Interactive session on HIV/AIDS and other

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

We are here again to share our experience after an achievement in providing

training to more than 250 students in New National

High School, Kolkata.

Recently, we (me and Sudha Jha) conducted a mobile library visit cum an

interactive session on HIV/AIDS and other related issues to the aspirants of

vocational courses under Dr. Reddy’s Foundation (DRF) – Dumdum centre.

DRF is a non-profit partner of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories. DRF’s interventions

span two sectors i) Livelihoods – Through a wide array of vocational training

programs, DRF addresses the issues of employability, income generation and

consequent improvement in quality of life; ii) Education – DRF strives to

provide various opportunities for learning to those who have never been to

school, or have dropped out of it; it also works to improve the quality of

education in schools.

It was our fourth visit to DRF.

Earlier, we visited their Santragachi and Bally centre. We already visited

around 170 young and enthusiastic aspirants there.

So, based on our performances in the earlier visits, DRF officials again invited

us to conduct the session through our mobile library service. The recent visit

took place in DRF Dumdum centre with their 30 aspirants.

The visit started with a brief introduction about SAATHII and its mobile library

service. It was followed by an introduction of the participants and DRF

officials. Then they shared their expectations from the visit. Based on their

expectations, we screened “Shuruâ€â€” a docu-feature film on HIV/AIDS issue

by SAATHII in collaboration with SPARSHA and Thoughtshop Foundation.

After it was screened, participants were requested to connect their queries

(based on their expectations) with the information

disseminated in the film. Rests of the issues were discussed in the form of

group interaction. Issues such as mode of HIV transmission, origin of the virus,

myths and misconceptions, prevention, care-support-treatment, role of gender and

sexuality in HIV, stigma and discrimination around it, roles and

responsibilities of youth in this regard, and many more. The entire session was

conducted in the form

of energizing games, group exercises, role plays, audio-visual screenings.

Many interesting views and comments came out from the discussion. Queries were

found on i) Risk of HIV transmission in female to female sex ii) Concept of

celebrating World AIDS Day iii) Any research with the virus on animal body, many

more.

Many participants showed interest to know more about HIV treatment related

issues. After all discussions over, we screened two music videos conveying

messages to stop stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS.

The music videos were “Tod do Diwarein†(Hindi) and “Jiboner Jonnyeâ€

(Bengali).

Overall response of the participants was remarkable and it reflected their

sincerity and responsibility towards the issue. Also their positive response in

the entire discussion energized our effort in facilitating the session.

Looking forward to share more experiences and achievements in near future

Souvik Ghosh

Project Officer: Training

Project Pehchan

Solidarity and Action Against The HIV Infection in India (SAATHII)

229 Kalitala Main Road, Purbachal (North)

Calcutta 700 078, West Bengal, India

033 2484 4835 (Landline)

033 2484 4841 (Fax)

saathii@... (E-mail)

www.saathii.org (Website)