snow

Today and yesterday we’ve finally got some nice pretty snow. It’s usually melted by the afternoon and then there is nothing but muddy puddles everywhere. I’ve decided that Russia’s best look is Winter. Even though it’s cold and windy, if I were recommending a time when tourists should come to Russia I would say December or March. It feels more Russian to me when it’s all white and stark. Plus it’s a lot less messy (once the ground freezes that is).
Yesterday we finished (finally) getting all of our questionnaires into excel, cleaned, and then over into SPSS. We did the first analysis and the results are pretty much what we expected. The brief explanation is that overall knowledge and awareness of HIV is pretty good for about 70% of the people that we surveyed. There were certain things that about half of the people were confused about- birth control pills protecting against HIV for example and whether washing after sex would reduce the risk of HIV.
Today we are meeting with the Youth Council all day. They have several programs, which they want to show us. But this is hopefully the last day of program evaluations.
We (Tracey and I) had a planning meeting with Yulia (our boss) yesterday. We feel like we have done enough program observation and evaluation and we really need to focus on finishing the projects that we have felt need to be done and that we are capable of helping with. The first is actually coding and entering more survey data (yeah!) - a longer survey that they have been doing with their clients at the Harm Reduction Center for over a year. As well as the tons of survey data that Yuri Vasilievich has been collecting in his sex-ed program with the tenth graders. They are just too busy with keeping their programs running to monitor and evaluate very often. I think that it’s really important: a) for requesting more funding/ showing successes and b). for knowing how to improve their programs and what behaviors to target. Second we have decided that we need to help them write a grant proposal for an IREX project that they can do here next summer. Probably a city Run for AIDS awareness or something. IREX grants are smallish, not long term enough to fund the expansion of a program, but enough to have a one day city activity. Third, we told Yulia about PSI’s volunteer HIV counselors program in Samara and she wants to start it here, so we are going there next week to look at the program and try to see if there is anything that we can do to help it get started here. We won’t have time to do much with it.
The other big thing that we realized they needed here is a small training exercise that the Family Services Center can use to reduce stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS. We have felt like this was a serious need at the orphanage and other clinics where they will be working with HIV positive people like schools and clinics. The Family Services Center seems to be very well organized and uses the few other HIV programs that they have extremely effectively. We’re gathering ideas for the lesson plan off the net and I’m going to have Pasha translate them. There is a lot on this topic for an African context. We can tweek it a little for the Russian context though.