About HIV/AIDS – From person to person
By Lina Botnaru “I’ve heard about the peer educator network for the first time from a friend of mine. She invited me to a training course, which I attended and became so enthusiastic that got fully involved in this activity”, says Doina Gulca. Doina is a student in the 11th form of “Petru Raresh” Lyceum, Soroca town, Moldova. She is one of the most energetic and enthusiastic peer educators in the community and says she does this because she really believes that she can change things and that she can help her friends, colleagues, relatives. “One thing is to hear about the danger of HIV/AIDS from parents, teachers, etc. and another thing is to discuss it with your peers. In this case, the effect is much stronger, because our discussions are sincere, open, without embarrassment that can be felt in the presence of adults. We, children, understand each other much better. We are tolerant and can find the right words easier”, says Doina. Peer educators from Soroca hold trainings on HIV/AIDS once a week and invite students aged 13-18 to discussions. “In order to make the sessions more attractive to the public, we invent all kinds of energizers and interactive contests, private discussions, role plays, by means of which we tell our colleagues and friends that HIV/AIDS infection can affect them too. In order to be more convincing, we give them examples from real life”, says Dorina Zaim, another peer educator from Soroca. “Children are shocked every time I tell them about a young Moldovan girl who has fallen in love with a Muslim guy, abandoned her family and home and run away to his country. Without being aware of it, she got infected with HIV from her husband and now is dying”. Dorina tells her peers that they can avoid such tragedies using condoms or asking their partner to do a test.
“Children discuss with their peers about sex, abstinence or contraception methods much easier than with adults, parents or teachers. Thus, peer educators help them discuss openly about HIV/AIDS problem, not neglect it”, says Oxana Pisaniuc, peer educator trainer from the same town. The peer educator network formed with the support of UNICEF was launched officially this week, on the eve of the World AIDS Day marked every year on December 1. It covers more than 1,000 adolescents and 300 adults working in communities from almost all over the country. According to official statistics, there are 3,400 registered HIV-infected people in Moldova. More than half of them are young people aged 20-29. A survey carried out by UNICEF among young people aged 10-24 shows that only 8% of them can correctly define the methods of HIV prevention and ways of its transmission. At the same time, risky sexual practices are more common among young people whose level of knowledge in this field is low, especially, among adolescents under 14 and girls from rural areas. “With the help of adolescents-peer educators, we hope to raise the rate of young people informed about HIV/AIDS from 8 to 80%”, said Larisa Lazarescu-Spetetchi, HIV/AIDS Program Coordinator, UNICEF Moldova. “Well-informed about the ways of HIV/AIDS transmission, young people will be able to make decisions that would not affect their health, life and future”.
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