EVENT: Thursday Oct. 23-Monday Oct. 27--World Vision Experience: AIDS – Step into Africa

Virtual Africa exhibit brings the realities of AIDS in Africa home through a free, interactive exhibit open to the public that takes its visitors on a journey into AIDS-affected communities in Africa, as seen through the eyes of three children

WHO: Grace Community Church, is hosting the "World Vision Experience: AIDS" tent exhibit. The public is invited to go through the free, multimedia, interactive exhibit and become one of the over 30,000 people who have been through the exhibit.

WHAT: The "World Vision Experience: AIDS" exhibit is a unique, multi-media, interactive exhibit that allows Americans to step into the lives of actual children affected by HIV and AIDS in the hardest-hit region of the world: Sub-Saharan Africa, where about 25 million people are infected with HIV (2/3 of the world's total). Visitors walk through a replica of an African village and experience the effects of the pandemic in a real way as they listen to a personal audio track relating the story of one of three children – Olivia, Stephen, and Beatrice.

WHEN: The free exhibit will be open to the public from Thursday, October 23 – Monday, October 27, 10 am – 8 pm daily.

WHERE: Grace Community Church

275 Billerica Road

Chelmsford, MA 01824

Contact: Matthew Beattie, 603.770.6991

CONTACT:

Interviews for the above and additional locations and dates can be scheduled by calling Jennifer Kuntz, the contact listed at top.

Background

The World Vision Experience was launched in fall 2005. In the first year, nearly 20,000 people in 10 North American cities visited the Experience. The prototype Experience was featured at the 2006 Global AIDS Conference in Toronto and displayed in New York's Grand Central terminal. The smaller tent version was created in September 2006 to tour college campuses in Southern California; since then it has toured colleges, churches and music festivals around the country.