The Windhoek Agricultural and Industrial Show

September 29th - October 7th 2007th

The HIV and AIDS Management Unit, HAMU, presented itself at the The Windhoek Agricultural and Industrial Show. On the Industrial Show in Ongwediva the Regional AIDS Committee of Education, RACE of the the regions Omusati, Oshana, Oshikoto and Ohangwena presented the HIV and AIDS activties of the education sector.

The objectives of the presentation were:

• Raise awareness on HIV and AIDS programs and activities in the Ministry of Education through IEC (Information, Education, Communication) material distribution.
• Display and market the Ministry's service and to promote the image of the Ministry of Education in general and of HAMU inparticular.
• Market the HAMU website accessible nationally and internationally.
• Provide information to the public and to respond to their concerns.
• Networking with the Ministry's stake holders, in particular the public at large.

At the HAMU stall 14400 Condoms and 200 Femidoms were distributed. Obviously there is a high demand on "Smile" condoms, a high quality Namibian brand condom. The visitors accepted appreciated this offer.

Further on T-shirts, that advertise the the fight against HIV and AIDS through the Ministry of Education, were distributed to schools outside of Windhoek: Bamgartner Primary School and Hosea Kutako Primary School.

The stall was visited by Ministers and Permanent Secretaries of various line Ministries, teachers, principals, government officials, fellow Namibians and international visitors. All visitors were very interested in the information on HIV and AIDS prevention, mitigation and mainstreaming in the education sector. In particular the HAMU website found great interest.

As a highlight of HAMU's presentation the former President of Namibia, Sam Nujoma, visited the exhibition site. He congratulated HAMU on the progress in fighting the HIV and AIDS pandemic. He was very interested and impressed with the stall setup, the display of information and the website.

HAMU will definitely come back next year. The feedback of the visitors motivated us very much.