Awareness On HIV/AIDS

Peer educators from 27 slums in and around Coimbatore participated in the peer educators’ convention organised by the Imayam Social Welfare Association, a non-Governmental organisation (NGO) based in Coimbatore here recently.

Over the last 10 years of its work against the spread of HIV/AIDS in these 27 slums, the organisation has appointed over 700 peer educators to create awareness on HIV/AIDS. Peer educators are identified from the slum dwellers in the high risk category (usually those having multiple sex partners). Since a majority of the people in the high risk category suffer from sexually transmitted infection, they are given treatment and care, says A.N. Meenaakshe, Secretary of Imayam Social Welfare Association. If they are willing to take up voluntary service of carrying forward the message to a larger group of people, they are appointed as peer educators, Ms.Meenaakshe adds. They take up separate areas such as awareness on sexually transmitted infection, condom promotion, mobilising support from the public and public participation in AIDS prevention activities.

Though the peer educators receive no financial support from the NGO, they are given allowances for travel and other forms of support for carrying forward their work. The peer educators also guide the slum dwellers and offer care and support. “We have been focussing on adolescents as they are extremely vulnerable,” Ms. Meenaakshe says. The peer educators’ campaign for them is “say no to sex” and “say no to peer pressure.” They also provide life skill education to the youth. A teen club too has been formed.

The slums are vulnerable to HIV/AIDS as they are thickly populated and all categories of people live in close proximity with each other. “They do not have privacy and the chances for having multiple sex partners are high,” she adds. The peer educators were felicitated and awards distributed to the best peer educator. Community-based organisations (CBOs) were formed at the function and these CBOs would carry forward the activities of the peer educators.

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