Spring Retreat

This weekend a group of women will head to Bowen Island to learn about HIV treatments, HIV and medicinal marijuana, the law and HIV disclosure, terachings from the sweat lodge, and have some fun. It’s retreat weekend, and for three quarters of the women going, it will be their first time on a retreat. It’s not easy to meet a bunch of strangers and talk about your diagnosis, but year after year, women do so and come back smiling. We’ve been offering retreats for 15 years now (we’ve even developed a Retreat Planning Toolkit to help other organizations), and we’ve learned that providing a safe space for women to connect and learn about HIV can change people’s lives forever.  

Finding a place to connect with other women with HIV is rare (PWN is only one of three organizations in Canada that focus exclusively on HIV in women, and we’re the only one west of Toronto). For BC women who live outside the Lower Mainland, meeting other positive women can be downright impossible. A third of the women attending this retreat are from outside the Lower Mainland, and this weekend will be more than a getaway -  it will provide opportunities for them to make connections to carry away from the weekend and home. One attendee at the fall retreat reported on her evaluation, "This was my first retreat and it was awesome!"

We always have more applicants than spaces, and we do have to make some tough decisions. Women who’ve never gone to a retreat are prioritized, as are women from out of town, followed by women who haven’t gone for a long time. Sadly, we have to turn some women away. For those who won’t make it this weekend, we will be holding another retreat in the fall: October 2-4. Application forms will go out in the summer, so if you want to attend, or know someone who would, please contact us to make sure you’re on our mailing list.

- Janet

This was posted on Friday, May 22nd, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under Networking, Special Events, Spiritual and Emotional Health, Support . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.

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