Youth learning skills to prevent HIV/AIDS

On the sidelines of the first Asia/Pacific HIV/AIDS conference in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, where health experts and activists are sharing their best practices to deal with the world pandemic, another parallel youth-based activity to mark World AIDS Day is going on, hardly 10 minutes away from the main conference hall. Nearly 70 national and international young delegates have gathered there to share their HIV/AIDS-related concerns - the problems and the solutions. Children from several countries, including China, Uganda, India, Pakistan, Malaysia and Mongolia, have come to attend this three-day, International Youth Forum. "We are focusing on awareness raising, trying to give them skills to avoid the infection and providing [a forum for] communication through interactive theatre exercises, skill building sessions, and open forum discussions to disseminate information about HIV/AIDS," Pervez Tufail, programme manager at Amal Human Development Network (AHDN), which works for prevention of HIV/AIDS, told IRIN on Tuesday in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. According to Pakistan's National Aids Control Programme (NACP), the South Asian country has reported some 2,500 reported cases of HIV/AIDS and 286 full-blown AIDS cases since the programme started in 1986. However, according to the UN Children's Agency (UNICEF), the number of estimated HIV/AIDS cases is around 78,000, including 2,200 children, while there are an estimated 25,000 AIDS orphans in the country. Naberiya Racheal, a 16-year-old high school student has come from Uganda to participate in the forum. "This youth conference is really going on well, participants have learnt how to prevent HIV/AIDS from spreading and how to keep themselves protected, so it’s an achievement of the conference," Racheal told IRIN. In Uganda, Racheal said, people are sensitised now, they are aware of the consequences, and they know how it spreads. "We use the A, B, C to make the kids learn. A stands for Abstinence, B stands for 'Being faithful to the partner, and C stands for Use of Condoms," she said. "This forum has provided a unique opportunity to all the young delegates to share their experiences with each other directly," Rana Gulzar Ahmed, project manager working with AHDN in Quetta, capital of Balochistan province, told IRIN in Islamabad. "There are many interesting findings for [countries] like China and Pakistan - we have some limitations when we discuss sex, HIV/AIDS, STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) and other sexual behaviour. But the participants from Uganda have been very open, for example today they were of the view that there should be a condom demonstration but the participants from China and from Pakistan didn't encourage the idea," Ahmed said. "In Asian countries like ours several things such as cultural traits, traditions and religion hinder open discussion over such issues," Ahmed maintained. Unlike Pakistan, it's easy in Uganda to talk about HIV/AIDS and other sexual behaviour, Racheal noted. "We have 'straight talks' in high schools for adolescents and 'young talk' for primary school kids. We also put posters on walls," she said. "To the adolescents, we tell them they should abstain because if you go for bad practices, you can get HIV/AIDS accidentally and then you can live for [only] a short time," she explained. Pakistani children are extremely vulnerable to getting infected with the HIV virus due to several risky behavioural patterns in different parts of the country, according to anti-HIV/AIDS activists. "To have sex with young boys in some of our tribal regions across the country is not considered an objectionable practice, that is extremely risky behaviour. Then our kids on the streets, as well as those in the workplace, are also prone to getting HIV infection for being involved in the sex business, either themselves or being pushed to join. The other modes of transmission are through blood transfusion and from mother to child," Ahmed told.