Apprehensions about IIHMR Training programe on Surveillance, Monitoring and Evaluation of HIV/AIDS Programmes

[Guest guest]

Dear E -Forum,

This is in response to the invitation letter, from the person I/C at the IIHMR,

for an 'International' workshop in HIV/AIDS. I would like to express my anxiety

about such a workshop, which threatens to become an annual event in the HIV/AIDS

educational calendar.

My apprehension is based on my own experience. Last year, I was a participant at

a similar workshop, which to many, turned out to be a lacklustre affair. As a '

Care and Support' professional in a HIV/AIDS project, I was attracted by a

similar invitation letter. We were particularly drawn to the 'juicy' contents

that the workshop promised to showcase. What followed was a disaster!

It was not only mediocre on the quality front, but replete with tales of

mismanagement, lack of planning and careless organisation. There was no attempt

to check the profile of the participants who came to the workshop, as a result

of which, there were many, who had to endure sessions that dealt with subjects

that were completely irrelevant. One such 'international' participant from a

neighbouring country was a person, who worked in the health ministry and knew

nothing about HIV/AIDS and was seen asking other participants, how the disease

is transmitted and had no clues on the gravity of the problem in his country.

This hapless guest was never told about the true nature of the workshop.

The speakers were mostly home bred and few of the luminaries they had called as

speakers never turned up, making way for poor substitutions. Some were seen

scrambling for their 'PowerPoint' floppies not knowing which one they had to

present to the audience. In a particular instance, the audience was bombarded by

a doctor speaker, on the electron microscopic structure of the HIV virus,

followed by a equally torturous session on the clinical findings of AIDS with

great scholarly pleasure in telling the folks all the minute details of the

OI/malignancies. At the end of the workshop, no one was talking about his or her

enhanced managerial skills, which the workshop claimed it would 'attempt to do'.

But then I can't keep grumbling about the poor workshop content .. can I? There

were indeed many other pluses- we got to see the wonderful city of Jaipur, saw

the wonderful IIHMR campus, received a nice accommodation with good food. Some

of our 'International' guests were also happy with the whole event. Some said,

the workshop helped them in know the 'basics' of HIV/AIDS, got their lifetime

desire of seeing Tajmahal and Ajmer's dargah fulfilled, albeit at their

governments expense.

All the participants in the workshop were sponsored candidates and their

employers paid for the fat sum of 10,000 rupees. A disproportionately higher sum

was charged from the international guests who were mostly from Bangladesh and

Burma, from whom an equivalent amount should have been far lesser than they

charged. I am sure many would have voiced their dissent in a more noticeable

way, had the fees been paid individually from their accounts.

My 'cynical' account of the workshop proceedings may appear 'over the top', but

it is an account of my own and other participants, of the gross dissapointment ,

the way such workshops are held in our country.

When are we going to stop plundering of resources in the name of HIV/AIDS? How

can we make the organisers of these workshops/seminars accountable.

I urge all the forum members and the prospective participants, to ensure, that

future workshops are not allowed to be hijacked by handful of people, who only

have their personal stakes and other ulterior motives.

With regards

Dr Sreejit E M

E-mail: emsree@...