A useless training by MICA on HIV Communication MAnagement

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum,

I remember Dr Sreejtih pointing out the fact that various agencies are shooting

up and conducting various training programmes on different aspects of HIV/AIDS.

Dr.Sreejith was also mentioning the case of IIM culcutta which charged heavy

fee.

I would like to share another experience. Mudra Institute of Communication

Ahmedabad, a reputed institution in India as far as the communication field is

concerned conducted a seven day professional Development PRogramme (PDP) on

Stigma, Discrimination and HIV Communication Managemnt.

The expectation was high when i attended the programme. The fee

was not bad. It was Rs.12K. But the second day itself the Programme showed its

direction. MICA was cutting a sorry figure.

Six participants from various organisations in the country participated in the

programe. The participants had to come strongly against the institution in

order to redesign the next days' sessions. I feel the programme was a failure

due to the following reasons

1) No proper planning was there.

2) the institution or the coordinator didnot seek the inputs from

professionals outside the MICA campus or even inside the campus.

3) The facilitator who was there full time for the programme who straight way

came from JNU campus was only the friend of the coordinator, and had no indpeth

knowledge regarding the HIV communication.

4) can anyone imagine that a Resource person taking session on knowledge

management say that the window period is 10 years!!? the same resource person

didnt know what ANC was.

5) No professional from HIV sector was invited for conducting sessions on core

issues, but for one or two.

6) The film philadelphia was screened for discussion. The facilitator didnt

even bother to go theugh the available reviews of the films, before coming for

the session.

Remember MICA is the same campus where Mr. Mathews, an eminent personality in

film studies is working with. He was not called for

the sessions.

The positive sides has to be mentioned

1) Some sessions were conducted by Resource Persons having good insights.

2) Good campus

3) Good accomodation

4) Good food

Soon we six particiapants realised the fact that we are in a way made fools by

attending the programme. So we developed a google group to share our views.

The name of the group is nationalfoolsgooglegroups

Valuable suggestions of the fou\rum is invited to prune shuch un professional

intitiatives in the future

regds

S.Ajai Kumar

Programme Officer (IEC)

Kerala State AIDS COntrol Society

Thiruvananthapuram - 35. Kerala

e-mail: <ajai.ksacs@...>