March 2003

NEAC Grantee Heads to Kenya

On March 6 Jessica LaJoie, with the help of a grant from NEAC, takes her Þrst plane ride ever. Destination: Bungoma, Kenya, where she will live with a family and work with Outreach Kenya Development Volunteers to raise AIDS awareness, work to destroy the myths surrounding it, and meet with teens as a peer educator.

It’s estimated that more than 2.2 million men, women, and children in Kenya have HIV or AIDS. The number of women between the ages of 15 and 29 who are infected is double the number of men in that age range, perhaps because of one of the myths that says the more sexual encounters men have, the faster they rid themselves of the HIV virus or AIDS.

Jessica will be traveling to neighboring villages to do presentations about AIDS using video (she will have the help of a Swahili translator) and will also be working with a group of teens in the village, with the hope that they will in turn become peer educators about HIV and AIDS.

Jessica wants to help young women especially learn the facts about the infection. She hopes her meetings with them will provide a place for them to ask questions and communicate their concerns while learning about their bodies and how to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases. She has already acted as a peer educator at home in Bloomington, Indiana, after being trained by Planned Parenthood.

In preparation for the trip, Jessica is educating herself on African culture, especially how women are viewed. She is preparing lesson plans and working her way through the 14 inoculations that are required for her five-week stay.

Jessica is working extra hours to help Þnance the trip and has also sold artwork at a school art show to raise money. “I think this is going to give me a bigger perspective of the world,” she said. “I’m ready to have that expanded.” She also thinks the experience of being a minority will be valuable: “I think it will give me a better understanding of what people go through in our country,” she said.