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?”