My 10th formers with the sign they made for World AIDS Day 2010.
Yes, this post is a day late. World AIDS Day was yesterday, Dec. 1. But My mobile Internet USB drive needs to be topped up on the first of every month. To do so, I must pay a fee and then wait a day. Hence the timing of this post.
The Krasne Village School celebrated World AIDS Day by drawing and painting HIV/AIDS awareness posters. Each form (grade) created a poster of its own to display around school. Afterward, the teaching staff, including myself, broke the students into to large groups – older students and younger students – and showed videos provided to me by Peace Corps. Sveta, the school’s information and technologies teacher, had a video of her own that she showed, too. After a bit of coercing (I’ll explain in a minute), I was allowed to speak about HIV and AIDS to the older students. I explained the importance of education, protection and awareness. I gave some real-life examples of situations in which people have contracted HIV, and discussed with students what those people could have done to prevent such a thing from happening. Despite a few chuckles when discussing sex and condom use, the students handled it well.
Two weeks ago, when I approached my director about conducting some sort of project for World AIDS Day, I was all but shooed away. The volunteer that lived in Artemovsk prior to me had done a small HIV/AIDS education project in Krasne before, which sparked outrage among students’ parents. She taught the older students how to properly put on condoms by practicing on bananas, but then passed out condoms to students as young as 10. That last bit was what my director had a problem with. She told me she’d think about allowing me to conduct a lesson or two and let me know.
On Nov. 30, my director got back to me. She said I could speak about HIV and AIDS to the students and share whatever information I had with them. But no way was I to pass out condoms, she said. Fair enough. I could at least highlight the importance of using a rubber. And so I did. I was just pleased that my school participated in this day of awareness at all, because the attitude I was met with when bringing up the idea of a project for World AIDS Day was so discouraging. In the end, it turned out alright. In fact, my director and I are now planning a PEPFAR project for next year. We sat down for our first meeting regarding it this afternoon.
Great job Chris! Glad the director realized the importance and granted you permission to share that information with the students. Keep up the good work, son.