Cardiff University comic book project helps African youngsters deal with misery of AIDs

A comic book aimed at teaching youngsters how to deal with
HIV has been created thanks to a Cardiff University project.

Dr Lisa El Refaie of Cardiff University’s School of English,
Communication and Philosophy, collaborated with South African health education
charity Whizzkids United (WKU) to organise a workshop where teenagers produced
their own comic strips highlighting their feelings and experiences of living
with HIV.

Dr El Refaie said: “I suggested WKU might run workshops on
how to draw comics, as a way to encourage the teenagers to explore and express
their own experiences and feelings, and create educational messages relevant to
other young people in their community.

“The results were remarkable, with the teenagers telling
some extremely moving stories for the first time.”

Award-winning British comic artist Stephen Marchant was then
enlisted to turn some of the entries into a full-colour comic book. The results
are a vibrant, hard-hitting yet inspirational comic delving into the hopes,
fears, dreams and despairs of these teenagers.

The story, entitled ‘Gossip’, represents a significant
concern from the teenagers involved in the workshop – the fear of being
ostracised by their friends. After the story’s protagonist, Nondy, is diagnosed
with HIV, she initially finds that her friends treat it as a joke and laugh at
her.

In South Africa, there are more than 5.5 million people
living with HIV/AIDS – around 460,000 are children aged 0-14.

WKU was keen to find other ways of reaching teenagers, and
of ensuring that those taking part in their football programmes found their way
to the WKU Health Academy where they can be tested for HIV and receive
counselling and information. This comic book workshop has been extremely
successful in getting the teens to open up and express their feelings while
receiving support and education.

The charity’s founder and director, Marcus McGilvray, from
Chepstow, was overwhelmed by the success of the comic books workshop. He said:
“One of the most amazing things was when they opened up and realised they all
had the same problem, having HIV. There was a surge of emotion and relief when
they found out they were all HIV positive.”