“Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.”
― Aristotle
Well aware of this incredible influence that teachers have through the youth of their communities, Art for AIDS International developed the Train the Teachers Program. Pilot projects were held in late June and early July of 2016 in Lesotho, Botswana and Swaziland, the three most HIV and AIDS affected countries in the world. The response has been incredible. Teacher participants expressed the value of learning to share their own stories first, in order to gain the confidence to explore issues comfortably with their students.
“The workshop was one that will ever linger in my mind as it was one of the most captivating, motivating, informative and intriguing ones. It was so empowering to hear the sharing of life experiences and most wonderful to learn the making of collages. Many lessons on life skills were shared which will be used to teach and share with learners.”
“I am a rape victim from Swaziland. I live with HIV and have been afraid to talk about it. It was in this workshop that I gained the courage to declare my status. I want to talk about this more and more. I am a teacher and would love to tell other teachers, pupils and even the head teachers to know there is life even the head teachers to know there is life even if you’re HIV positive. I have also discovered that if one that if one is HIV positive he/she needs an ear to listen to his/her story.”
Teachers were also given instruction on how to create beautiful collages and equipped with the skills to bring out creativity from their students as well.
We are grateful to Education International and ETFO (Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario) through their Humanity Fund for the financial support to begin this work. There is still so much to do. We see how powerfully teachers can reach their students and how much they want this type of workshop in order to begin using this technique in their classes. Please consider a contribution to our Train the Teachers Project.
