Baylor's Pediatric AIDS Center in Gaborone

Our project team attends Teen Club every last Saturday of the month as volunteers to facilitate with activities for the 100+ 13-18 year old kids there who are also patients at Baylor. Teen Club is a place where they can receive psycho-social support. Many of them consider it a "home away from home" where they can be free to talk about what it is like living with HIV/AIDS.

This month's theme was Friendship and Peer Pressure. The adult volunteers and teens split into groups, had discussions about friendship and what one values in a friend, and then came up with skits to act out peer pressure situations. Each group acted out a skit. The kids were hilarious. One group pretended to be in the club, dancing and drinking, getting all crazy, and pressuring everyone to drink. Another skit involved a woman with HIV declining the pressure of her boyfriend to have intercourse. He didn't think people would see them as adults if they didn't have a child, but she didn't want to pass on HIV to her baby. The skits were well fit for situations these kids actually encounter here in Botswana, they did a great job.

Dr Paul has been working at Baylor's Pediatric AIDS Center in Gaborone for years now and said his goodbyes to the kids at Teen Club this past Saturday. He said a few words about how much he has seen Teen Club grow over the years, and that it is the teens' involvement and commitment that really makes it run. He got a little choked up, understandably. Stux, a 15 year old who is one of the Teen Leaders addressed Dr Paul, giving him thanks for his support. Stux said when he was a little boy Dr Paul would always make him take his medicine. Oftentimes he didn't want to and he'd get upset, but Dr Paul would always make him take it. He told him, "I'm a big boy now because of you. I've grown strong and big because of you." It was a heart warming to see a young man thanking the doctor who helped him take his ARVs to be where he is now. It was a touching moment.