I am writing to you about an amazing experience at my internship this past week. It was such a blessing to be able to be a part of this experience.
The conference was at a conference center. In order to get there we had drive far out of the city and up into the mountains in order to get to the conference center were the event took place.
The event its self was pulled together in order to give feedback on the elimination of Mother to Child Transmission. There were people from eight of the regions of Namibia there, including traditional leaders, religious leaders, women living with HIV, and other representatives. In addition civil society and NGO's were there as well.
Once we got there we spent time taking pictures, chatting, enjoying the sun, and getting settled. I had the opportunity to meet the US Ambassador to Namibia while I was there briefly. We then had to wait 45 minutes until the first lady of Namibia showed up to start the opening ceremonies. The first lady is a huge supporter of the work, especially health related, because she herself works as a nurse. Once she arrived with her security detail, the women connected to the NWHN began dancing. Two of the women below (Linda and Alina) are recent graduates of the English Literacy Class that my organization runs. They are dressed in traditional Ovambo skirts, which is the pink pattern. This picture you can only see part of it.
The conference began with speeches from a number of people, including the first lady, the ambassador, and the civil societies. One of the most powerful speeches of the day was from a couple, where the wife had been forcibly sterilised, even though they went through the PMTCT process, and another women who went through PMTCT. In both cases, the virus was not passed along to their children. It was very interesting to see that every time the first lady spoke, everyone stood up, but also she was conversing with a lot of people and very connected to the conversation and the feedback of the morning.
In the afternoon, the conference continued with small working groups where people from every region came together to talk about the issues they are facing in regards to health care and male participation. It was very cool to hear so many people speak so passionately about the issues that were important to them, and to hear about the number of issues and solutions that people had for those issues. These conversations were going to have an impact on the overall plan that will be presented through the government in a few weeks.
Overall, it was a great experience to be apart of such a grassroots effort to make change in Namibia in regards to stopping the transmission of HIV from Mother to Child. I think that often the best efforts are grassroots because in this case you had such a range of people there to represent the country and what efforts must be made. You had people who are living in deep poverty all the way to the first lady of the country. It was very powerful to see this type of policy making and designing happening and is something we can learn from.
During the day, I was very busy taking lots of notes and pictures! Also I took all the videos of the women dancing. I have a difficult time uploading pictures, but there are many on my organizations facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Namibian-Womens-Health-Network/109958059086329. If you have a chance you can check these out!
For now, I am off to bed, but I will share more about what was spoken about at the conference and the concerns. Apparently, we were on TV! Just let me know if you have any questions! Also, I am going to write more soon about our weekend trip to Swacopmund on the coast of Namibia. I can not believe it, but I will be coming home two weeks from today.
Thank you for reading!
Angela
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