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Inside Cover Page

Images from the book

This week Winnie and the General left for two months to the United States to meet with organizations affiliate with Maitri; U.N., Harvard University’s Public Health, Hinkley Institute of Politics, Salt Lake City, San Francisco. Before they left, we gave them a gift, a book of all the projects going on at Maitri and the projects we participated in. Included in the book were quotes or experiences by each of the interns. For the past two weeks, I've working on Adobe Photoshop to design the pages. My first graphic design gig (not in research)! I am so happy with how the book turned out that I might have to do this on the side...Pages up top

This morning we did a workshop with the students at Modern School. This was a very different audience than the students in Shillong. There were only 30-40 students there and they took the class as students who were interested in social work so they were very much aware of HIV/AIDS. The students were living in the Delhi and very much apart of affluent families. I think that the workshop design should have been done differently given the demographics and interests of the group. This would include more brainstorming discussions and how to be involved. Viraj, the ninth grade intern, created a facebook group for Maitri. I don’t send many group invites on Facebook, but if you are on, make sure to join Maitri Group! This NGO addresses HIV/AIDS issues in a multi-faceted way through women’s empowerment, health intervention, policy making, education. Domestically and internationally. Not an easy thing to balance...

UNAIDS Conference

Sonal informed me on our way to the UNAIDS conference that my report on India’s healthcare status was sent to both Boston and Australia for review. The report was in response to recent funding awarded by the Australian High Commission. Yay!

At the UNAIDS conference, I took meeting minutes and noted significant table discussion comments. I sat with Dr. Jean Louis Lamboray, Constellation, Thailand, Joe from Nagaland, India, and the UNAIDS country director, Denis Broun. It was definitely a privileged to brainstorm self assessment within the offices they worked. Internship with UNAIDS next year? Maybe? Definite possibility and definite interest. The levels of self-assessment included

Level 1: We are aware

Level 2: We react on it

Level 3: We act

Level 4: Continuous action, systematizing what we do

Level 5: The practice is part of our life-style

The HIV/AIDS criteria to assess levels included: acknowledgement and recognition, inclusion, linking care and prevention, access to treatment, identify and address vulnerability

Within the UNAIDS office, Denis mentioned his office frequently self-assesses. At certain levels his own UNAIDS office may be at a 3. Other organizations realized that some criteria, such as linking health care and awareness, the organizations may fall at a 2.

The message was that it is possible to reach Level 5s. But, I’ve been thinking whether it is possible to achieve Level 5 of all HIV/AIDS criteria for an organization. The Level 5 visions differ between organizations. For example, to an education/awareness NGO, Level 5 health criteria may be providing solely primary health or Level 5 education/awareness to a health providing NGO may be to address HIV transmittance only. There is obvious remove to include more in Level 5 and to improve in the criteria, but an organization can do so much. Eventually, if an organization reaches Level 5, the criteria for Level 5 becomes the baseline, it is expected, and a new Level 5 and vision can now be defined. Level 5 is not about gawking at, hovering about, wavering at, sitting on top of Level 5; it is about progress, redefining.

Universal Yoga

Workplace Yoga: Universal Yog

Vijay, our yogi, a glowing smiling, healthy young man, gave us a paper power point presentation today in our apartment. His mission is to spread yoga to the masses. Yoga is a big deal here. In the Delhi Diary, similar to SLC weekly guide, there are daily meditation and yoga classes at a number of places. Yoga is supposed to make one feel energized, calm, relieve stress, enhance concentration, promote positive thinking, build relationships, and cure ailments among other things. Besides working with sedentary office workers, military, police, Vijay works with NGOs to empower women through yoga. Aside from the flaws within the health system here in India that effect HIV treatment, distribution, doctor biases, prevention etc., which is the interface I hope to work in the future, women empowerment, is absolutely essential in combating the disease. Unlike in Shillong and parts of the north east, where it is a matriarchal society, here the patriarchal society in addition to a lack of sex education poses interesting ethical dilemmas for women on 3 fronts; education/discussion, transmission, intervention

Today is July 13, 2008. There was somewhere important I was going with this last paragraph a week ago, but I’ve already written about it. I had six hours of sleep. The internet finally turned on, and I was up late talking about my issues with Kasey, Katie, Mom, and Nikhil on Skype. According to Vijay, if I do the meditations right, I would need only 3 hours of sleep. The math is every ten minutes of correct meditation equates to 90 minutes of sleep. Thus, Mohammed Ghandi was able work 21 hours each day; 3 hours to rest your body, 30 minutes to rest your mind. 8-9 hours of sleep is not needed. Vijay came on his motorcycle, helmet, goggles, white kurta to the Maitri office today. We all crammed into the little office, sitars tinkling in the background. Today was a Workplace Yoga Workshop. We stretched and ommed. 30 minutes of meditation last night and sleeping with a purpose did not remove the thick heavy air that still clouded my brain, muscles this morning. It was near impossible to see the dark place behind my forehead in glaring fluorescence and sleep clouds hazing my mind vision (visibility 5%) during the extra 5 minutes of meditation in the office. Tonight is another yoga session with Vijay at 8 PM. Running, Pilates, and Yoga. Writing, reading The God of Small Things (Top 3 Books). I will not finish Holy Cow. More Workplace/Corporate Yoga.

HIV/AIDS Workshops

I will think before I act because....

Talking it out...

Taking a survey

The interns presented on HIV/AIDS awareness prevention and education at the Army School and KC Secondary School. These students have had no formal sex education. The parents just won’t allow it. Now India is facing an HIV/AIDS epidemic and the NGOs have had to supplement prevention material where the public health sector has failed to do in a timely manner. The government of India spends less than 1% of the gross domestic product on the public sector. The majority of healthcare spending is put into the unregulated private sector where rural and the poor are unable to afford the out-of-pocket payments. We were presenting to students who when we were that age, we were sitting in a classroom being shown pictures of STDs and STIs. The difference between our education and these students is that this material is crucial, urgent even. The risk of HIV/AIDS is too great here. Before I left for this internship, several people had asked me “What is the big deal? It’s a behavioral problem. I don’t understand why we should put money into research when it’s because people are promiscuous.” Try telling a married woman unable to negotiate condom use to her migrant worker husband or the patient who is receiving unscreened HIV-positive blood under professional, medical supervision, a doctor even, that their behavior was morally wrong. Because of the complicated nature of HIV/AIDS, a chronic disease with serious social and political implications, it cannot be discussed or debated as a moral issue. People do not know how this disease is transmitted let alone how to describe or name a ‘foreigner’s disease.’ The virus itself was discovered in U.S.A in a race against France for discovery rights.

After the workshop at KC Secondary, the students swarmed all the interns with questions like, what’s your favorite colour? How do you contract HIV? How do you avoid substances if you already are addicted? All very substantial questions. Nothing too difficult, not until Winnie called me over from across the room.

“Nancy, this boy has a question for you”
“Ok,” I looked at the boy; he looked very young.
“He wants to know what ‘oral sex’ is. Could you explain it to him?”

Did we cover oral sex in the presentation? Oh yeah it’s on the survey and now I have to explain it to this boy barely 13. I flushed, ummed, paused, and then sputtered a pathetic explanation.

“Well, uh, so, it’s when, sex organs, male or female, are in contact with the mouth instead of the traditional sense. You know um, (or I don’t know if you know), when a male sex organs are in contact with female organs, um (or some other permutation, I didn’t want to go into any more details I had to).You see, oral means mouth. Does this make sense?”

I felt lame. It would have been more understandable if I wasn’t grapping for words that would make my explanation easier for me to stand to a younger boy. We describe our actions with such euphemisms or scientific jargon to hide from embarrassing motions of human life. For example:

“When did you poo last? Was it hard or soft?” is instead
“Can you tell me when the last time you had a bowel movement? Was the excrement solid or more liquid?”

“Does your ass hole itch?” is instead
“Do you have anal irritation?”

“How many people have you had sex with?” is instead,
“How many people have you had relations with being sexual in nature?”

And so on and so forth….

Of course, HIV/AIDS, sex education, requires tactfulness. If certain words are said or topics discussed, the recipient may completely ignore what you are trying to say. However, I wonder how much of the message we are trying to communicate is lost when our primary concern is saving ourselves from personal embarrassment rather than tactful education. In any case…

“So, you can get HIV from oral sex. In your mouth there can be unseen cuts. Like we mentioned in the presentation, HIV can be transmitted through sexual fluids and blood. So if you have a cut in your mouth and your mouth contacts with sexual fluids in any way, there is a possibility of infection. Does this make sense?”