Red Cross Blogs

World AIDS day-ABC style

By Anna Carter
November 30, 2009 at 4:39 pm

On Saturday youth from across the South East territory gathered at UK office to commemorate world AIDS day and to celebrate the success of the ABC project in the South East in its first year. Launched at the youth conference territory wide a year ago, the ABC project (Awareness, Be Safe, Condoms) seeks to educate young people in the UK about the global HIV pandemic. This initiative was sparked by youth in the UK who witnessed the work of the Italian Red Cross and HIV during an exchange. The Red Cross youth decided that they were unable to access relevant information about HIV and wanted to make information more accessible for other young people in the UK.

We started by looking at the work that was being done in the UK. We kicked off by looking at the British Red Cross HIV campaign for world AIDS day 2009; a video starring ambassador Konnie Huq aimed at reducing the stigma associated with those living with HIV. The young people at the conference decided that the video was an affective tool for highlighting the destructive nature of stigma. Reducing stigma around HIV, those living with it and those who work with them is one of the core aims of the ABC campaign. 

A newsreel depicting Carly’s story was also shown. From the channel four documentary of the same name, the film clip illustrated the abuse and discrimination that a young girl from the UK faced when her HIV status was revealed to her community. The sessions that we run in schools always seek to join the local with the global. The HIV pandemic is often viewed as something that happens to other people, in other countries far away from our own. When we hear tales of discrimination from these other places it is easy to criticise and assume that the same would not happen here. In my work with HIV positive young people I have found this to be very far from the truth. Carly demonstrates immense bravery and a hugely pragmatic approach to those who bullied her. Her actions in the face of these; Carly seeks to engage the community in education around the topic, demonstrates the change that reducing stigma can make to individual’s lives.

We then looked at the global links that the Red Cross youth are building regarding work around HIV. The ABC teams have been trained to Federation Standard along with their peers in South Africa. We watched a presentation to see the work that they have been doing in their initial year as well as looking at the support that the Red Cross offers to people affected by HIV in countries worst affected by the pandemic.

The day culminated in participants engaging in workshops run by young peer educators. Youth from the Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Surrey ABC team ran a session geared towards educating younger people about HIV. The session was designed to inform young people how HIV affects the immune system of those who are infected and demonstrates this affect in a very physical, visual manner. The other workshop, run by the Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Essex team, ensured that participants knew how to correctly put on a condom-and they  had to prove it using some demonstrators.

I will be blogging about the HIV related activities on the South coast for the rest o f this week-so check back here for all the updates! Tomorrow is world AIDS day and I ask everyone to wear a red ribbon to demonstrate support for those who have been affected by HIV throughout the world.

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Tags: AIDS, hampshire, HIV, isle of wight, south east territory, surrey, uk o, World AIDS Day, youth

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