I am writing this post with a very happy and excited heart. It's official...my grant was approved today and we'll be painting 7 murals in Biikira! I had a meeting with the tutors at the college and I think they were more excited about planning the project than I was (shocker, you all know how I feel about planning!!). Here's a rundown of the project:
We'll be working with students at the college to illustrate messages that educate the community on the spread of HIV/AIDS and how to avoid putting yourself at risk. The students will be working together in groups to come up with 7 different pictures to be painted throughout the village. I'm hoping to have an HIV lesson in the upcoming weeks and have the pictures finished before the students leave for holiday, around Easter. When the return for 2nd term at the end of May we'll prep the sites with plaster and background paint then paint outlines of the pictures on the walls so that on June 11th, when all of my wonderful Peace Corps friends and staff will be making the trek down here, we will work together to basically do a paint by number to complete the project.
I am ecstatic! Not only for the knowledge we will be spreading to the community but mainly for the fact that my tutors are completely and 100% on board with this project! They are taking complete ownership and making plans to involve the entire community. They even want to turn the weekend into a whole HIV education event, including teaching life skills to the youth and having the health center host an HIV testing fair. I couldn't be more proud of them.
More to come and expect TONS of pictures!
Happy Birthday, Dad!
Love y'all so much,
Ash
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