AIDS exhibit opens in Bolingbrook

Emmanuel lives in a little grass hut in sub-Saharan Africa.

He’s a child, and yet he’s the head of the house because both his parents died from AIDS. He cooks and keeps warm from a campfire.

Visitors can smell that fire and see that hut at an AIDS awareness exhibit visiting the Living Water Community Church, 190 Lily Cache Lane in Bolingbrook from Sunday, Feb. 20, to Sunday, Feb. 27.

“They can hear, they can touch, they can smell, they can see,” said World Vision Production Specialist Ange St. Hilaire, who is in charge of the exhibit tour. “It’s impossible to bring everybody to Africa, but we can bring Africa to you here in the United States.”

The “World Vision Experience: AIDS” exhibit travels by semi from community to community to bring awareness to AIDS by replicating the sites, sounds and smells of the lives of four children impacted by AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.

While the statistics there are heartbreaking — as many as 22 million people are infected — the exhibit is meant to portray hope for the future, St. Hilaire said.

“We really want to portray that there’s an opportunity of hope for these people,” she said. “Just because you live there doesn’t mean you have to live in poverty.”

People can tour the 2,500-square-foot exhibit for free and experience what these children experience — from seeing photographs of the actual children to hearing a narrator and touching artifacts. They can sit on the bed of one child or in the chair of another.

“It creates an actual, real experience of what they’re learning about this child,” St. Hilaire said.

Often, people are moved to tears by the stories, she said.

“World Vision Experience: AIDS” comes from a larger exhibit that originated in Grand Central Station. The response was so overwhelming, organizers decided to create a traveling exhibit.

That’s how members of the Bolingbrook Clergy Association came to organize the event.

“It’s about educating people about AIDS in Africa, but not just Africa but globally,” said Ruth Newell, media coordinator for the Bolingbrook Clergy Association. “It’s everywhere, and we want people to become aware of it so they can help right here in their own backyard.”

The experience is the brainchild of World Vision, a Christian relief and development organization focused on tackling the causes of poverty.

Beyond awareness, the organization also wants to inspire action.

“We want them to take action and realize that they can be part of turning the tide on AIDS,” St. Hilaire said. “We can’t ignore this issue.”

Options for helping include sponsoring a child or financially helping build a child’s community or even becoming involved in a local AIDS organization.

The free public tours are offered from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. throughout the week.

For information, visit worldvisionexperience.org.

If you go

What: “World Vision Experience: AIDS”

When: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 20, through Sunday, Feb. 27

Where: Living Water Community Church, 190 Lily Cache Lane, Bolingbrook

Cost: Free

Info: <a href="http://worldvisionexperience.org">worldvisionexperience.org</a>