HIV/AIDS Seminar

I knew that it was going to be a good HIV/AIDS/sexual education seminar when the 2 first male participants to show up had an age range of 70 years – ages 13 and 83.  

Early childhood development activity

Participants of all ages.

There is plenty of grant money available for HIV education, so my fellow Comarca volunteer Kayla and I applied for funding to host seminars in our communities.  We included funds for breakfast and lunch, as well as supplies such as notebooks and certificates for participants.

Last week a few other Peace Corps volunteers and I held the seminar in my community.  We separated males and females into two separate classrooms, and gave the same sessions facilitated by males or females.  Working with the women, I was impressed how outgoing they can be in a group setting when they’re not overshadowed. 

Sample activity for STIs: "Yes there is a cure" and "No there is not a cure"

During the seminar we facilitated interactive presentations on Early Childhood Development, What is HIV/AIDS, Family Planning, Sexually Transmitted Infections, How HIV/AIDS is Transmitted, How to Prevent HIV/AIDS, and Sexual Rights.  Pretty heavy stuff, but we kept it light with lots of ice breakers and jokes.

Comparing my seminar to Kayla’s, whose community is more isolated and mountainous, one volunteer said, “I don’t see any snotty nosed kids here.”  This is referring to an easy health status indicator – if the kids all have the eternal common cold, there are probably more serious health problems abound for the kids and their parents.

Anyways, I somewhat defensively said, “There are kids like that here.”  But I looked around at the 25 participants and their kids, and saw that they were all put-together and healthy looking.  “Oh, these are the seminar-going people.”

Right then I realized the pit fall of this well-attended seminar.  I personally invited about 50 families to the seminar, and the people who I would consider most “at risk” did not show up – because they’re not much of meeting goers in general.  Who do consider most at risk?  Those men (and their spouses) who do the coffee harvest annually in Costa Rica for 1-3 months, because this time away from home is known to lead to non-filial behavior.  Also, those families that tend to have more marital problems, early school drop-outs, and early teen pregnancies (ages 13-17).  Living here, these things are just common knowledge.

Closing activity with AIDS ribbon

Women's classroom

Good at keeping a straight face.

It’s not like the seminar was a total loss though.  One of the major themes was de-stigmatizing (is this a word?) HIV-infected people.  Privacy is a totally new idea here, so if someone was tested, everyone knows.  Yes, you can hug them, you can even share a drink with them.   The other point stressed was that those infected with HIV will not yet have symptoms but can still pass the virus along – which was received as totally new information.  The best I can hope for is that the community leaders, these seminar-going folks, will pass the information along to the rest.