Please come in!

December Ist, 2PM:

Obviously the follow up of the launch was still a bit hectic but very interesting as my main activity was to follow up with the Media to make sure that the opening of the Clinic got proper exposure with the Media and it did! North Star Foundation got four articles in different daily newspapers in English and in Afrikaans in both local and national papers telling what the Centre is providing and what kind of groups we target.

 

Adam, journalist at The Namibian, and I, even organized an interview of local sex workers who were willing to tell about their "occupation" and they have been really open about it. Obviously foreign fishermen are their biggest source of income and it shows one more time how active mobile populations are with prostitution everywhere to avoid boredom…

Another reason to be very active and motivated to open more Clinics everywhere was that the sex workers again confirmed that if they are HIV positive or carrying other STDs, they won’t mention it to their customers and won’t necessarily use protection. We are still a long way from reaching full prevention and education definitely remains one of NSF focus.

 

Furthermore, our Voluntary Counseling and Testing sessions keep on going and are quite successful, it was really important for the Walvis Centre to be able to carry out such activity and provide services to the community. The partnership with the New Start Centre seems to be taking off pretty well and the staff is very competent. In order to realize how these sessions happen and of course to have a full overview of what my assignment and role in Namibia are, I decided to go through the VCT myself. It is amazing to realize how qualified local people are to handle both medical and psychological sides of the AIDS pandemic. They start with about 30 minutes discussion to know why you want to get tested and what would be your reaction if you are tested positive. Then comes the test called Rapid Testing; this test is extremely impressive as it will give you a result after 15 minutes. They have noticed in the past that almost 30% of the people were not coming to fetch their results if they were not given directly… I find it very amazing that these kits are available for countries like Namibia.

 

My assignment is now unfortunately coming to an end and it feels like time has flown since the beginning of October but I definitely have no regret to have joined North Star for this short period of time even if I wish it had lasted a bit longer. It is a bit frustrating and sad to step out of such project when you so strongly believe in what you do…

I am happy with what I’ve done but I guess the general feeling when you’re part of such organization is the eternal feeling of leaving something unachieved behind you. I know that the permanent staff of NSF is very dedicated and I know NSF will have a brilliant future!

 

I will do my best to spread my experience and what I’ve learnt during those two months in Walvis Bay around me and raise awareness in Europe as well as I’m convinced that even there a lot still needs to be done.

Thank you TNT, Moving the World and North Star Foundation for letting me be a very small part of the change!