Information flowed equally from my students to me. I learned what it is like to be a member of a racial minority. I discovered the importance of greeting everyone you meet. I found out how to smile on an empty stomach, when to bargain, and how to skin a mango and eat ugali with your hands. Perhaps my most interesting lesson was that, in general, people in Tanzania are happier than those I know in the U.S.
I also learned what actually needs to be done to curb the HIV epidemic in East Africa. I was disheartened to find that my pedagogical activities, which primarily consisted of raising awareness about HIV transmission and prevention, were not where resources actually needed to be directed. One key to the AIDS puzzle that tends to get ignored is the critical role that female role-models play in transmitting sexual information from generation to generation. I found that students need strong female role models from within their communities (i.e. not from the U.S.) in order to show them that women can and should voice their needs to men, especially when it comes to demanding condom use in sexual relationships. In the end, AIDS politics are sexual politics—and sexual politics are gender politics. NGOs would do well to keep this in mind.
On an even more basic level, though, Africa’s rural youth need access to condoms. If Coca-Cola can find a way to distribute to far-flung, rural communities, why can’t we make condoms available in rural pharmacies and dispensaries? Our Tanzanian teaching partners told us that most of their students become sexually active by age twelve or thirteen. The stigma surrounding sex and sexuality must be combated with comprehensive, accurate, and routine sexual education programs, even for students who cannot afford government school fees and uniforms. Finally, such “sex ed” and HIV prevention programs must be self-sufficient, incorporating lessons that teach educators themselves how to teach the material. The interviews I conducted with female secondary-school students indicated overwhelmingly that they are eager to teach family and friends about what they learn in HIV prevention programs; they just need basic training to focus their enthusiasm.
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