Experience: AIDS - World Vision's Traveling Presentation

The impact of AIDS on the world today is only slowly being understood, as many westerners are finally grasping the enormity of the epidemic that has spread across many third world countries. People are finally beginning to understand the huge numbers of people who are affected by HIV and other devastating sexually transmitted diseases. Sadly, many myths exist about AIDS, both among those in third world countries and those in more technologically advanced cultures. World AIDS awareness campaigns are focused on spreading factual information about the AIDS crisis, and there are several organizations that are dedicating a large portion of their resources towards both helping those who are HIV positive and helping those on the outside understand the issues of the disease. One of these organizations that has made a huge impact through AIDS education and awareness programs is World Vision.

To help educate many of us in America on the AIDS crisis, World Vision has created a walk-through AIDS presentation that is traveling throughout the United States, often being featured at different churches. The structure of the presentation is similar to the experience provided by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C; participants are given the "identity" of one of three characters when the enter the exhibit, following their footsteps in their path of life until some of the characters find themselves to be HIV positive and others do not. However, unlike the walk- through experience at the Holocaust museum, World Vision's Experience: AIDS campaign takes each participant on an entirely different storyline "tour" of the exhibit. While all of the characters start out in the same initial room of the experience, they soon diverge into three different paths throughout the exhibit, as led by an audio guide that tells their story to them. The audio guide then takes each participant through a series of rooms, each of which are significant to that particular character's life story. Eventually all of the characters meet up again in the "clinic", a place where the characters receive a diagnosis of whether or not they are HIV positive. Participants then go from there into a sort of "chapel" area, where they are encouraged to contemplate their fate (as the character) and to offer prayers for the many real people of world who are stricken with AIDS. This part of reflection is perhaps one of the most intense portions of the entire Experience: AIDS campaign.

After touring the experience, visitors are encouraged to check out the different exhibits provided by World Vision that show how World Vision is helping those affected by AIDS, as well as what visitors can also do to help out. Overall, the Experience: AIDS campaign is an incredible and thought-provoking forty-five minutes of each participant's time.