SMU students participate in an exhibit raising awareness on the affects of HIV on African Children at the World Vision (NATHAN HARRIS/The Daily Campus)
Imagine a five-year-old boy in Sub-Saharan Africa whose father left before he was born. His mother sets off to find work, but doesn’t return. He is left alone with his older brother who starts to abuse him.
For many children in Sub-Saharan Africa, this story is not far off from reality. Inside the large white tent you may have seen by the flagpole is the World Vision Experience: AIDS – Step into Africa. The exhibit, hosted by the Park Cities Baptist Church, offers a glimpse of this other world.
The exhibit will show in 40 cities throughout the year, and Park Cities hopes to get up to 300,000 visitors, which is double the amount of people who saw the exhibit in 2007 and 2008. SMU junior and president of Logistics for The Hill, Taylor Massey said that he is passionate about being an event planner for World Vision.
The exhibit focuses on two things: awareness and a call to action, according to Massey.
“You hear statistics everyday about how many kids are dying overseas and how their families are being affected, but this exhibit makes it real,” Massey said, “and takes away the numbers.”
The 2,500 square-foot tent puts visitors into the atmosphere of an African Village. Each person gets a set of headphones with the voice of one of four children telling his or her story. These children represent over 25 million people affected by AIDS either personally or through the lives of those close to them, finding hope in World Vision.
The voices of the children, Babirye, Matchabo, Kombo and Emmanuel, offer tales of their parents being taken by AIDS, abandonment, rape and living a homeless life.
“You felt like you were going through their daily life and experiences with them,” sophomore Helena Yueh said.
The simulation provides students with a chance to experience every part of the children’s lives: how they ended up stuck in their specific situations, how they live on a daily basis and how they stay hopeful. Different rooms include articles of their clothing as well as photographs of their homelands and friends.
In the clinic room, students are stamped on the hand as either HIV positive or negative according to the child whose story they followed through the exhibit. This stamp serves as a reminder to students for the rest of the day about the experience.
“I had no idea it was going to be a maze,” Yueh said. “It made the experience more personal.”
The journey ends in a room lit by candles with walls that are filled with photographs of people whose lives have been taken by AIDS. The room provides space to sit and a Bible to reference passages. Paper is provided for those who wish to write a prayer for the children.
The exhibit offers sponsors’ packets containing information about a child who is experiencing situations similar to the children recorded on the audio.
“World Vision is a wonderful organization to raise awareness,” exhibit marketing coordinator Roza Essaw said.
