Red Cross educates students on AIDS

PUNE: It''s a small beginning, but it could go a long way in the battle against AIDS. The Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS), under its peer education programme launched in 2003, has begun imparting scientific information on AIDS among school and college children in the city.
Nearly 1,200 students, who have directly or indirectly benefited from the programme, walked in the World AIDS Day march through the streets of the city on Wednesday.
The march culminated in a programme at Tilak Smarak Mandir, where HIV patients narrated personal accounts of how they got over the trauma of being HIV-positive.
"The idea behind the peer education programme is to train 10 students in every school and college, who will then pass on their knowledge to at least 10 of their friends, and so on," said R.V. Kulkarni, secretary, IRCS, Pune district.
Pune and Akola are the only two districts in the state where the programme is being implemented and Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh are the only three states where it is being implemented, because they have the highest percentage of AIDS-affected populace.
It''s an uphill task, considering the mere introduction of sex education has met with reluctance in schools. "AIDS and HIV are still banned words in many schools," says Kanchan Joshi, one of the four counsellors working on the programme.
Interestingly, nearly 90 per cent of the programme includes training in life-skills such as communication, creativity and problem - solving, while the remaining 10 per cent is actual information on AIDS and HIV. The information, too, is imparted through games and activities, instead of lectures and textbooks.
The schools were not exactly enthusiastic about joining the programme. "One out of 10 schools approached has returned our calls," says a programme volunteer. "Only five schools and five colleges were covered last year, but this year the target has jumped to 20 schools and 20 colleges," says city co-ordinator Ashwini Gokhale.
The group''s experiences have been interesting. While standard VIII students haven''t heard about condoms, XIth standard students seem to be discussing sex, homosexuality and condoms, informs Gokhale.
The transition from the life-skills module to the AIDS information module is made through a quiz on AIDS myths. "Should an HIV-AIDS patient be isolated in society?" "Do people with HIVAIDS have bad character?" "Should a woman with HIVAIDS bear a child?" Strong concepts and misconcepts emerge when the quiz turns into a debate, and somewhere down the line, true knowledge gets inculcated.