The Staff of the National Sports Institute in Papua New Guinea had a field day to commemorate the World AIDS Day on Thursday the 1st of December. Joined by their spouses and siblings the staff including the Director who is from Ghana in Africa, took part in advocating and disseminating information on HIV/AIDS, why we should not stigmatize against those People Living With HIV, setting a positive and conducive environment for the People Living With HIV, why we should work together to protect our community from HIV.

The day’s activities included Audio Visual show on several People Living With HIV from around the Pacific including Papua New guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu among many. the Video segments presented good learning opportunities for the staff, their spouses and children who did discuss the effect of HIV and stigmatization, that HIV does not have boundaries and that being a positive HIV person does not mean that you should live miserably but live a positive and purposeful life. It also showed the effects it can have on children of those living with HIV and how they can be traumatized.

The Kicking AIDS Out team from the Strongim Komuniti Klab lead by Peter Salaiau a KAO Leader Level 1 presented to the staff six (6) different activities for the day with each focusing on different life skill and HIV message. The activity was fun for the staff that really enjoyed the day; this was followed by a group discussion from the six different groups of mixed ages and a presentation at the end. Discussion of the activity was to draw participants to observe the activity and discus its resemblance to HIV and any life skill.

The only expatriate participant who was from Australia mentioned later that the activities were well planned and had been meaningful for the day but would like to see more people come in to participate in this concept. “This is a better way of passing on information and awareness on HIV and AIDS “.