CLOSING REMARKS:
After ten excellent months, the African AIDS Awareness Campaign has finally drawn to a close. We finished the last of our research and travels in May 2006 in the northeastern region of South Africa. While there is a possibility that some of us may reunite in the future and travel the eastern side of the African continent in line with our original plans, for the time being we are scattering to open new chapters in our lives. In each of our travel blogs, there will be an indication of our new intentions and of the impact that this trip has had in our personal development. Please feel free to contact any member of our team with any questions or comments that you have.
INTRODUCTORY TEXT:
In July 2005, a team of American journalists, writers, and photographers embarked on an overland journey through the heart of Africa with the intention of examining the impact of HIV/AIDS on local communities and sharing the unique pleasures of African travel and culture with a predominantly Western audience. In February 2006, the team drove clear of Central Africa and the most technically difficult conditions of their voyage. In May of 2006, ten months after their journey began, they concluded their research and travels in South Africa after spending three months in the Southern region.
The team has publicized the efforts of dozens of organizations and individuals throughout West and Central Africa with the hopes that outside attention will benefit these hard-working people. The team was motivated by a belief that it is inherently valuable for Western audiences to acquire a more detailed and accurate understanding of the epidemic in Africa and of Africa in general.
It was their mission to balance the statistics that the Western media typically uses to illustrate the reality of the African AIDS epidemic with the stories of people at its center. They hope to have enabled Western audiences to grasp, on a human level, what a struggle with or against this disease can be like in the least developed region on earth.
How They Did It
They drove a modified 1979 Datsun Skyline automobile from the Gambia through West Africa into South Africa. A map and rough itinerary can be selected from the menu above.
Each member of the team prepared articles and kept travel journals to detail their own personal experiences.
They also shared travel photographs in a gallery, communicated with several high school classes on the Classroom page, and provided information on their collaborators and sponsors in the designated sections of the website.
While the trip has come to its conclusion, you may still feel free to contact any of the team members individually, as they are maintaining the email addresses made available on the About Us page.
Click links for streaming video clips (page 1) (page 2) documenting the African AIDS Awareness Campaign's experiences in West Africa
