Go Together, Know Together: Launched!

I've been reprimanded for leaving you hanging for over a week. Sorry about that. The Stop Malaria workplan needed urgent revision, and then I had to hop a plane to Zanzibar for the Voices II annual meeting. Unfortunate, I know, but duty called...

The launch went well! Things pretty much went as planned, which was, to be honest, a bit surprising (smile). It did rain briefly in the afternoon, but not enough to put the kisbosh on the day, and we lost our sound system for a bit, but that, too, recovered. A look at the day's events...

Shirting/capping up (we were a brilliant sea of red), and orienting the counselors in the morning. We had over 30 counselors available to provide services, from AIC, Uganda Cares, Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI), Ministry of Health, and several other organizations. We also had a whole army of peer educators to assist with arrival and registration, games, and support to the couples. A powerful show of partnership on all accounts!

The stage, and remarks from Dr. Akol, the Program Manager for the STD/AIDS Control Program at the Ministry of Health. Jude Ssenyonjo (HCP), Dr. Raymond Byaruhanga (AIC), Dr. Patrick Okello (USAID), and Dr. Kenya Mugisha (Director of Health Services, MoH) also spoke. (I was originally opposed to the theme of the day, "March to the Same Beat", as I could conjure up nothing but militant images. However, the team convincingly argued that, not only does it get our couple "togetherness" point across, for Ugandans, it brings back memories of the wedding march. Touche!)

Dr. Mugisha, officially launching the campaign with the Go Together, Know Together jingle. Still waiting for the team to win me over on the jingle ;-)Following the launch, Dr. Mugisha and his wife, and Jude and his wife, went for counseling and testing together.

Some of our couples signing up to test. Friends showed up to show their support, too. Danny and Halle proudly show off their certificate.

Games took place all afternoon. One of the couple's sack race rounds:

Couples volleyball, football, and 3-legged races also got the crowds going, as did the prizes given out to the winners and through the raffle, not to mention our talented performers, who went on well into the night, attracting a growing audience (I could still hear the music bumping from my house when I collapsed into bed that night). Below, Cindy entertains.

We're still waiting on the final tally, but preliminary results show that we tested at least 161 couples on the day of the launch, and another 37 at AIC in the week leading up to the launch. Despite the fact that we had set a "couples only" testing policy for the launch, we ended up testing individuals, too, when there were counselors available. Thus, in the end, I was able to stop discriminating against myself :-)

More pictures here.