Africa AIDS exhibit opens Sunday in Attleboro, Mass.
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ATTLEBORO, Mass. -- Largely through the efforts of the local YMCA and three area churches, the public will get a chance to take a "stroll" through an African village during the next eight days as part of an interactive exhibit to help Americans better understand the impact of HIV/AIDS on the children in Africa. Set to open Sunday at the YMCA at 63 North Main St., the multi-media "World Vision Experience: AIDS' exhibit features a 1,200 square-foot replica of an African village where visitors can don headsets and learn about three actual children -- from Zambia, Malawi and Uganda -- whose lives were dramatically affected by AIDS. The Rev. Dennis R. Baril, the Pawtucket-based clergyman who serves as senior pastor of the Community Covenant Church in Rehoboth, says he became determined to bring the award-winning display to New England after learning about it more than a year ago. Joined by members of Faith Alliance Church and Good News Bible Chapel, both in Attleboro, the Rehoboth church persuaded World Vision, the Christian humanitarian organization that designed the exhibit, to bring it here. One rub is that World Vision has been using a traveling exhibit that is brought to in mega churches. "Well, in this part of the country we don't have real mega churches," Mr. Baril said Thursday. "So we suggested that we have a community exhibit. We asked the YMCA if they would host it because we knew they had more room. The Y replied they would be happy to do so. They said it's exactly what they should be doing." But even the space afforded by the Y proved to be not large enough to contain the regular traveling exhibit, so World Vision decided to do something unusual: it dismantled its slightly-smaller permanent exhibit it's had on display outside its headquarters in the state of Washington and is having it shipped across country, so it can be erected in Attleboro by Saturday. Baril said that when he first heard about the exhibit "I felt it was such an opportunity for the church to show its real compassion and heart for the community, and to show the church is alive and well." He says World Vision had decided to create the exhibit two years ago after pondering the results of a 1990 survey that showed only 7 percent of Christians wanted to contribute to anything having to do with AIDS. "There is still a phobia around HIV/AIDS," he said. "World Vision felt it was their responsibility to educate people about the true nature of the epidemic." He says 354 congregants from the three churches volunteered to help man the 30-minute walk through in three-hour shifts. When visitors arrive they will be given tickets and headsets that guide them along any one of three paths, each following the story of a different child: Beatrice, a 9 year-old girl attempting to raise her 2-year-old niece in a village in Zambia; Oliva, a 17-year-old Malawian girl who was twice sexually assaulted by the same man; and Stephen, 13, a Ugandan boy abducted by rebel soldiers and forced to kill his own people. At the end, the visitors "follow" the children to an AIDS clinic where they find out whether they have AIDS. Says the pastor: "I've been told that little experience of having their hands stamped has changed people's lives." The week-long exhibit, which will be unveiled to clergy Saturday night, will open to the public from noon to 8 p.m. Sunday and will continue to be open Monday, June 15, to Friday, June 19 from 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., as well as 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, June 20, and Sunday, June 21, from noon to 8 p.m. It will also be open to school groups that make reservations at (508) 222 9400 ext. 102. A special community opening, featuring the mayor of Attleboro and other local dignitaries is set for Monday at 4:30 p.m. Because of the nature of the exhibit, it will be open only to adults and children aged 12 and above, and two of the life-stories are limited to children over 15. According to World Vision, there are nearly 2 million children under age 15 living with HIV in Africa, representing 90 percent of all the HIV-infected children in the world. 
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