AIDS Ministry Resources

Get teens to rethink sex & AIDS.

LEADER PREPARATION

Use any of the following ideas to prepare your program:

• Obtain a current video documentary on AIDS. (Several celebrities have hosted such shows; these may be more effective with your group.) Acquire a VCR and television to show the video. Preview the video and develop some questions to ask the group.
• Prepare songs, a game, a role play, and/or questions.
• Coordinate a guest speaker with AIDS to speak and answer questions.

GROUP BUILDING

• Lead some fun songs to relax the atmosphere. Some ideas include the following: "Gilligan’s Island" theme, "Brady Bunch" theme, "Jesus Loves Me", "Jesus is the Rock", and "The All Day Song".
• An opening game that could be tied into the theme is "telephone". Line up the group. The first person whispers something to the next person; the message is passed one-by-one until all have heard it. The last person repeats aloud what they heard. The message most likely gets twisted through the "telephone" line. Tell the group that if they rely on the grapevine about sex and AIDS, the facts will be distorted.

GROUP PRESENTATION

Use any of the following suggestions for your group’s presentation:

• Watch the video and discuss it (use the questions you developed when previewing the show). Ask the kids what they thought, and find out what they know or want to know about AlDS.
• Listen to a guest speaker for a short talk and then allow time for questions and answers.
• Role play discussing sex and AIDS in different situations such as at school or with family or peers.

GROUP DISCUSSION

Ask the following questions. Be prepared for lively discussion.

• How could you be better educated about AIDS?
• Should condoms be given to junior high school students? High school students? College students?
• Whose job should it be to teach you about sex and AIDS?

Suggest that everyone privately answer the following questions:

• What stance am I going to take on having sexual intercourse before marriage?
• How far am I going to go in a physical relationship?
• If I am already involved in a relationship, how will this session affect my activity?
• How should I treat my body?
• How do I move beyond past mistakes?

WRAP-UP

 

Remind them that they are loved. Encourage the group that sex is the most intimate, wonderful expression of love between two people. Ask them to reflect on the private questions posed and to seek strength and wisdom in their future decisions.

Addressing AIDS with kids.

LEADER PREPARATION

• The youth leader should obtain facts on the following:
  • Where and how AIDS began.
  • How exactly it spread and continues to spread.
  • In which socioeconomic, cultural, behavioral and other groups the disease is found to be concentrated.
  • Within what groups AIDS is presently growing fastest.
  • The difference between HIV-positive and AIDS diagnoses.
  • How the disease is treated.
  • The latest scientific findings concerning treatment.
  • Possible cure.
  • How many cases there are worldwide, and in the country, state, and town you in which you live.
• Gather information from this Encyclopedia and or the mass media: movies (i.e., "Philadelphia"), television (i.e., "And the Band Played On"), periodicals, books, etc.
• Contact the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia for the most current research and advice.
• Have lunch in the hospital with a doctor who is a local AIDS specialist; learn about the disease from his or her perspective.
• If possible, chat with an AIDS patient. This is a real possibility in most places, especially in metropolitan areas. Local AIDS organizations can help you find a patient willing to share his or her story.
• Spend an afternoon observing, or better yet, volunteer at a local AIDS organization site.

EDUCATE YOUR LEADERS ABOUT THE DISEASE

• Devote a leadership meeting to discuss your response to the youth group. Don’t assume that your youth leaders know any more about AIDS than the kids. Encourage the leadership group to share personal experiences, opinions, biases, and prejudices. Share the information you gathered from the suggested sources.
• Invite someone who is an AIDS counselor to share with the leadership team how best to counsel those with AIDS or those who know someone with AIDS.

GROUP BUILDING

• Give your kids an anonymous questionnaire asking them basic and specific questions about AIDS.
• After you collect the questionnaires, briefly chat with the kids about how they felt while they were responding to the questions.
• Chat with them about any personal AIDS experiences they may have had in their schools, homes, hospitals, etc.
• Carefully give the group the correct answers. Take note of any interesting observations and conversation starters.

GROUP PRESENTATION

• Hold an AIDS forum for the youth group and their parents. If you live in a smaller town, host it for the entire church youth community.
• Secure a panel of experts who can add interesting, significant information to the group. Invite your area’s best known doctor from his or her hospital’s infectious disease clinic or a doctor known to be an AIDS specialist, a social worker, a school counselor, and, if possible and permitted by all involved, someone who has AIDS.
• Open the forum by showing a video you have found, or put together yourself, on the subject of AIDS. Although some may disagree, finding a compelling video that includes footage of an AIDS patient in later stages helps kids see the reality of the disease.
• Although the panel may share, they should primarily be there for questions and answers. Encourage kids to ask questions (maybe have them write some questions out an and put them in a hat), and also have your leaders primed to pose some key questions. Use the questionnaires previously given to the kids as a reference for issues and questions needing clarification.
• Remember that the forum is informational, not theological—don’t feel driven to resolution.
• Upon conclusion of the forum, give kids and parents handouts composed of conversation starters for further discussion at home.

FOLLOW-UP

• At your next youth group meeting, ask the kids
  • What were their reactions? What did they learn?
  • What are some common attitudes which their peers have of AIDS?
  • In their conversations they had with their parents from the handout, what were some attitudes which their parents have about AIDS?
  • How has their attitude about life and death changed?
  • What prejudices have they had to deal with when thinking about AIDS? How would you handle a student with AIDS in your school?
• If you have a video camera, go to a local high school (not necessarily the one your group attends, as they may take this exercise more seriously if they don’t know the kids they will see on camera). Go after school at a time when a lot of kids will be outside (spring is great—track, baseball and tennis practice, etc.). Take several posters, each with one of the following words printed: DATING, GIRLS, GUYS, AIDS, TEACHERS, DRUGS, SEX, MUSIC, SCHOOL, DAD, MOM, WORKING.
• Interview one kid at a time, holding up posters one-by-one, and ask them to respond with whatever comes to mind as you flash each word. Then, use the AIDS responses in this meeting to incite discussion about typical youth reaction to the topic. You can also use the responses to the other words in subsequent meetings.
• Be attentive to the need for further, or repeat, discussion.

FINAL NOTES

Make sure that you have personally dealt with the homosexual/homophobia issue before you enter into any of these situations. It will invariably emerge. Also, it is a good idea obtain some books, usually written by fundamentalists or those of similar theological perspectives, who claim to know "The Truth About AIDS," or have titles such as, "What The Experts Don’t Tell You About AIDS". Read them, get other diverse opinions, and prepare to defend or question them in these meetings if someone brings one to your attention.

OVERVIEW

There are over 7,200 teenagers between the ages 15-19 living with HIV in Romania—the largest in Europe. Romania has been the first country in Europe to provide universal access to antiretroviral therapy and so it seems to be at the forefront of HIV awareness.  However, the great discrimination that occurs throughout Romania against those that have HIV/AIDS must be noted.  A recent report from Human Rights Watch raises awareness to these issues. 

The Romanian HIV epidemic is laregely a result of Nicolae Ceausescu’s communist dictatorship where over 10,000 of the 150,000-300,000 children who were abandoned at government orphanages and hospitals were injected with HIV.  Children in these hospitals were exposed to the HIV virus through shared needles and “microtransfusions.” These were given to children as nourishment because of food shortages. Many of these children were able to survive once Ceausescu was overthrown and Western aid entered the country. Still, many of the children suffer under inadequate care, face extreme persecution, and find themselves outcasts of society. 

DISCRIMINATION

Discrimination against those with HIV/AIDS is prevalent throughout Romania. Children with HIV/AIDS find their rights repeatedly denied in Romania. While some stipulations had to be met in order for the country to join the European Union in 2007, there are still many abuses going undetected that affect thousands of children across Romania. These children are denied rights to education, health access, privacy, and employment. They are left with no resources to be able to function in the world once they reach adulthood and remain stigmatized from society. Education is a barrier for children with HIV/AIDS despite the fact that law allows them free schooling until they are eighteen or reach the tenth grade.  Those that do try to go to school find themselves ostracized by teachers and classmates if their condition is exposed. Although they are allowed access to public schooling, students with HIV/AIDS are often years behind their fellow classmates due to mental or emotional problems that have developed in state care or from missing schooling because of their illness. The educational programs for children in state institutions are often sub-par to formal education and children who enter outside schooling find themselves struggling to match their classmates. 

Students who have enough schooling to apply for vocational job training within Romania face the problem of mandatory HIV testing. This applies for many of the vocational jobs for which these students are capable of entering such as food preparers, servers, cleaning staff, nursery or kindergarten teachers, and any type of hair care specialists. (5) Once their HIV status is discovered these children are denied access to the schooling and find themselves shunned from any attempts to provide for themselves. There is also little that can be done legally when this type of discrimination occurs.

PRIVACY

Such mandatory HIV testing raises the issue of privacy violations for those with HIV/AIDS. In some school districts children’s exam results contain “HIV” next to their names, while in others once students are “outed” they find themselves so discriminated against they leave. Medical records are often shared between schools, social workers, and municipal workers—it is easy for one’s HIV status to become public knowledge. 

Children themselves are often not aware of their HIV status. This is extremely troublesome as many with HIV are entering their teenage years and are becoming sexually active. In Romania children cannot be told of their HIV status without the consent of a parent or guardian—many parents do not want their children to know so they might be saved from extreme persecution.

This poses a huge problem, as between 15-50% of children with HIV are sexually active. Youth that do not know they are HIV positive have no ability to comprehend the danger of sexual activity and unprotected sex. This, of course, promotes the spreading of HIV throughout Romania. Studies have also found that those with HIV not attending school are more likely to engage in sex, sometimes as early as the seventh grade (47). 

Many with HIV/AIDS are also denied access to medical services because of their status. This includes services such as dental care, mental health, emergency services, gynecological care, and other special services. Psychiatric hospitals often refuse services to patients despite the traumatizing effects of their illness. When patients are admitted, they often face being labeled as “AIDS people” and are given less than adequate treatments and facility placement. Prescriptions granted those with HIV are often not accessible at local pharmacies, or paid for by the state. (5)

NO FUTURE

The most devastating human rights violation to those with HIV however is that the state has made no attempt to facilitate programs and social reforms that might allow them to be integrated into society.  There is no guarantee for children in state institutions that they will be prepared to hold a steady job or even be granted access to a job when they turn eighteen. Many fear they will simply be left to the streets. 

Children with HIV who have been living in government facilities also generally suffer from strong effects of their institutionalization. Some of these include profound developmental disorders that affect them mentally and physically which only increase discrimination and hinders them from finding jobs. 

As the process of deinstitutionalization takes place throughout Romania in order to meet EU standards, many with HIV find themselves sent back to families who cannot provide for them or are placed in care homes that will keep them only through eighteen. Beside this, many sent from institutions were placed in remote areas with no health care access or with families who had abandoned them in the first place. 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1.      How did this large HIV population end up in Romania?

2.      What are so ways those with HIV are discrimination against?

3.      What’s the harm in not knowing you have HIV?

4.      What does the future look like for this with HIV?

5.      What questions or criticisms do you of this article?

6.      What in your opinion, might we do about this epidemic?

IMPLICATIONS

HIV/AIDS is a devastating illness which remains a prevalent issue in Romania. Those with HIV face extreme discrimination in Romania and are denied access to basic human rights. This has caused great problems as children turn 18 and try to make a way for themselves in society. We need to continue providing information of the mistreatment and abuse that takes place for those with HIV in Romania and push toward government implementation of programs that will help children and young adults with HIV/AIDS.

Lauren Bouchard cCYS

 

SOURCES

 

“Life Doesn’t Wait” Romania’s Failure to Protect and Support Children Living with HIV.” Vol. 18, NO. 6D, Human Rights Watch, August 2006, 27 March 2007,

World Health Organization. (1988, August). AIDS Feedback. [Single page, self-contained data conveyors]. Presented at the III International Conference on AIDS, September 14-16, 1988, Arusha International Conference Center, Arusha, Tanzania.

For some time, the World Health Organization (WHO) wanted to present consolidated data on the AIDS crisis. Understandably, sensitivity and fear as to the use of such research impeded that goal. The development of the "AIDS Feedback" series is an important step in research and dissemination of data—an information base in the war against AIDS.

The report notes that the "single page modules MAY BE USED for reference, extraction, reproduction, sliding, teaching, publication, etc. without asking permission...[to] contribute to the acceleration of international diffusion of facts on the progressing AIDS pandemic."

Additionally, the information conveys, "...AIDS FEEDBACK Through the End of August has become available to hundreds of...NGOs, universities, governments, UN Agencies...World Bank, editors, etc." Comments, and requests can be directed to

Dr. R. P. Bernard, Director of Epidemiology in Human Reproduction                                  
Field Epidemiology and Liaison Office, 22 Av. Riant-Parc, 1209 Geneva, Switzerland

Within the report, critiques are offered. "The limitations of these (single-page module) graphs are of course known to all epidemiologists. Unfortunately they are not necessarily appreciated by laymen. Some caution must therefore be exercised in the interpretation of these graphs, and no firm conclusions can be drawn from them before considering artefactual variations in reporting between countries. However, despite the limitations of this form of data these illustrations provide an important insight into the geographical and temporal patterns of AIDS. They are to be welcomed as presenting a ready source of information about this condition, for us all."

DESIGN

• Public and private sectors are now cooperating worldwide in reporting new and cumulative cases of AIDS to WHO.
• The AIDS Feedback Series began in April 1988 and has received general domestic and international encouragement. Critique and suggestions are welcomed and continue to improve this international form of reporting.
• The Statistical AIDS World Map, introduced in May 1988, attained special appreciation and approval. "It now appears in two modes: (a) Cumulative Reporting Rates and (b) Incidence Rates—which now allow for a new bar chart (at least for the Pattern-I Industrial countries of N. America, W. Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Latin America) showing an overview of AIDS velocity."
• Bar charts split countries into those with population above and those below 5 million.
• "A major concern is to initiate as early as possible an information feedback on the increase of the AIDS pandemic. For countries who have reached an acceptable reporting quality and completeness, it should be possible to use the cross-sectional progression for the estimation of the AIDS build up...A...step forward was to introduce the ‘last report date’ as the time axis for the display of cumulative AIDS reporting status...I am particularly grateful for the incipient ‘private/public support’ formula now being worked out to secure continued development of this AIDS FEEDBACK Project."

FINDINGS

What follows is the ranking of 26 countries with 500 or more reported cases per 100,000 population as of mid-1987. Reported cases below are rounded to the nearest whole number.

These rankings bear at least two major limitations. Readers must keep in mind that the date and quality of reporting are crucial factors in comparing of AIDS cases among countries.

REGION	COUNTRY	WORLD RANK	CASES/ 100,000	LAST REPORT
AMRO	Bermuda	1	130	30/09/88
AMRO	French Guiana	2	127	31/03/88
AMRO	Bahamas	3	77	31/03/88
AFRO	Congo	4	57	31/12/87
AMRO	USA	5	29	29/08/88
AFRO	Burundi	6	28	30/06/88
AFRO	Uganda	7	26	15/06/88
AMRO	Haiti	8	25	31/03/88
AMRO	Guadeloupe	9	22	31/12/87
AMRO	Barbados	10	22	31/12/87
AMRO	Trinidad and Tobago	11	19	31/12/87
AFRO	Central African Republic	12	16	15/06/88
AFRO	Rwanda	13	15	31/03/88
AFRO	Zambia	14	14	05/08/88
AMRO	Martinique	15	12	31/12/87
AFRO	Kenya	16	10	31/03/88
AFRO	Malawi	17	8	31/10/87
EMRO	Qatar	18	8	31/12/87
EURO	Switzerland	19	8	30/06/88
EURO	France	20	8	30/06/88
AMRO	Dominican Republic	21	8	31/03/88
AMRO	Canada	22	7	30/06/88
AMRO	Santa Lucia	23	7	31/12/87
AFRO	Tanzania	24	7	17/10/88
EURO	Denmark	25	6	31/07/88
WPRO	Australia	26	6	02/08/88

 

IMPLICATIONS

• It is with great relief that observers receive this beginning of public official information. It is hoped that the release of this information will calm fears of negative stereotypes or drastic reduction of tourism.
• This statistical world map suggests the possibilities of further study. As sensitive it might be, consideration of the factors for differences between neighboring Zaire and Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe, or Tanzania and Madagascar may be helpful.
• The priorities of affected countries must be set autonomously, but there is ample room for international strategy, research, and cooperation. Governments must encourage education and caution their citizens.
• Many youth workers have long shirked responsibility for sex education. There is reason now for frank and deep discussion with approval from parents. The above information is important in writing articles and curriculum, and especially for teaching young people.