I Know

The "I Know!" Initiative is an HIV Awareness and education program. The materials focus on the personal stories and artwork of project KINDLE participants; children, adolescents, and families that are infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS.

The I Know Book which can be viewed by clicking here or by copying and pasting this link into your browser to view it in full screen: http://www.projectkindle.org/iknowbook.html is a full-color, 64 page book filled with the personal stories and artwork of Camp Kindle participants. This book (and accompanying video) are made available to teachers to share with their students as a supplemental resource in the classroom. By the end 2008, this book and video set will have reached over 1,000 teachers in Illinois, California, Colorado and Nebraska.

The I Know book focuses in depth on 5 youth from Camp Kindle. In addition, 5 topics dealing with HIV/AIDS are explored. These topics are ones that most often came up in writings and artwork of Camp Kindle campers. The topics are: Being a Kid, Relationships, Medication, Stigma, and Education.

I Know: Brryan Jackson is a 14 minute video (included in the back of the I Know Book) that introduces viewers to Brryan Jackson, a very special 17-year-old Camp Kindle participant. Brryan was purposely injected with the HIV virus by his own father when he was just an infant. At 5 years old he was diagnosed with full blown AIDS and given 5 months to live. Now, 12 years later, Brryan is an outspoken advocate and dedicates a lot of his time and effort to raise awareness and eradicate stigma.

The I Know Website is in the initial phases of being built. It will give users the opportunity to meet and learn about many of the different children Camp Kindle serves. In addition, the website will offer a cutting-edge, dynamic learning experience for students across the country. This website will be the only one of its kind: allowing young people impacted by HIV/AIDS the opportunity to teach other young people about the disease and how to stay safe. At the same time, the website will help young people build connections with others regardless of their HIV status and together confront the stigma that surrounds HIV/AIDS.

The video can be viewed on our vimeo page through the link below. Sample pages of the book can be downloaded through our "download" page.