Over the weekend of 27th - 28th November, members of The Grid & Substance Youth Clubs took on the No Slumber Challenge!

The No Slumber Challenge is a youth group sleepover with a difference. It follows the lives of a child-headed household in Africa over the course of a year. From the start until the very end, participants must think and make choices as if they are the character they are given. It’s about making choices and dealing with the consequences.It's an opportunity to face a few simple questions; have you got what it takes to spend a day and a night experiencing how life is for millions of children orphaned by AIDS? Have you got the head, hands and heart to look after yourself and others in a world where life and death choices rest with you? Have you got the eyes to see what life is truly like?

Alex, one of the participants has written this report:

"A few weeks ago, I took part in the 'No Slumber Challenge', and I have to say, it was a lot harder and a lot more emotional than I thought it was going to be. I was expecting to just get a 'taster' of what the children in child-headed households have to deal with, but i actually got the full blown, 100% feel of it; it was as though I had swapped minds with one of the children in those positions.

I took the mind of Mary, who was diagnosed with HIV halfway through the Challenge, and so I started to understand what it must feel like for a 14 year old to be diagnosed with HIV. It was really hard to feel, to the complete extent, of what children of that age must be going through when they find out that their life is being cut short by HIV, as so you really had to put your heart and mind into believing that it was actually you, which was hard to grasp at the beginning.

I loved the 'No Slumber Challenge' and it really opened my eyes to understand what children of that age must be going through today, especially as they have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS."