Raising AIDS awareness through art

Ethiopian youth are using public mural painting, theatre, song and silk-screening to educate others about HIV/AIDS prevention. Launched earlier this year, art education project LIFESIGNS has begun training young people from Adwa and Axum to become peer educators. The peer leaders form a group discussing local issues concerning HIV/AIDS as well as preventative methods. The group is set up similar to a 'club' where meetings are held twice a week. Each project includes painting a public mural in a community site. Murals will be organised in six towns in Tigray, the northern province of Ethiopia. The first project was launched in the religiously conservative town of Axum. A mural emphasising the country's AIDS orphans was installed in the main market place, to target rural villagers who were mostly illiterate. The group also performed a play to educate the community about the epidemic. The groups also held sessions about sexually transmitted infections (STIs), eliminating social stigmas and myths regarding the virus, condom use and HIV testing.   "These teens proved that with enough AIDS education, they could save lives. We knew that with this daily reminder... protected sex would stay in their mind regardless of the lack of education in the school curriculum," LIFESIGNS director Angie Eng said in a report on the project.