HIV/AIDS Information Campaign

[Guest guest]

Awareness about HIV/AIDS and IEC are the only tools with regular follow-ups.

We need multiple approach for awareness.

HIV/AIDS INFORMATION CAMPAIGN – A RESPONSE STUDY

‘Prevention through Information’ has been the modus operandi of Servants of

the People Society in all its AIDS Awareness Campaigns. To ensure that the

message of prevention reaches masses the campaigns have been targeted to

spread awareness at all levels of society, which are: -

1) STUDENT COMMUNITY: - The work among the Student community has been

carried out at Schools, Colleges and University Campus levels. During these

talks besides prevention of HIV/AIDS, a wide range of adolescent problems

ranging from Emotional disturbances to Behavioural patterns and other health

related issues were also discussed in the interaction programmes held in

different Institutions. Around 1/5th of Global population falls in the

category of adolescents, very less percentage of adolescents sought

professional help for their problems and that too during an emergency or in

case of acute problems.

2) WORKING PEOPLE: - Working people have been approached from different

sectors of Transport industry. Awareness camps have been held at Bus Stand,

Labour Chowks and Transport Workshop’s. Active participation and the

interaction of these people has led us to the conclusion that at this level

of society there is a distinctive lack of knowledge not only about AIDS but

also about various other sex related topics.

3) RURAL AND SLUM AREAS: - Various Camps and other Social Events have been

used to spread the word about HIV/AIDS prevention in the Rural and Slum

community. Every available opportunity like Medical Camps, Skin &

S.T.I/R.T.I Camps, Blood Donation Camps etc. have been used to spread the

word about AIDS Prevention among these people.

The inferences derived from these Awareness Campaigns and Interactions in

short are:

a)Students are keen that Value Based sex/ hygiene education should become a

part of curriculum.

b)Such talks/workshops on HIV/AIDS and S.T.I./R.T.I. should be held more

frequently.

c)Even in normal course, Healthy life-style education should form a part of

curriculum.

d)There is urgent need to educate masses regarding Population control.

e)Practical measures like HIV testing before marriage should be encouraged.

f)Need for Mobile Clinics/Blood collection teams.

g)Free Condom Distribution Centre’s may be established.

h)In the last two categories there is a felt need for more visual and

graphic tools of information, as most of the people falling under this

category have little or no education at all.

SEX EDUCATION COURSES ARE INCOMPLETE

Two national surveys reported that sex education classes often fail to

address topics that parents, students and teachers believe are important to

young people's understanding of sexuality. Parents of public secondary

school students want sex education classes to teach a wide range of

subjects. Abstinence training won the support of 97 percent of the parents

in the survey. A high percentage of parents also wanted schools to teach

about how to deal with the emotional consequences of sex, how to talk to

parents about sex and relationships and how a student should seek help in

cases of sexual assault. Even the instruction of such controversial topics

as homosexuality, abortion, and how to use birth control had the support of

more than 75 percent of the parents surveyed. Abstinence-only supporters

questioned the fairness of the surveys and said they doubted the results

represent Americans' attitudes toward sex education.

- Mark Ribbing, The Baltimore Sun - " Surveys: Sex education courses are

incomplete " as published in The Seattle Times, September 27, 2000, A6

(http://www.seattletimes.com)

The Conclusion that we can reach from our study of the Awareness Campaigns,

the Interactive Voice Response System and net is that there is a distinctive

lack of awareness among the people and most of it can be blamed upon the

lack of a co-ordinated effort among various agencies involved in the task of

social upliftment. AIDS has not yet assumed the alarming proportions as it

has already in lot of other countries and only if the masses are made aware

about this disease properly can we curb this disease in time before it

starts consuming our society. And this again, points towards the important

fact that a major step that needs to be taken for the prevention of HIV/AIDS

is Sex/Hygiene Education, which is the main tool towards our goal.

With the help of following sights I started AIDS AWARENESS on net

on the Health Sight of these web sites, the response was more than my

expectations,

http://www.sps.org.in

http://www.chandigarhx.com

http://www.lovechandigarh.com

The experience gain from above sites, I started my own site,

Please visit this site and send your suggestions for

improvement.http://www.loveandaids.com

I am personally interested in Rehabilitation of PLWHA and Training of

community level workers and Professionals along with Community Home

Based Care training for family members of PLWHA.

With best wishes & regards,

Dr.Avnish Jolly

mailto:avnish@...