V.C.T Testing Day, Great Success!

Day 31- QHO/YESS Kenya Project

On Saturday May 30th, we held a V.C.T Testing Day at the first two schools we taught at. V.C.T stands for Voluntary Counseling and Testing. V.C.T clinics provide free counseling and testing for HIV/AIDS in Kenya. Unfortunately in some rural communities V.C.Ts are few and far between. That is the reason why we chose to run a testing day at both Lake Solai and Seet Kobor. The closet V.C.T is approximately an hour away from these two communities.

We divided our group of 17 into two and held a testing event at both schools. I went to Lake Solai, where we tested approximately 113 people (school population of 180) and at Seet Kobor approximately 122 people were tested (school population of 160). Overall, I would say yesterday was a HUGE SUCCESS. My experience is based on the Lake Solai Testing Day. Make sure you read Shauna’s blog post to hear more about testing at Seet Kobor.

It was a really amazing experience to host a V.C.T Testing Day for a rural community, where there is no V.C.T. I was so surprised by the turn out. We set-up our V.C.T Testing Day at the Lake Solai Health Clinic in the community centre. We were all set and ready to go by 11am and tested until 4pm. Students and community members kept arriving all day long. I think we were all surprised by the overwhelming and positive response from our students.

For each person to get tested it takes approximately 15 to 20 minutes. Testing includes pre-test counseling, an HIV rapid test and post-test counseling. We started off counseling in groups and testing individually but we had such large line ups that we had to start encouraging students to get tested in groups. Some students waited for hours to get tested. There was a soccer game going to kept students entertained while waiting, music playing from the matatu and group psyche games. It was so amazing to see how determined our students were to get tested and know their HIV status. I can honestly say the students of Lake Solai Secondary School understand the importance of going out and getting tested, and of knowing your HIV status. It is the goal of QHO/YESS that our students share this knowledge with family members, friends and fellow community members. Together we can educate others about HIV/AIDS and encourage as many people as possible to know their HIV status.

To end, I will leave you with one anonymous question from a form 2 student that brought me a smile:

“Thanks for what you have done today. You have changed my life.”

Till next week!
Deirdre <3