Chandigarh: Red ribbon brigade gears up to check HIV

[Guest guest]

" Red ribbon brigade' gears up to check HIV

Naveen S Garewal, Tribune News Service, Chandigarh, November 2

It happened at an ordinary venue. But the daylong proceedings turned out to be

an extraordinary event. They giggled, blushed, got embarrassed, surprised, but

at the end they pledged that they would work together as torchbearers, spreading

awareness about HIV and

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) that is fast becoming the biggest

health challenge in the country.

Hundreds of boys and girls from professional and non-professional colleges and

the university volunteered to dawn upon themselves the mantle of a HIV trainer

who would go to slums, villages and other

vulnerable areas and deliver a message to target groups in clear simple language

that they understand.

" True love waits " is what these volunteers will tell adolescent and young

adults, while the message to commercial sex workers is " a condom can save your

life " . While they will distribute clean syringes and needles to the intravenous

drug users. Not because

they want to promote drugs, but since telling these people to stop drugs is

futile, so at least they can be protected from HIV that is transmitted through

infected needles.

Training of peer educators under the Red Ribbon Clubs is a project of the

Chandigarh State AIDS Control Society in association with a local NGO Yuvsatta

to train college students, who in turn would go out and spread awareness about

the dreadful disease.

" Since there is no cure for HIV, the only way to protect anyone from it is to

make the person aware about the threat of HIV and tell him how to guard against

it " , Dr Trikha Khullar, Director of the

Chandigarh State AIDS Control Society, told these young students.

The project sought five volunteers each from every college of the city seeking

their participation in the two-day " training the trainer " programme being held

at the local DAV College. The response has been overwhelming.

To the utter surprise on the organisers, the participants are not only very

aware about HIV and related issues, but have shown a strong commitment to work

as ambassadors of knowledge without the slightest hesitation of any sort.

These five volunteers from each college will go back and form a Red Ribbon Club

(a red ribbon is the accepted symbol of HIV/AIDS as the pink is for breast

cancer) in their respective colleges. The objective of the clubs will be to

provide a forum for students

where they can talk about sexuality, sexual behaviour, female foeticide, issues

and concern pertaining to such other issues.

These students would in turn visit slums, rural areas, colonies etc and interact

with commercial sex workers, injective drug users, etc and distribute condoms,

needles and syringes and gave them tips to protect themselves from HIV etc.

A Project Manager with the society, Mr Gaurav Gaur, said that students had been

involved in the HIV /AIDS awareness campaign as the youth was the most critical

target group and can become very effective agents of social change.

According to the UNAIDS data on HIV, there are 40 million HIV positive people in

the world, with India having 5.7 million - the largest number - even though the

percentage of HIV positive people is less than 1 per cent due to India's large

population. There is no

place in India that can be termed as HIV safe.

While Chandigarh and Haryana in North India are termed as 'vulnerable', Punjab

is categorised as 'highly vulnerable', according to Dr Khullar.

After a day-long interaction with experts, these future HIV volunteers now

understand that HIV is no longer limited to people with " wrong habits " , but

every individual is equally at risk. Women constitute 35 per cent of the HIV

infected population in India.

These volunteers will start their work with the " A, B or C " mantra that is

believed to be vital in curtailing HIV.

Here " A " stands for " abstaining " from pre-marital sex, " B " for " being faithful "

to one partner and in case both these are violated than " C " , using a condom,

will prove to be the saviour.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20061103/cth1.htm#8

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PRAMOD SHARMA <yuvsatta@...>