Before/During/After Activities

Hey guys,

Here's some important information to make sure we're on the same page. Feel free to comment, make suggestions, propose new ideas.

First up, let's make sure we know what the objectives of our trip our:
- Hands-on engagement with our club's 06-07 theme, AIDS, in an international context
- Challenge ourselves to think more globally.
- To develop a long-term partnership with the Belmopan Rotaract club.
- To further the Evanston/Belize sister city relationship

Pre-trip Preparation:

A quick recap on what we've done so far:
- Thought about AIDS in a broader context (of sexual violence and genocide) by attending the Tubeho Project Panel Discussion and by discussing the panel at Wednesday's meeting
- Gained skills, knowledge and ideas by attending IYVS sessions
- Learned about Belize (history, economy, demographics, AIDS), and reflected on some potential issues we may face during the presentations at Wednesday's meeting.

During-trip Activities:
(This section doesn't include actual day-to-day service/trip activities, but broader, ongoing activities. I will email you a trip itinerary with specific service project info).

Sustainability
To develop a long-term partnership with Belmopan Rotaract, we need to work together to establish common goals, brainstorm future projects, and develop an infrastructure for the partnership.

Some ideas we've come up wtih to continue AIDS-related efforts in Belize include:
- Forming a Rotaract Belmopan committee to train local students and community leaders to be peer educators
- Developing a youth AIDS education program through a creative medium such as sports
- Implementing a public awareness project, such as a mural
- Engaging members of the community in gender-specific discussions about AIDS
- Establishing a system of psychological and social support for AIDS victims (a current AIDS issue in Belize is the lack of such support)

Engagement
We will be holding daily discussions to engage with the issues we're dealing with, share our observations and reflect upon our experiences and impact. These discussions will be documented in a group journal.

Photographs
We will take photographs during the trip to use for the post-trip photo exhibit and presentations.

Post-trip Activities:
Upon our return, we will organize activities/events to engage the NU & Evanston communities. Some initial ideas are:
- Photo exhibit (including observations/insights from trip journal)
- Dorm firesides
- Follow-up AIDS-related volunteering activity for trip participants
- Presentations to local Rotary clubs and to the Evanston community about our experiences
- Facilitating a workshop/discussion at IYVS 2008
- Article in the Sister Cities International March/April newsletter about the trip (Evanston has a sister city relationship with Belize)
- Possibly attending the Sister Cities International Conference in Chicago