Genitalia, HIV-awareness and art therapy

A couple of months ago we participated in a workshop on self-esteem in Sontule. It was organised for local youths by an Esteli-based feminist organisation called Xilonem. We were impressed at the content and how it was facilitated and offered to get involved. It's taken us a while to sort ourselves out and work out which days we'll be in Esteli, but for the time being, whenever we have a Monday or Friday free, we're popping down to their office to help out in any way we can. So far, it's involved us preparing posters for use in workshops in rural communities. On Monday, male and female genitalia posters were required. Rachel's lady bits

Fortunately, we had the help of a few text books and we were quite proud of our genitalia by the end of the day. Simon's man bits

We thought we performed fairly admirably given the presence of teenage boys in the room looking over our shoulders inquisitively (they were supposed to be preparing a theatre drama in the room next door). The finished article ready for action

Today, we've been designing posters on HIV and AIDs awareness. We're going to be participating in the workshops on this in Sontule next week. Despite the therapeutic nature of our art, we're excited by the prospect of getting out of the library and into the classroom.

The lovers are pretty impressive on this, although the man in the hospital bed was free-styling, whereas the rest were based on drawings.

Worth noting in this stunning poster is the huge, menacing mosquito, which may well suck your brains out, but won't give you HIV.

We're looking forward to going back on Monday and producing some more fine work around the themes of domestic violence and challenging gender roles for children (think boys playing with dolls and girls playing with hobby horses, which is a particularly boyish pursuit here).