Whirlwind-of-a-week

The past couple of months at Jazas were definitely a slow build up to the whirlwind-of-a-week I recently experienced.  Last week, I was fortunate enough to take part in Jazas’ major campaigns dedicated to the fight against HIV/AIDS.

On Monday, Milica, a fellow Jazas volunteer, and I made two roundtrips from Novi Sad to Ledinci (a village on the outskirts) handing out fliers and condoms to bus passengers. As people entered the bus, we said a quick “Izvolite” and presented them with the goods. Most of the passengers on the bus were grandparent age, but that didn’t stop us from distributing.  The reactions from bus riders varied from amusement to rejection, and seeing those reactions was probably the best part.  When people refused the condoms and the fliers, Milica would sigh a bit and wonder why they wouldn’t take something educational and useful that was being handed out for free.  My guess was because they were embarrassed or considered themselves “too old” to be a target group for this action.  But everyone is a target group, because HIV/AIDS doesn’t discriminate.

From Tuesday to Thursday I participated in Jazas’ Summit.  Representatives from various NGO’s in the Balkans all came together in Novi Sad to exchange ideas and thoughts about attitudes towards HIV/AIDS and different kinds of projects and actions they have at their organizations. During the summit, we had workshops, visited drop-in centers, played games, and just spent some quality time together.  The majority of the activities were held in English, but when the group fell into deep discussions it was difficult for the other participants not to switch to their regional language/Serbian to accurately express their opinions.  Despite the fact that there were people from Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Croatia –countries that are known to have some tensions among them– that tension wasn’t felt among this group.  In the bigger picture, we were all dedicated young volunteers coming together for a greater cause, and getting to share these three days with those people was invaluable.

part of the group

The very last day of the summit was conveniently World Aids Day, so together we came up with some ideas for actions to have out in the streets.  Earlier in the afternoon our action was distributing condoms and information via booth in front of the Law Faculty at the University of Novi Sad and via Condom Waiters who carried condoms on a tray from building to building.  Our big action, a flash mob, took place later in the afternoon.  All of the summit participants stood in the middle of the center frozen with a sheet of paper that had a specific HIV/AIDS fact on it.  After posing for about five minutes, we formed a circle and once again held out our papers for people to read.  The end of the flash mob was when each of us put our papers on the ground one by one in the shape of a ribbon.  The action wasn’t flawless but it grabbed people’s attention, and that’s what we wanted. 

I know, I know....I'm holding my sign upside down.

Later that evening, myself and about ten Jazas volunteers were the Condom Police.  What did that entail?  Basically, we busted into major cafes and asked people if they had a condom on them.  If they didn’t, they were given a “fine” in the form of a flier and a condom.  If we weren’t hassling people in cafes, we were surrounding random people on the street as one big unit.  It felt pretty legit considering that one volunteer had a whistle.

It saddens me that the intense part of Jazas is over because it was such a rush to be involved and out there getting people to think about serious issues.  I know that every day won’t be like the days of last week, but that just makes those days much more special and worth every other ordinary day I have at Jazas.