HIV Awareness raising in prisons and communities

Last Wednesday the prison staff invited us to visit them more often. You need to know that we are the only NGO in Bangkok that is allowed to go into the hospital section of the prison. Just once a month. But if we are allowed to go twice a month we can build better relations with the prisoners. And that is really important. An example what will affirm this, is the story of Derek.

Derek
We just met him for the first time. It is easy for our English speaking colleagues to talk with him because he speaks English. He is from Nigeria, and sentenced for dealing drugs. After they found out he was HIV positive he had to go to the prison hospital. He tells us that the circumstances in the prison are unbearable. The hospital section is a bit better. He also tells us that he feels very lonely. Because he is from Nigeria he does not speak any Thai, while his inmates only speak Thai. He is so happy he can talk to us in his own language.

HIV medicins
We talked about HIV medicines. Because some of the prisoners do not know anything about medication, our guest speaker first explains the basics. He interacts with the inmates about what sort of infections they have besides HIV and the side effect of the medication. After that there is still time to talk about other things. The prisoners are asked to sit together and draw a picture of their ideal future. Most of them made pictures of the rural areas of Thailand, with a house, wife and some cattle.

Throwing your dreams away
When they are finished they are asked to tear up the drawing. They obey and there is nothing left of the drawings. We ask them why they tear up their dreams. Only because we tell them? We want them to always remember that whatever they are told to do, they should keep their hopes and dreams. Having dreams is important. It is the way to survive.

(For security reasons the names used in this article are not real.)