HIV-AIDS Workshop

Jovenes para una Vida Saludable (Youth for a Healthy Life)

This morning we presented the first of two workshops on HIV-AIDS at the high school. “We” is me, four youths (two of which went to the workshop in Concepcion back in March, where we did all the activities), and Rodolfo, a nurse from the health center who also seems to be responsible for health education in Tacuati.

Despite the trepidations I had in bringing the whole high school morning session together at once, the 80 or so kids were really well behaved and participated in all the activities. We learned what HIV-AIDS is, how 25 million people have died from it and another 36 million are living with it worldwide, and how in Paraguay the numbers are still in the tens of thousands so the focus is on prevention and education so that HIV-AIDS never reaches the epidemic levels it has in, say, Africa. There were little games to learn how one can and can not transmit the virus, and a game-show style review game too (I bought little birthday-party horn-blowy things for each team to toot when they knew an answer. It’s funny how such simple silly cheap things can make an activity so much more fun). We practiced putting condoms on mandioca (which are the super-common potato-like tubers shaped like huge cucumbers) and talked too about sifilis and other sexually transmitted diseases.

At the end we passed out brochures with more information and Rodolfo handed out condoms too. PC is careful to encourage/require volunteers to work with Paraguayans when doing sensitive HIV or sex-related activities. We don’t want to be seen as “the condom lady,” and also want people to realize that this information is pertinent to and comes from Paraguay, that it’s the health center here that’s the resource for them and not just some foreigner with her crazy ideas.

I absolutely loved the workshop today. First of all, it’s a great workshop. We replicated exactly the activities and charts from the workshop we went to, where other PCVs had collaborated over several years to collect and perfect the best ways to explain, illustrate, review etc. these themes. Every section where information is given is followed by some sort of interactive game to apply what was learned. Second of all, it’s so so so important. The sex ed and health education here is as lousy as the rest of the education system, the kids don’t really absorb any information they just copy it and spit it back out. So for them to have an interactive presentation with clear presentations, checks for understanding, etc. really can make a difference – not to be melodramatic, but this is the kind of information dissemination that can save lives. Third, I liked that the teachers sat in, and (when they weren’t talking amongst themselves) were able to see some innovative interactive teaching strategies that would be so easy for them to apply if they wanted to, and that now I kind of have an excuse to talk to them about the activities and how to try them on a smaller scale in the classroom. And finally, I’m good at this stuff! I miss being in front of a class, or a group of any kind, and presenting a lesson or a charla or anything. I think in August I’ll do another round of parents charlas about reading, but I’d like to be in classrooms more too, doing model lessons or something. We might repeat this taller too at the other high schools or with parents even, we’ll see. Time to go now for the session with the afternoon kids – hopefully now that I´ve bragged all about it the second time it’ll go just as well!!!