This page features computer generated text of the source audio. It may contain errors or omissions, so always listen back to the original media to confirm content. You can search the text using Ctrl-F, and you can also play the audio by clicking on a desired timestamp.
This session is going to be a model school display programmes. Each presenter will have 10 minutes to do the presentation and there will be a 10 minute question and answers period after each presentation and if necessary, at the end of the session there will be another 15 minutes for questions and answers. So let's have the Australian Memorial School talk to us about [00:00:30] model school display programmes. The Australian AIDS Memorial Quilt Project was formed in September 1988 by Andrew Carter and Richard Johnson. It was a direct result of Andrew seeing the names Project quilt display in Atlanta, Georgia in 1987. We were the first project to form outside of the United States and I believe that regrettably, we are the largest. There are [00:01:00] over 1700 names on our quilt. To date, there has been 4753 deaths in Australia, 18,782 people living with the HIV virus and 5737 living with AIDS. Our project has branches or chapters in every capital city and is administered by [00:01:30] a board of directors. I am the education coordinator of the Sydney branch. Sydney is the capital of the state of New South Wales and the place with the highest concentration of people living with the HIV virus in Australia. In New South Wales, it is a part of the high school curriculum which is grades seven through to 12 that 25 hours a year be dedicated [00:02:00] to personal development. A portion of that time has to address HIV AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. The Department of Education has developed a package for teachers to use. Teachers also have access to a number of organisations to help them fill. This time. The quilt project is one of them. I have been doing [00:02:30] these talks for the last 2 to 3 years as a volunteer going into about 30 plus schools a year. Last year, our talks came to the attention of not only the New South Wales Department of Education but also the New South Wales Department of Health through their AIDS and Infectious diseases branch. The result of this [00:03:00] was that this year the education position has been funded for 20 hours a week, primarily to produce and implement a package that supplements the existing package that is supplied by the Department of Education. The package has also been devised to promote the 1995 AIDS Awareness Week activities in New South Wales, so I'm the only person funded [00:03:30] for their work with the quilt in Australia. It is my job to go into as many high schools as possible in New South Wales, of which there are 552. The length of a talk will vary from school to school, depending on the age and reaction of the students. On average, it lasts about one hour. In the talk, [00:04:00] we cover the history of the names, project and the history of our quilt, and we use slides to help. We talk about why the quilt is important as a tool to facilitate the grieving process. We also take along a block and tell the stories of the people on it and explain the goals of the quilt, which leads us into discussions on safer sex and drug taking activities, [00:04:30] discrimination, self esteem, HIV and pregnancy and any other related issues. We have found that the quilt is indeed a very powerful tool in school education. The students always respond to it sometimes negatively, but mostly with open hearts and open [00:05:00] minds. And because I'm not the teacher that they see every day, they tend to ask me questions that they might not normally ask. I also tend to stay back afterwards because there is often a student who wants to talk to me in private or simply because the students are hungry for as much information as they can get on HIV and AIDS. [00:05:30] I mentioned before that there were other organisations that the schools can access. The two most prominent ones are all about AIDS, which mainly deals with transmission and direct healthcare issues and does a lot of work in the corporate sector and the Positive Speakers Bureau, which is run out of the Sydney PLWH A offices. [00:06:00] We do a lot of talks together. The three of us will go into a school for a day and talk up to 200 students each on a rotating basis. These days get a phenomenal response. They truly have a profound effect on the students because there will be a talk about transmission in the morning. Then they'll be speaking to a positive speaker who will tell them about what It's like [00:06:30] to live with the virus, and then they'll have me talking about the quilt. In situations like that, their feelings towards the quilt are immediate. Sometimes there are tears. Often there is shock, and always there are questions. The quilt appears to provide a space [00:07:00] for the students to talk about their fears and apprehensions surrounding HIV and AIDS. Of course, there is always an element of it will never happen to me. And sometimes derogatory remarks are made by the tough boys at the back of the class about HIV AIDS and homosexuality, but nothing that a loud voice and a sense of humour can't overcome. [00:07:30] I remember a school I went to on the last day of the school year. In 1993. There were about 30 students in this particular class. In the beginning, the tough boys were at the back and they weren't really paying attention. They slowly started to come around when I was showing the slides, and then when [00:08:00] the block came out, they started moving to the front and began asking questions. They ended up sitting around the block, almost as if they wanted to protect it. Then, at the end. They helped me pack up, thanked me for coming and kept talking to me outside the front of the school until my taxi came. I consider [00:08:30] that particular talk a great success. I think the most powerful element of the talks is the stories from the blocks. There is no better evidence than HIV AIDS is about people than the quilt. It takes the virus out of the abstract and into reality. When the students see a picture [00:09:00] of a person who has died on a panel lovingly stitched by someone who misses them, it touches them and reinforces the idea that they themselves are not immune. One of our main aims is to make sure that any decisions that the students make surrounding their sexual and drug taking activities are educated [00:09:30] ones, Rather than telling them how to put on a condom. We talk about the consequences if they don't in the state of New South Wales, it is illegal to discriminate against someone because of their HIV status or their perceived HIV status, [00:10:00] their sexuality or their perceived sexuality. The quilt allows us to talk about these issues and helps to dispel the myths surrounding HIV and homosexuality. This year, the quilt project Sydney is aligned with the 1995 World AIDS Day school poster competition. [00:10:30] Basically, students from around the state are invited to design a poster around the theme. AIDS affects us all. There will be regional heats and a state final on World AIDS Day, with prize money for the winning poster and the school that it came from. The quilt is providing educational backup [00:11:00] for participating schools. New South Wales is quite large, so to help me get into all of the high schools, all 552 of them we are in the process of training fourth year social work and welfare students from the universities. They will help me give the educational talks and to promote the school post competition. [00:11:30] This will be their compulsory placement component that forms part of their degree. Also, we have planned small Priscilla tours. Those of you who have seen the movie Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, will understand the reference. These tours will take in the rural parts of the state where we will present the education package during the day [00:12:00] and then have a small display at night using 12 to 15 blocks, depending on the size of the halls being used. Hopefully, by the end of the year, we will have covered the state with the quilt. And every high school student in New South Wales will not only know about safe sex, but practise it as well. Of course, these talks don't just happen in schools. [00:12:30] I have gone to universities, hospitals, churches, jails As long as they give a donation, I'll go anywhere, any time and talk about the quilt. We have been extremely lucky to have the weight of the education and health departments behind us this year. This assistance [00:13:00] not only provides dollars for the project, but reinforces the fact that the quilt works as an educational tool. I think it's quite an achievement that I can say that my state government supports us and our endeavours. Some of the results [00:13:30] of these talks that I have given have been that in some schools, AIDS awareness groups have been set up. They make panels, they raise money for the quilt project and other community based HIV AIDS organisations. Also now, a percentage of our volunteer base is [00:14:00] students from schools where I have been and Finally, this year at the National Rock EDD, which is a government funded quit smoking competition for high schools where students put on a dance drama about issues that affect them. One one school [00:14:30] in Sydney has decided to do theirs on AIDS. And they're using the quilt, That's all. Have you gone into any happens? Yes. Catholic schools. Jewish schools? Yes, they asked us. Yep. [00:15:00] So a year or a month for, um, as a volunteer, I went into about 30 schools. So far this year, I've been into 30 schools. I'm sorry. The question was, how many schools do they go into? The age group depends. I have gone and talked to kindergarten students because they had lost a peer. But mostly I'm talking to [00:15:30] grades seven through to 12. So 14, 15, 16, 17. Thank you. They let me say the question of people here. Carol, ask How do you initially get into schools? Do they invite you or or or do you make the effort of going? No. They invite us always this. How come [00:16:00] they invited you? They invite us because the state of New South Wales is divided into health regions and each health region has a HIV AIDS coordinator. All of the HIV coordinators know that I exist. So when a school comes to them and says Help, they say ring Sue. And also I've left some pamphlets up the back. Every [00:16:30] school in New South Wales is getting one of the blue ones. Um, Michael and then Michael. Go ahead. Yep. Sometimes you have negative reactions. What do you do? I find out why they're being negative, and then I try to work through that with them. Sometimes they're being [00:17:00] negative for attention only so they can appear tough in front of the rest of the class. I just go with the flow. I see what they're asking, and if I can turn it into a joke, I'll do that. If it means because they don't know a piece of information and they're just assuming something, I'll set them right. But it depends on what the remark is. We'll take one last question. Please write down your questions [00:17:30] and you can ask Sue again at the end of the session. Is that all in case or do you go out? CART asks. You say you always work with you, work with other organisations. Is that always the case or or do you go out independently? Both but the Positive Speakers Bureau promotes us and we promote the Positive Speakers Bureau and [00:18:00] we try very often to go out together. 0, 12 by 12 section Whatever. Thank you. Thank you. The next presenter is from Nam Chow in Thailand. How was that? Uh, good afternoon. I'm gonna talk something about Nancy. With [00:18:30] Nancy, we have a ad for understanding a workshop, uh, set up in 1993 uh, to work in a student to work with the student in the school, Uh, in a high school in in Thailand, especially in in the in the area that, uh, they have a serious time about a like [00:19:00] in the north, in the north eastern, the years after the student that, um, work that that, uh, our our our workshop work with this at the age about 15 to 18, and, uh, I'm gonna talk about, uh, some small a student in in in Thailand. A situation in Thailand has [00:19:30] reached all area or areas of everyday life. It's like, uh, such, like in the northern one village about, uh, 100 people. They have a people who were infected with HIV for one people. Uh, now every all area is, uh, face to the people who are who are infected. This, uh, [00:20:00] although, uh, information has given for several years in, uh, radio in, uh, television in, uh, cable, TV newspaper, some small book and pamphlets, but, uh, misunderstanding, uh, are still pretty well, And, [00:20:30] uh, this is have had many, many, Uh uh uh. Is there anybody in this room? Never six. Before in your life. Lift up the hand. Is there? Anybody in this room [00:21:00] Never seeks before leave up the hand and who never see the sickness before I live up the hand. How? How? Uh, the the people, um uh, she lift up the hand there. You never see the sickness before the sickness. [00:21:30] Yeah. Any sickness we ask, Uh, this is this is the first question. First, two questions. We start in the workshop with the student. Aye. And then we talk about, uh, when we was born. What is gonna come to concern our body? How How, How many? How [00:22:00] many disease lile with Ari and, uh, the the workshop in the room going to be provided in a group. Small group, Uh, four or five people to discuss and to find, uh, five diseases to to make a presentation in front of the room for the student. What is the symptom? What is the carrier? What is the case of [00:22:30] the disease? Uh, was this the, uh uh, uh uh, this is that you feel you want to disclose it. You want to undisclosed and let them make a presentation, And we let the the student who sit in the room and the peace and the student who prison in front of the room [00:23:00] discuss of each other. And we can we, uh we help to control the the the question like, uh, to like, uh, to pause slowly and, uh, to control in the in the case of the disease that passed by. Or you can see your father, your mother, your sister, your brother have a sickness. Mm. And [00:23:30] then the other part of a workshop start by, uh, be set setting the question, asked them like a, uh if the people sit beside you have AAA disease that they want to be on this court. Uh, if you know, by accident for the first maybe [00:24:00] the the the people have a and this don't want the people to know. And if you know, by accident how you feel about him, how you feel about them, How do you, uh uh uh, uh with them, [00:24:30] if you be, uh, deceased, that, uh, undisclosed. How do you want the the other people in this room to feel something about you? The answer. Come from the student we write on the on the board and we let the people discuss about the words on the board [00:25:00] is, uh is, uh, with, uh, uh, a national, Uh, positive. Uh uh, Answer a negative answer. And we try to make a discuss between positive and negative and make the people who are, uh uh uh who will still be in negative of the [00:25:30] the The answer is more positive. And when we finish, we we must have a suggestion to the to the to the student what is right, what is wrong. But but we try. Try to put, uh, to put a question to make the the student try to, uh, discuss until it's more a little [00:26:00] bit positive. And then it's the workshop with the volunteer. The volunteer who with With HIV to sit down in an easy, uh, atmosphere and and talking for, uh, for some, [00:26:30] uh, public health batsman. Uh, answer. Get from the student. How do they live in each other? How do they care? Take care of each other. How? They, uh uh, a family take care of them. How did take care of their family also take care of each other [00:27:00] and is talk like a almost, like AAA basement that living together and and af after this section, we tell some some story some of some people that are [00:27:30] that work with the group of people with HIV and pass by in in the last part of, uh, a workshop. We keep, uh, the panel for the group of the student to pain. Their feeling depend how [00:28:00] they think about the people, uh, who have not very good health. Uh, and the people who passed by by HIV you, you you can ask the question. [00:28:30] Any questions for two. Enrique. Oh, Gabriella, you put us in. Yeah, uh, gorilla wants to know. How do you get people involved? Do you invite them, or do you organise the groups ahead of time How does that work? We we, uh, do some, uh, a project [00:29:00] to the, uh uh uh uh min Ministry of education. First to, uh, have a support. Like a paper. It's easy to get to show the project to the to the, uh, to the school. We sent many school, uh, all all around Thailand and the school. They have a A budget, and they want to make a workshop. They answer, [00:29:30] and we go to def. Jamie. OK, do. I'm sorry? Do you have any skills? Um, OK, Jenny wants to know to in Thailand. Are there the skills to do sex education? The schools do sex education in Thailand. Uh, [00:30:00] sex, sex education is mean. It's part of, uh, uh, education system. You mean? No, just just some part. A little bit. Just some part a little bit is is like a taboo in for Buddhism because, uh, uh, 90% of Thai is very, very strong. Buddhism is gonna be like, uh, when I'm When I was young, [00:30:30] I'm trying to find AAA education by like, a playboy, like a video or something like this. And try to, uh, discuss with friend or some some teacher who understand Gart? Yes. The question is, do you take the Quil only to schools or also to other groups? Uh, we for, uh, for the quill. Uh, we [00:31:00] we did a workshop in the school, in the factory and in some group of other slum, but all my sister in the school. But when we take Quil to show the school is not have much effect because the the the target that we, uh we we put to the people who who who who join the workshop every time we bring to the school [00:31:30] just for show It's not. It's not much effort. And many times we bring to to the conference in Thailand is only decoration. Why is that? Because, uh, they don't know. They they they're not with the with the with the what is the is why is he [00:32:00] like this? Because the the thing is is always happened in in in the information was given by by by by government. Always threaten. I will make you fear make you scared and easy to control. And this is the clear. This is just bright. Just like a cartoon. Like a decoration. Beautiful. They have, [00:32:30] uh, they don't know. What is this? What is gonna be concerned about is until they come to us and ask, What is this? But not so many people, but we hope in in the future Uh uh, the the student that that we did a workshop in the high school come up in the university. They're gonna make, uh, uh, uh, like a from from group to group from [00:33:00] person to person. And they're gonna make, uh, uh, uh uh some some activity in the university by their own group. And if they they if they still have a a exhibition they can explain to the others. We'll take the last two questions, and then we'll go to our next presenter, Rob. [00:33:30] Rob, what is your question? Uh, so So how do you get, uh, the information about the H ID to use? You said before that you have. You don't have sex education in school. [00:34:00] So how do you get information about HIV to the youth in your country for for for a prevent? The video is happen every day for for, uh, for for take a condom. Just only say about the condom. It's not. Say something about the relationship from people to the people. Only if you go to the If you go with someone only take condom. [00:34:30] We have to go on to the next presenter. Please write down your questions. We will have time after the next presentation. Thank you too. Our next speaker will be from the names Project UK in Edinburgh. My name is Annie. [00:35:00] I'm one of the directors of the names Project UK. That's the British Aid Memorial Quilt. We're based in Edinburgh in Scotland and we began on World AIDS Day 1988. We have an office and a workshop in Edinburgh and nine quilt workshops around the country. We have a very high demand for displays, but we have very little money [00:35:30] and since 1993 no paid staff at all. I'm here to talk about our education programme and I'd like to thank Christina for saying much of what I was going to say. So what I'd like to do is to expand a little on the thinking behind our education programme. I realised that for other [00:36:00] countries you're in very different and often difficult situations in some countries. It is simply not possible for you to work in the way that we do. But it may be worth considering the our approach as something perhaps for the future. And it may also be something that you could consider in terms of looking for funding from your own government. [00:36:30] Education has always been fundamental to the work that we do, but equally central and equally fundamental is the involvement and participation of people who are themselves HIV positive. We're very lucky that there are people within Britain who are prepared to stand up [00:37:00] and be open about their status. HIV positive people are the most appropriate people There are to talk about what it's like to live with HIV and what it means to be HIV positive. The fact that those people will be open about their status is very powerful, particularly in terms of education. [00:37:30] Often it's the first time that a young person has met somebody who is HIV positive, and that in itself can be a very good experience for them. Our Education pack was written in 1992 by a school head teacher called Gerald Cowan. [00:38:00] The pack forms the basis of our education work together with the experiences of positive people The primary focus of our education pack is to talk about loss and bereavement. It's aimed at Children between around about seven and 15, and the starting point [00:38:30] is Children's own personal experience of loss. I find it very interesting that in the United States, the primary focus is on HIV prevention education. I think it indicates a difference in our cultures. [00:39:00] In the UK, we start by talking about loss, what it means, how it feels, how we can help and how we can support each other with older young people. We talk about what it's like to live with HIV. I think that individual projects need to make their own decisions about where [00:39:30] their starting point is. In Britain, Children experience loss very early in life, in lots of different ways. Could be divorce, moving, house, death of a grandparent, all sorts of things, [00:40:00] all sorts of things. Within schools, there are no real opportunities to discuss loss as an issue. Mhm. Where it does arise is in situations of isolated crisis. A child dies within the school. A parent dies. There's [00:40:30] a crisis. It's very difficult for teachers to handle, and we can help teachers in that by using the quilt as a starting point for discussion around loss and bereavement that naturally leads on to discussion about issues around HIV [00:41:00] and issues around HIV prevention. There are two main ways that we work with young people. School groups come to our public displays. Whenever we put on a display of the quilt. The local organisation [00:41:30] will contact every school dealing with Children from 7 to 18 in their area. Thank We also take the quilt into schools for both school visits to displays and visits to schools [00:42:00] whenever we can. We like HIV positive people to do the talking. We also use the worksheets that were mentioned earlier on the The worksheets are designed for Children of different ages [00:42:30] and different abilities. It may be Identify your favourite panel, draw the panel and say Why you like it? We have worksheets on specific panels. Find this panel in the display and answer these questions about it. OK, [00:43:00] another one draw something or someone that you've lost and then write down. How did that feel? I have to say that we get lots of pictures of dead hamsters and dead goldfish, but [00:43:30] that's good, because thinking about someone or something that those young people have lost personally helps them to understand why the quilt is important. We also use the letters that come with some of our panels where we've been given permission, and those can also be very useful [00:44:00] in preparatory work in the school before the quilt arrives. I guess one problem is that once you open the box, once you encourage Children to talk about loss and their personal experience, you have to deal with what comes out. In many ways, [00:44:30] our biggest problem in dealing with schools is dealing with teachers who fall apart in the corner and don't want the young people to see them in that state. What that highlights is the need for staff development and as far as we can, we would try and encourage work with teachers before we ever get to the school [00:45:00] and support for them. Afterwards. I'd just like to give you one example of the results of feedback that we received from one visit to a school over four days. 5 500 young people [00:45:30] between 11 and 16 saw a display of the quilt in their skull. Workers went into individual classes, introduced the quilt talked about HIV OK, [00:46:00] what it's like to live with HIV and took small groups around the display, telling them some of the stories from the panels. The display was also open during the lunch hours and one afternoon to parents. The feedback that we get whenever we do a display [00:46:30] has always been positive. In this case, 206 young people completed a feedback questionnaire. Of those, 205 thought it was worthwhile to have the quilt in their school, [00:47:00] and 205 thought that the quilt should be taken to other schools. 59% of those young people thought that the project had greatly helped to increase their understanding of issues around HIV and AIDS, and 81% [00:47:30] thought that the project greatly helped to remove the stigma attached to HIV and AIDS. I think that that clearly demonstrates the value of the quilt as an educational tool just to bring things full circle. I'd like to quote from the introduction to the education pack. [00:48:00] In his introduction, Gerald Cow says Our role is to build upon the memory of those our communities have lost to learn and to teach the social and the medical history of the epidemic as it happens, [00:48:30] and to arm our people, especially our young, with knowledge, understanding and respect. In that hope, we foresee not only their personal protection in the future, but [00:49:00] the building of a more aware and compassionate environment for those who have lost and are losing. Thank you. I'm sorry. Do you have a question or do you have a comment, Christina? Oh, so Jesus, Chris first and then next [00:49:30] mission to come to the store 2015. The question is, you mentioned permission to go to the schools. Can you explain what is the process to get that permission? OK, in general, we are approached by individual teachers and head teachers. Um, in some areas, [00:50:00] an education authority will fund a programme of work within schools in their area. But the comment is so you don't take the initiative. We have no paid workers and no money. And no time. If we did have money and time and resources, we'd be there. Yeah, Yeah. [00:50:30] Christina, snakes and Clement afterwards, Christina. Great. So beautiful. And I wanted to ask you, um, have a very serious problem. We will equal a orphans, for example, in New York City. Now I know it. Probably awesome. Thousands and thousands of Children who by day, starting to work with [00:51:00] them as well, Having worked with the Children, Um, specifically date or just from your knowledge of working with Did anyone get the question? The question was essentially, have we worked with Children who have lost parents to AIDS? Um, personally, [00:51:30] I haven't, uh I don't know, actually, whether other people have, um it is certainly something that we're going to have to consider for the future. Clement, you had a question. Um, how? Oh, see to go. And I hope [00:52:00] you find that and then you want to go and give it to How would you approach? Because they know you as a very established thing is still growing. What? That question What? What? How we approach? [00:52:30] Yeah. The question is, how would you approach to educate a particular group of people? The example given is doctors who are even afraid of touching. There are people with HIV. Is that correct? So how would you approach getting to those particular groups? Those particular groups? [00:53:00] I wish I knew. I think that would be my answer, I think where you, um Where you have a community, A group who don't want to know the route to those people has to be through their decision makers, their policy makers. They have to be told by their bosses that they have to listen. [00:53:30] They I I'm not sure. I, I don't know is the answer to that one. What kind of practises you identify? A need for a How would you get to that? Thank you. Because from from what I've heard is people come to you because they know that they need you. But now, when you identify that there is a need to address that I think [00:54:00] we would I'm sorry. Let me repeat the question. Clement says when? When you identify the need to get to a particular group, how do you approach that group? What you have identified generally, I think we would approach workers within that that community already, um, and try and encourage those people to introduce discussion. [00:54:30] An alternative would be to simply put on a quilt display and stand back and and allow people to decide for themselves whether they want to take things any further. Oh, uh, Rob had a question. Do you still have it? Ok, um [00:55:00] now we have 15 minutes of questions for all three of our presenters. And I know that before Andre and Enrique both had questions for two. Do you still have questions? Jesus has a question. OK, so the question is for you. You said that it's not [00:55:30] information material to teach us to be is going on how you do that for you? The question is for Annie. You said that you work with the teachers before. What? He said before you go there, what kind of material or what is the process that [00:56:00] will get you to that point of, you know, working with teachers? It's a combination. Um, does this thing work? Uh, it's a combination, really. Sometimes we would send information, um, other times and preferably, we would go and meet the teachers, talk to them about what was going to happen and try to talk to them about how they are going to feel about having the display in their school and to try and [00:56:30] prepare them for the emotional impact of the display itself. Often, teachers who approach us have seen the quilt before and and are aware of the emotional impact that it can have for them. God has a question. Don't have people. Do you do this all over the country? And [00:57:00] how do you organise it or pay for it? Since you don't have people or money Mhm we The way that we get some money is to charge organisations for us to bring the quilt to their community. And in doing that part of the package is [00:57:30] that we will go into local schools. Um, we don't have enough money to operate a comprehensive programme. I wish we did. Yes, we do. Do it all over the country. We go anywhere that anybody asks us to, um if we can get there. Chico had a question the [00:58:00] Yeah, mhm. The question is for two, and Enrique wants to know, uh, he has heard that in Thailand there exist quite a lot of, uh, young male prostitution. And if that is the case, are you able to reach those groups? And how do you [00:58:30] do it for a young man in sick work? Uh, for the young man in sick work is the part of, uh uh uh empower. Empower is the part of, uh is a part of, uh, uh, N TV is the part of Empower Empower is working for, uh, uh, the woman who who is the worker and some part of, [00:59:00] uh uh uh uh uh like a a man's insect workshop. It's just like, uh, get information by a by a by a by a book by a brochure from empower. And there are there are some some group of, uh, organisation in Thailand called, uh uh mean, uh, a white board or something. This is a group to work with the the workshop with [00:59:30] the like a jazz dance workshop workshop with a, uh uh educating. Uh uh uh uh uh about a group just as a point of clarification for all of For those of you who don't know, empower is an organisation in Thailand in Bangkok that works mainly with commercial sex workers. So the programme that covers women [01:00:00] sex workers also covers men and they are approach or their outreach to by means of brochures and written material and theatre mark. Ok, uh, Danny And for do you have with Education project [01:00:30] and these other parts of right Miss Central Family foundation with Did everyone get the question? You have experience with, uh, programme exhibiting and displaying role in schools as well as to the [01:01:00] general public. What this do you have? The The question is, do you have experience but displaying the quilt in school as well as to the general public All in one space at the same time? And it's for either for either one of you. OK? Yeah. Yes, yes, we do. Um, we, [01:01:30] um generally with the names project UK we work with local HIV support organisations and they organise the display. It is their display of the eight memorial quilt, not our display, does it? Do you understand that distinction? That that because the quilt exists for everybody and it belongs to everybody and it's essential that local communities [01:02:00] feel that it is something that is for them, Uh, and that that they are part of, um So yes, we work with within local communities with local community groups and within schools at the same time exactly the same. We often have big displays. That is the Bobby Go. For instance, the Bobby Goldsmith Foundation invites you [01:02:30] to an entire display of the Australian AIDS memorial quilt. We do things like that which helps raise money for us and for the Bobby Goldsmith Foundation. But for for understanding. And we also did in in in the factory and in the slum also, and we display the from the student every, uh, the first of December day [01:03:00] every year. Warren had a question that think that just will not happen to them. And if so, how do you get past that? The question is, in the schools have you ever heard had a group which thinks that AIDS will not happen to them [01:03:30] culturally? And then how do you get past that? And who is the question for all of you? I go fight for that, Mike, Um, I can give you a, um, a specific. We're trying to get the message across to, uh, the Muslim community of New South Wales. In fact, Australia and how I do that with the students. Uh, you have [01:04:00] to be very, very, very careful because if you say things the wrong way, you're putting a slur on the whole culture. So if I know that I'm going to a school and specifically targeting Muslim girls or Muslim boys I will do a lot of homework beforehand and go and speak to other HIV AIDS workers who work with Muslim groups and will speak to Muslim leaders [01:04:30] and the Islamic Women's Association and get as much of the cultural information that I can get and use that and their blessing to go in and try and do it. Mark had a question. Andre has a question when you work in the school. Um, and you were talking about how you both are And [01:05:00] is it is it? How do they do it? Are they all their own position or what? How how did you get that? The question is, how do you get the kids in the schools involved in making the panels? Uh, we we we send a project, uh, project to many school around Thailand. What? What we are doing about, uh, is is education. [01:05:30] And if the if some school ready to to do the workshop, they answer, and we go If, uh, some some school don't don't want to join the workshop yet they say no. What, like the student, the question is more about the student and the students themselves. How do you get the students to get to be interested in making the panels. [01:06:00] How how do you make the student the student interest to make the panel? Uh, from from the from the first that I tell about the workshop and then the workshop insist, Uh uh. Include, uh, we we we gonna let them painting and keep the pioneer for painting that they they make a collaboration work already because it's the part of a workshop. Everything, uh, every [01:06:30] every student with it. We have two minutes left. Carol Jacobs had a question. The parents, because in South Africa you may go into the school, but if black parents take you out and very few parents, um accusing us of teaching their kids things that they don't know, I wish they did. [01:07:00] The question is, how do you get past the parents? Since in South Africa, this is a big problem. Who's the question for Carol? Either one of you, I can tell you this. We had an area just outside of Sydney that was very antagonistic towards HIV aids. They'd had a very bad experience in their community, and we needed to target that area. And the way that we got [01:07:30] in is that we went to the school at night and gave the talk that we were going to give to the students to them. First they could ask whatever they wanted. We told them whatever they needed to know, we laid down a bit of ground rules, worked out our parameters and got it. So everybody was comfortable with what was going to happen. Clement has a question. It seems quite easy. [01:08:00] Uh, reach the That's cool. How do you reach the out of then? Thank you. Wonder. The question is, it seems that is is here to reach the schools? How do you reach the out of school youth? How how do you reach the dropouts who are probably more vulnerable? Who is the question for [01:08:30] one? We've left information and posters around all the youth shelters and the youth workshops and where we know homeless youths go and places, you know, where basically where we know that they go and the social workers that work with them as well. And then the social workers will get them into a group if they want, and we go and talk to them. But we make sure that [01:09:00] they get as much information if they want it, as the students in schools teach themselves and you can read it right and the social services that are available. The comment is, he imagines the situation where the youth themselves cannot read or write, and social services are not available. I think the way [01:09:30] that that we would approach that is to try to. And it is. It's all about making whatever efforts you can. We're not. We by no means perfect. Try to put on public displays of the quilt that are open and accessible and to make sure that that there are directions to get to that display. So we have banners outside. [01:10:00] The doors are always open, um, and so on and so forth. We But it is. It is very, very difficult to reach those people. But I think the only way you can really do it is by opening up the the the quilt and the display to everybody and and trying not to limit access to anybody. And I know it's not a perfect answer, and I don't really have AAA perfect answer for it [01:10:30] that that's all the time we have. For now. Please uh, write down your questions and you can always, uh, ask the questions to the presenters during the break time or after the presentations are over. Thank you all very much.
This page features computer generated text of the source audio. It may contain errors or omissions, so always listen back to the original media to confirm content.
Tags