I am training to be a teacher in rural India. I have a few questions and would like your advice about how to approach the sensitive subject of HIV:
Is it smart to teach children about condoms seeing that this could give them the impression that having pre-marital sex is acceptable?
How can we as teachers be sensitive toward residents of rural areas when educating them about STI/ HIV/AIDS?
What is the most effective method to spread HIV/AIDS awareness to rural communities?
In response to your first question:
We are all aware that prevention is better than cure. This is even more important when we talk of infections like HIV/AIDS, for which there is yet no cure. We can look at prevention in various ways. Abstinence and faithfulness to one partner is definitely the most important lesson that all of us need to learn as well as propagate. However, it is also important to realize that there might be some of our peers who need to be informed and made aware of other methods of prevention like the use of condoms. For teenagers who are sexually active at a younger age it is important to be aware of condoms as a method of preventing themselves as well as their partner/s from sexually transmitted infections.
In response to your second question:
It is important to realize that there should be some level of rapport with rural communities before we can bring up issues related to STI/HIV/AIDS. It is possible that people would take this as an offence to their integrity and character if we do not have a proper background to Sexual Health awareness. For this, general health issues like children’s health, hygiene, women’s reproductive health, nutrition etc should be taken as the initial topics of discussion with rural communities. Also, the residents should be approached through a healthcare provider from within the community like a village dai, anganwadi worker, ASHA worker or village health worker.
In response to your third question:
While interacting with rural communities to spread awareness, we should keep in mind their comfort with various media. Visual media like films, pictures, posters, street theatre will prove more effective with them. Also, training some educated village youth with help from respective village panchayats would form a formal interactive forum which can spread awareness among the rural communities through community meetings from time to time.
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