A bi-lateral Ottawa and Caribbean HIV/AIDS youth awareness documentary group, with a Centretown link, has proven themselves to be determined bunch.
The five Caribbean participants of the two-part film project came to Ottawa in March. But it was persistence that got them here. The Somerset West Community Heath Centre, had scheduled youth to come to Ottawa for training and filming in February. But some of the Caribbean volunteers did not qualify for travel visas in time and were forced to reapply for March.
The initiative, officially known as the HIV/AIDS Awareness and Caribbean Diaspora Project, had to be revamped. The organizations had the five Canadian youth go to Jamaica in February for five weeks instead of having the Caribbean youth come to Canada.
“We had to reverse the flow of the project. Most of the leg work took place in Jamaica,” says Ian McKnight, the executive director of the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition in Jamaica, the organization representing the Caribbean in the project. “But, we’re on track now, even though this could have derailed the project.”
The youth overcame the challenges and made huge strides in completing their first film while in Ottawa, says Layla Rich, the senior program officer at the Interagency Coalition on AIDS and Development (ICAD), another Canadian organization involved.
“We expect the first film to be largely completed in the next couple of weeks,” says Rich.
While in Ottawa, youth met with many in Ottawa’s HIV/AIDS community. They hosted discussions and interviews in the community to gather footage for their first film. The heath centre, says Ninnera Channer, one of the project’s Canadian volunteers, helped arrange all of the meetings with those in the HIV/AIDS community.
“The Somerset West Community Health Centre gives us the tools to be able to show us the Ottawa side of the story and the Ottawa perspectives,” says Channer. “They have all of the connections to the community struggling with HIV/AIDS.”
The youth will highlight the similarities and differences between HIV/AIDS issues in Ottawa and the Caribbean in their films.
Many people don’t realize, says Channer, that there are statistical similarities between the two locations.
But, there are more similarities than just statistics, says Channer. “The fear that I saw in people is the same no matter where you go.”