World Vision Experience: AIDS

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Media contact Gardi Wilks | 708.205.5020 (c)

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Raising awareness about the affects of the international AIDS pandemic on children in developing countries, World Vision has created the “World Vision Experience: AIDS” multi-media, interactive exhibit. There are two identical Experience exhibits; between the two of them, the exhibit visited over 70 cities in 2007/2008, and is scheduled to reach another 40 in 2009.

©2005/Jon Warren/World Vision

The stories profiled in the two new World Vision Experience exhibits are of real children touched by the work of World Vision, and are inspired by true events. The children (whose real names are used by permission) are:

• Kombo: Big trucks — and the “Big Disease” — roll past one boy’s home at a Kenyan truck stop along the AIDS Highway.
• Babirye: In the epicenter of AIDS in Africa, a young Ugandan girl watches her father die and her mother grow weak — and wonders if she’ll be next.
• Emmanuel: A young boy and his brother must survive in the wild, caring for themselves after losing their mother and their home in Uganda.
• Mathabo: One girl feels the sting of abandonment as she faces hunger, assault and disease — alone in the highlands of Lesotho.

A prototype exhibit was launched in fall 2005, and hundreds of thousands of visitors have gone through the exhibit in cities all across the United States. The prototype Experience was featured at the 2006 Global AIDS Conference in Toronto and displayed in New York’s Grand Central terminal in the summer of 2006. The overwhelming response to the prototype exhibit led World Vision to commission the new exhibits and launch the upcoming national tour.

Development of the exhibit’s creative content was spearheaded by World Vision’s internal Creative Solutions team, with design and fabrication carried out by The Production Network of Seattle.

Facts About the World Vision Experience: AIDS

Size of exhibit:		2,600 square feet
Perimeter:		52’ x 45’
Set Up Time:		8-12 hours
Tear Down Time:		6-8 hours
Traveling Team:		4 full time team members
Transportation:		1 — 53’ tractor trailer 1 — box truck 1 — staff vehicle
Average time spent viewing exhibit:		20-40 minutes
World Vision Experiential Director:		Mike Yoder
World Vision Creative Director:		Barry Swindon
World Vision Senior Writer:		Brian Sytsma
World Vision Design Director:		Robert Coronado

For complete information and resources, visit www.worldvisionexperience.org.

World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. We serve all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender. For more information, please visit www.worldvision.org/press.