Lesson Plan

Yesterday was another calm research day. We spent lot of time entering the data from our questionnaires. Then we taught another class at the pedagogical university. This one was mostly boys around age 17-18 all in the computer programming specialty. A tough crowd.

Our lesson plan is something like this:
1.Have them fill out questionnaires
2.Play game- identifying which of these (X activities all written on cards)will put you at risk for HIV/AIDS—Then discuss correct answers
3.Discuss 4 fluids by which you can spread HIV
4.Examine the situation in their town. Have them guess how many people here have HIV.
5.Tell the story of the nice girl who got HIV- - Talk about how important it is to protect yourself even in steady relationships.
6.Discuss Condom negotiation skills.

I’m not sure if it’s obvious to everyone else, but this is a lesson more from a woman’s perspective and is much easier to teach girls. The guys in our group yesterday were a little crazy to try to talk to, but well-informed and asked some good questions- like if you don’t have a condom which kind of sex is least likely to transmit HIV - oral, anal, or vaginal?

I would never have thought that this is the kind of thing that I of all people would be teaching, but it is critical that they know about HIV & condoms to protect themselves so that we can stop the spread of HIV from high risk IV drug using populations over into the general population. Just like in the US’s early years dealing with HIV it was considered a “homosexual” disease, here it’s considered to be just IV drug user’s problem. The scary thing is that so few people here use condoms or can afford them. If it is carried over into the general population it will spread almost as fast as in Africa among young people.