Amber E Oliver/USA/HQ/UNICEF 
11/26/2004 04:09 PM	To

cc

bcc

Subject
	
		
		
		
		
		
		
		
		ONLINE LESSON FOR LIFE
		
		For the first week of this discussion (15 – 26 November, 2004), we were 
asked to find ways to help fight the battle against HIV/aids. Many great 
ideas were thrown around over the past couple of days. One main idea that 
seemed to be brought up a lot was Education. 
		
		Education is the key to awareness. If a person can’t understand what is 
being said or what they are reading, then they will not learn. As well, 
education has to catch the mind, especially when teaching the youth. If 
they attention isn’t caught then the message will most likely not be 
understood. There are many ways to get over these obstacles, such as: 
		
		Presentations - Guest speakers, PowerPoint’s, films and workshops 
		
		Demonstrations – Real life (how to use a condom, how to practice 
		save sex), through plays, stories, poetry, paintings and drama 
		
		Indirect awareness - Making HIV/aids aware to young children by using the 
subject when teaching things such as literacy, health and other subjects. 
		
		Peer to peer – Peer teaching and motivation is a great way to teach youth. 
Youth with knowledge can go along way. 
		
		Media – Message boards, posters, brochures can all go along way in this 
fight. 
		
		Obviously there are many more ways of fighting this terrible illness. As 
well all these ways will not work for everyone. Each country has there own 
way of passing on awareness of this disease. But that is why we are here 
these two weeks. To share ideas, which will allow us to try new ways in 
order to see what works for you and what doesn’t? 
		
		There are many reasons why some of these steps won’t work. Illiteracy, 
poverty, religion, negative views…etc. One of the major reasons though is 
because of the taboo place on sex. We need to continue to work had to get 
rid of this taboo, but in the mean time we need to find ways to work 
around it. If we can’t talk directly about sex, let’s use other methods. 
One great way which was discussed is putting a humanistic view on 
HIV/aids. By doing this we could almost put it into a story to teach young 
children. 
		
		In the end youth can make a huge difference on the impact of this disease. 
But we can’t do it alone. We need to reach out for help from organizations 
like UNICEF and from our governments. If we can all come together and work 
as a team to fight this illness we will be one big step closer to fighting 
it off. 
		
		I know I didn’t include everyone’s ideas in this summary. Doesn’t mean 
your ideas weren’t great. It is only a rough summary. I try to make it a 
lot better at the end of the week. But for know this is something to go 
by. Please feel free to give me your opinions on it in order to make it 
complete. Thanks 
		
		Ryan