“Art is not what you see, but what you help others see.” ~ Edgar Degas

In the act of making, unpacking stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS
Collaborative artwork addressing stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS

This past weekend the Malawi-based GHC fellows met in Neno for our Community Engagement Event, a GHC supported initiative that brings fellows within country together for a group identified and led project. Neno is a rural area between Blantyre and Zomba in the South of the country. Neno has limited accessibility as the final hour from Lisingwi encompasses trekking over a rock-laden road and a river-crossing resembling more of a roller coaster ride than an automobile track. During the rainy season the road is often impassable, so we were fortunate to be venturing over it during the beginning of winter, the dry season.

Global Health Corps partner organization, Partners in Health (PIH) operates in Neno, providing a “preferential option for the poor in healthcare.” Two of our all-star fellows, Kelsey Nagel and Peter Pindani have worked with PIH this year on supply chain management and procurement and logistics. Kelsey moved to Neno from Boston and Peter from Lilongwe- both leaving the city life for a rural home. Now eleven months into the fellowship it was amazing for all of us to see how both Kelsey and Peter have integrated into their environment and community, as well as seeing how the community has truly adopted them.

On Saturday we supported Peter, Kelsey and PIH on a new initiative with a local secondary school that Peter started during his fellowship: Student Class Performance Enhancement Program (SCPEP). This initiative focuses on promoting education as empowerment, showing that “education is cool” by rewarding top performing students with prizes as well as mentorship to help each student reach his or her potential. GHC co-fellows joined Peter and Kelsey in support by conducting various activities in between award announcements.

Chrispine Ungapembe (Riders for Health) and Samantha White (Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation) led a workshop on role modeling and career guidance. Kondwani M’manga (Dignitas International) and Danielle Payne (Lighthouse Trust) led a corresponding workshop on life skills. In between, Isabel Kumwembe and I (Art & Global Health Center Africa) delivered an arts workshop focusing on community and stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS.

I was in awe as I watched Isabel describing the project in Chichewa to the 150 rapt students inside the presentation hall as I waited at the art table on the lawn outside. As soon as she completed her presentation, students swarmed through the doors, bright eyed. I looked at our supplies… woefully inadequate. We had enough paint brushes to accommodate 20 students at a time, so meeting 300 eyes staring back at me was undeniably daunting. For the first five minutes or so I described the principles of the materials to the kids, and reinforced the objective of painting imagery of community. By the end of the five minutes I realized that little of what I said really mattered, nor did the lack of paint brushes. What mattered was that these students had the opportunity to express themselves through an alternate medium, and they were eager to do so- to tell and show their stories of community.

We had pre-prepared paper plates as canvases with string tied through two holes punched at the top so that it could be worn or hung upon completion. The paper plates were distributed to the crowd of students while I did my best to make sure that everyone had paint accessible. In groups the students worked feverishly, exploring the materials and the question posed with great seriousness.

I walked around with Isabel, who was carrying a canvas with a white ribbon painted in the center. The objective of the community painting was to turn the white ribbon red with finger prints, representing community solidarity in supporting one another in addressing HIV and AIDS. This was designed to bring a voice and recognition to the fact that it takes a full community effort to support one another surrounding HIV and AIDS, and that all health matters. The younger community children who were not part of the awards ceremony also joined in on this project, coming over one by one to add their finger prints.

As students finished their paintings, they came and showed all of the GHC fellows their work with pride. I had several discussions with artists about the images that they painted. One young woman, Esther, painted a multi-colored depiction of a funeral with her family mourning. Esther told me that she painted this scene as it is often what accompanies thoughts about HIV and AIDS. She confided in me that she was scared to lose loved ones and that she knew it was important for all loved ones to get the treatment and support they needed to stay healthy. She told me, “We don’t have to have funerals all the time. We can all live together, happy. We need to fight this together.” Esther is twelve years old.

Several other students depicted ambulances, and other health center images. Others painted words and images about love, family, and community. All wore their paper plate paintings upon completion. Looking around the lawn they were all talking to one another about their plates, describing what they had depicted- beginning to unpack and discuss their thoughts and images around HIV and AIDS associated stigma. As quickly as the session started, it ended so that the award ceremony could continue inside. It was nearly impossible to pull some of the children away from the paints; many were deeply entrenched in their paintings and were pleading for more time. I could have stayed painting with them all day. These paintings are a conversation catalyst, a way to open the door for discussion. Although the painting session ended, the seeds are planted for conversations that will come about as a product of their paintings has just begun.

When given the opportunity to express oneself through art I am always impressed by the openness and creativity that is exhibited, especially with difficult and stigmatized topics like HIV and AIDS. Needless-to-say, the event was incredibly successful as a closing celebration of all of the work that Peter, Kelsey and PIH have been doing this year. I felt incredibly lucky and honored to be a part of it all, as did the rest of the GHC Malawi based Co-Fellows.

Leave a Reply