| 1) | UNDERSTAND PROBLEMS OF RURAL INDIA | |
| 2) | PROVIDE AWARENESS ON STDs, HIV/AIDS, HEPATITIS B, HEPATITIS C AND TEACH PEOPLE HOW TO PROTECT THEMSELVES. | |
| 3) | PROVIDE AWARENESS ON ADDICTIONS -- ALCOHOL, TOBACCO, DRUGS -- AND THEIR EFFECTS ON THE INDIVIDUAL, FAMILY, AND SOCIETY. | |
| 3) | DEVELOP THE PROGRAM STUDENTS AS AGENTS OF CHANGE |
LECTURES TO STUDENTS; My experience with giving HIV/AIDS lectures to students/youth is that the message should reach, and be acceptable to, students, teachers and the principal. Otherwise the school will not sponsor follow ups. Format and outline of my talk
SUMMARY OF THE TALK ON REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH:
| 1) | The female reproductive system | |
| 2) | Maturity, Mensturation, conception, pregnancy and child birth | |
| 3) | How germs enter the reproductive system | |
| 4) | Sexual hygiene | |
| 5) | Sexually transmitted diseases. HIV/AIDS | |
| 6) | How to protect oneself from STDs |
The following is a brief description of the audience and an outline of the lectures that I gave. I have also briefly listed my perception of the response and the contact person. Hopefully, institutions that showed interest are approached by other activists for follow up.
| Sept. 08: | TIME: | Morning 9:00 - 1:30 |
| PLACE: | Village Sanjay Nagar | |
| AGENDA: | Spreading awareness on health, hygiene and alcoholism | |
| FACILITATOR: | Ms Mamta of Arpana Research and Charities Trust | |
| HOST: | Arpana Research and Charities Trust, Haryana | |
| AUDIENCE: | 80 women and 60 men, Arpana Staff | |
| ISSUE: | How can the village develop and create livelihood schemes. Preventing diseases by keeping the village clean. Dealing with alcoholism. | |
| FUTURE: | Villagers are continuing work on community development and village cleanliness (drains and roads). | |
| Sept. 08: | TIME: | Afternoon 2:00 - 6:00 |
| PLACE: | Village Santoshgari | |
| AGENDA: | Training of Health Workers | |
| HOST: | Arpana Research and Charities Trust, Haryana | |
| AUDIENCE: | 80 women and 60 men, Arpana Staff | |
| ISSUE: | How can the village develop and create livelihood schemes | |
| FUTURE: | Villagers are continuing work on community development and village cleanliness (drains and roads). | |
| Sept. 09: | TIME: | Morning 10:00 - 11:30 |
| PLACE: | Village Nagla Farm, Haryana | |
| AGENDA: | Spreading awareness on health, hygiene and alcoholism | |
| FACILITATOR: | Ish and Health trainers of Arpana | |
| HOST: | Arpana Research and Charities Trust, Haryana | |
| AUDIENCE: | 60 men, Arpana Staff member Ish | |
| ISSUE: | How can the village develop and create livelihood schemes. Dealing with alcoholism and spread of HIV. | |
| FUTURE: | The meeting did not go well. Many men were angry about open discussion of reproductive health. Many were upset that the village was being questioned on rising alcohol and STD levels while nothing was being dune about the municipal garbage dump next door. | |
| SEPT. 09: | TIME: | MORNING 12:00 am - 1:30 pm |
| PLACE: | Village Nagla Farm, Haryana | |
| AUDIENCE: | 30 women | |
| TALK TITLE: | Reproductive health, STDs, and Addictions | |
| FACILITATOR: | Ish and Health trainers of Arpana | |
| HOST: | Arpana Research and Charities Trust | |
| OUTLINE: | Reproductive system, hygiene, sexual hygiene, STDs and HIV/AIDS. How to deal with alcoholism and its consequences. Confronting alcoholism, domestic violence and STDs. Preventing children from starting alcohol use and gambling. Outline of talk on reproductive health | |
| Sept. 09: | TIME: | Afternoon 3:00 - 4:30 |
| PLACE: | Village Taprana | |
| AGENDA: | Spreading awareness to women of the village | |
| HOST: | Arpana Research and Charities Trust, Haryana | |
| AUDIENCE: | 60 women, Arpana Staff member Ish | |
| ISSUE: | alcoholism in the men and Reproductive health | |
| FUTURE: | Villagers are continuing work on community development and village cleanliness (drains and roads). | |
| Sept. 09: | TIME: | Afternoon 5:00 - 6:00 pm |
| PLACE: | Village Taprana | |
| AGENDA: | Discussing issues of development, alcoholism and HIV with men | |
| HOST: | Arpana Research and Charities Trust, Haryana | |
| AUDIENCE: | 30 men, Arpana Staff member Ish | |
| ISSUE: | How can the village develop and create livelihood schemes | |
| FUTURE: | This meeting was hijacked by an elder. His basic message was that the men in this village are no going to listen based on history. So stop wasting our time but go help another village. | |
| Sept. 10: | TIME: | Morning 9:00 - 1:00 |
| PLACE: | Arpana Research and Hospital, Madhuban | |
| AGENDA: | Training of Health Workers | |
| FACILITATOR: | Ms Aruna Dayal | |
| HOST: | Arpana Research and Charities Trust, Haryana | |
| AUDIENCE: | 40 women and 10 men health workers, Arpana Staff | |
| ISSUE: | Reproductive health, STDs, HIV/AIDS. Catalina Ramelli Showed clips on HIV/AIDS produced by the Geneva film school and getting feedback | |
| FUTURE: | Arpana to evaluate the impact of training. To follow up during next visit. | |
| Sept. 10: | TIME: | Afternoon 3:00 - 6:00 |
| PLACE: | Arpana Research and Hospital, Madhuban | |
| AGENDA: | Training on grant writing | |
| FACILITATOR: | Anjan and Mark | |
| HOST: | Arpana Research and Charities Trust, Haryana | |
| ISSUE: | Issues in grant writing. | |
| FUTURE: | To follow up during next visit. | |
| Sept. 11: | TIME: | 11:00 - 1:00 pm |
| PLACE: | Office of Seva Mandir, Udaipur | |
| PRESENT: | health team of Seva Mandir | |
| ISSUE: | Reproductive health, STDs, and development | |
| FACILITATOR: | Neelima Khetan, Ms Swati, Ms Saraswati and Dr Renu | |
| HOST: | Seva Mandir, Udaipur | |
| AGENDA: | How to develop an HIV/AIDS program in Udaipur. | |
| Sept. 11: | TIME: | 2:00 - 6:00 pm |
| PLACE: | Office of Seva Mandir, Udaipur | |
| TEAM: | Ms Saraswati and Dr Renu | |
| ISSUE: | Developing an HIV/AIDS program in Udaipur | |
| FACILITATOR: | Neelima Khetan, Ms Swati, Ms Saraswati and Dr Renu | |
| HOST: | Seva Mandir, Udaipur | |
| AGENDA: | Visited a truck center on NH 8 and explored possibility of setting up a community health center there. Visited a school near 3 slums as a possible site for another community health center. | |
| Sept. 12: | TIME: | 9:00 - 5:00 pm |
| PLACE: | Kaya; Training center run by Seva Mandir, Udaipur | |
| AUDIENCE: | 40 men, 35 women village health workers and 10 Staff | |
| TALK TITLE: | Training on Reproductive health, STDs, and HIV/AIDS | |
| FACILITATOR: | Ms Swati, Dr. Renu, Ms. Renu and Mr. Manoj Paliwal | |
| HOST: | Seva Mandir, Udaipur | |
| OUTLINE: | This training session on Reproductive system, hygiene, sexual hygiene, STDs and HIV/AIDS (see Outline of talk on reproductive health) was divided into 1 hour modules. In between the talks the health workers were organized into focus groups to review the information and participate in communication exercises. | |
| ISSUE II: | Catalina Showed clips on HIV/AIDS produced by the Geneva film school and getting feedback | |
| IMPACT: | The men and women got a much better understanding of health and hygiene and on how sex is such a common part of village life and how the risk to disease is present in daily life. Requested more clips be developed that could educate them. | |
| Sept. 12: | TIME: | 5:00 - 7.00 pm |
| PLACE: | Udaipur | |
| MEETING | Attended conference on "Land, Community and Governance" | |
| HOST: | Seva Mandir, Udaipur | |
| Sept. 13: | TIME: | 9:00 - 1:00 pm |
| PLACE: | Kaya; Training center run by Seva Mandir, Udaipur | |
| AUDIENCE: | 40 men, 35 women village health workers and 10 Staff | |
| TALK TITLE: | Training on Reproductive health, STDs, and HIV/AIDS | |
| FACILITATOR: | Ms Swati, Dr. Renu, Ms. Renu and Mr. Manoj Paliwal | |
| HOST: | Seva Mandir, Udaipur | |
| OUTLINE: | This training session on Reproductive system, hygiene, sexual hygiene, STDs and HIV/AIDS (see Outline of talk on reproductive health) was divided into 1 hour modules. In between the talks the health workers were organized into focus groups to review the information and participate in communication exercises. | |
| IMPACT: | The men and women got a much better understanding of health and hygiene and on how sex is such a common part of village life and how the risk to disease is present in daily life. | |
| Sept. 13: | TIME: | 2:00 - 5.00 pm |
| PLACE: | Udaipur | |
| MEETING | Attended conference on "Land, Community and Governance" | |
| HOST: | Seva Mandir, Udaipur | |
| Sept. 14: | TIME: | 8:00 am - 1.00 pm |
| PLACE: | visited village Udaipur | |
| FACILITATOR: | Ms Swati, Ms. Renu | |
| HOST: | Seva Mandir, Udaipur | |
| OUTLINE: | Discussed issues of development and reproductive health with village men and women. | |
| IMPACT: | The men and women said they would work to strenghten self help groups. | |
| Sept. 17: | TIME: | 12.00 am - 1.30 pm |
| PLACE: | A.M.M. Metriculation Higher Secondary School | |
| AGENDA: | Multimedia Project | |
| HOST: | Mrs Anna George, Principal | |
| IMPACT: | Gave a talk on "The HIV cisis in India and how to fight it" to the 11th and 12th class students. | |
| FUTURE: | Discussed the needs and logistics of starting a Health and Life skills curriculum for schools run by the A.M.M. Foundation. | |
| Sept. 17: | TIME: | 4.30 pm - 6.30 pm |
| PLACE: | Head Office, Murugappa Group | |
| AGENDA: | Health and Life skills curriculum | |
| HOST: | Mr. Ram Kumar, and principals of AMM Foundation schools | |
| FUTURE: | Discussed the needs and logistics of starting a Health and Life skills curriculum for schools run by the A.M.M. Foundation. | |
| Sept. 18: | TIME: | 2.00 pm - 2.45 pm |
| PLACE: | YRG Care, Chennai | |
| HOST: | Dr. Suniti Solomon and Ms. Rochelle | |
| AGENDA: | Got a tour of the YRG clinic and inpatient facility and of the research and specimen labs. YRG is certainly on its way to becoming a world class facility. | |
| Sept. 18: | TIME: | 8.30 pm - 9.30 pm |
| PLACE: | DMSC, Songachi | |
| HOST: | DMSC, Dr. Protim Ray, Kajol | |
| AGENDA: | Given a tour of Sonagachi during its working hours by Kajol and Poornima. It was very educational to understyand the attitude and beliefs of the se-workers and how they deal with their day to day life. | |
| Sept. 19: | TIME: | 10.30 am - 1.00 pm |
| PLACE: | DMSC, Songachi | |
| HOST: | DMSC, Dr. Protim Ray | |
| AGENDA: | Introduction to Sonagachi and Met with the health educators of the Sonagachi project and discussed how to improve their ability to attract higher paying customers. Two suggestions were the need for classes by beautician and by sexologists on how to better please the customer. | |
| Sept. 19: | TIME: | 2.30 am - 3.30 pm |
| PLACE: | DMSC, Songachi | |
| HOST: | DMSC | |
| AGENDA: | Meeting with Executive Board members of Usha Multipurpose Co-operative Society Ltd. Sonagachi. What an increadible job these women have done to take charge of their lives, start a saving scheme and invest their money wisely. | |
| Sept. 19: | TIME: | 3.30 am - 4.15 pm |
| PLACE: | DMSC, Songachi | |
| HOST: | DMSC | |
| AGENDA: | Visited the Vocational Training Programme run by DMSC | |
| Sept. 19: | TIME: | 4.30 pm - 6.30 pm |
| PLACE: | DMSC, Songachi | |
| HOST: | DMSC | |
| AGENDA: | Visit the City Counselling Centre and met with members of KNP+(Kolkata Network of Positive) run by DMSC. Tried to understand the physical and emotional needs of the HIV+. The biggest need is of access to ARV. | |
| Sept. 20: | TIME: | 10.30 am - 2.00 pm |
| PLACE: | New Light, Kalighat | |
| HOST: | Mrs Urmi Basu | |
| AGENDA: | Introduction to Project New Light for the sex-workers and their families in the Kalighat area of Kolkata. Gave a talk on sexually transmitted diseases. | |
| Sept. 20: | TIME: | 3.30 pm - 6.00 pm |
| PLACE: | DMSC, Songachi | |
| HOST: | DMSC, Maitreya | |
| AGENDA: | Discussed future strategies with Maitreya | |
| Sept. 22: | TIME: | 11:00 am - 2.00 pm |
| PLACE: | BBC World Service Trust, New delhi | |
| AGENDA | Explore issues surrounding effective use of media to stop AIDS | |
| HOST: | Dr. Colin Rogers, Ms Vibhu and other team members | |
| Sept. 27: | TIME: | 8.30 pm - 10.00 am |
| PLACE: | Dumra Auditorium, DMC, Ludhiana | |
| HOST: | Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Principal, Drs Rajoo Singh and G. Wander | |
| TALK: | Reducing stress and managing time effectively | |
| AUDIENCE: | 20 faculty, 30 doctors, 100 students and nurses of DMC | |
| SEPT. 27: | TIME: | Afternoon 3.30 am - 5:00 pm |
| PLACE: | Hero DMC Heart Institute | |
| HOST: | Dr. Gurpreet Wander (Head, Cardiology) | |
| TALK: | Reducing stress and managing time effectively | |
| AUDIENCE: | 20 men, 25 women health workers and staff of Hear Institute | |
| Sept. 28: | TIME: | 5:00 - 7.00 pm |
| PLACE: | Home of Ashok Alexander, New delhi | |
| AGENDA | Explore issues surrounding effective methods to stop spread of AIDS in India | |
| HOST: | Ashok Alexander |
Mr. Ramesh and Asha Agarwal, Alice Chapman, Neel and Nevin for their constant support
Ms Neelima Khetan of Seva Mandir and Dr. H. K. Dewan of Vidya Bhawan Society for organizing the Udaipur program and for their friendship.
Drs. Gurpreet Wander and Rajoo Singh of DMC, Ludhiana for their ever present support.
Lavleen Singal for hosting me in Delhi
Mr. Ratti Sabharwal, Aruna Dayal, Mark, Anne, Ela Anand, Mamta Ji, Anjan and the rest of the Arpana members for spending time with me to explain the various programs of the Arpana trust and for their hospitality.
Rajan Gupta