AAG was invited to organise two sessions on HIV/AIDS & STIs at Woodstock School in Musoorie. Mr. Steve Alter from Woodstock School, introduced Elizabeth and Deepak to the employees.
The facilitator started the morning session with a one minute silence in memory of one of the staff who had passed away a few days before.
In the beginning the Facilitators asked a few questions on HIV & AIDS. We talked about Modes of transmission, Myths & Misconceptions, on HIV, how to prevent it? We also discussed Sexually Transmissible Infections. We found that they had doubts on whether the “HIV spreads through shaking hands & through Mosquito bites. Doubts of STIs, and what are the dangers in MSM activities. We asked where the HIV is found. When they could not tell us, we talked about blood and the other liquids in our body where the HIV is found.
We showed a film “Bewaqt Baris” which focused on HIV/AIDS. After the film we asked everyone what they had learnt. We were surprised when they gave a very satisfactory feed back about the film. Then we discussed Stigma & Discrimination of the HIV Positive people. They participated very well. In the meanwhile we held a session on HIV/AIDS with the help of flip charts.
The employees were Head Cooks, Cooks, Maintenance workers, Cleaners etc. It was a floating population who attended the session. Approx. 60-70 men participated.
The second session started with the wives & children of employees attending. The facilitator talked to them about ‘what they knew about the session and what were the problems, faced by women in Musoorie. During the discussion we gave information on HIV/AIDS and STIs. All of the above mentioned teaching AIDS were used in the session. We also showed the film to them. One of the women asked a question about whether HIV is treated by medication. We explained to them about Anti Retro Viral Therapy (ARV) effectiveness and how it is taken but there is no cure for HIV only precautions. Another lady asked a question ‘how is it spread from mother to child’. We asked the rest of the group to answer her, and the right answer was given. The participants were school students, domestic workers and House wives.
At the end of these two sessions we gave feedback forms to everyone. These were very participatory sessions :
Feedback forms written by the employees and their wives & daughters. Most of them have written that it was a good session on HIV/AIDS awareness & they knew something about the issue. They knew about the Modes of Transmission, Myths, and Prevention of HIV. One of them said that he understood about the proper use of condoms. Another said that he is very thankful for visit of “the Ghantiwali Mata”. A very few said that they will have sex only with their Life partner and no one else. A few participants want to repeat this session time to time. Some mentioned that they had made many mistakes, but now they would be careful not to repeat them |
