Red Cross offers HIV/AIDS awareness program

Youths find more comfort learning about HIV and AIDS from peers than adults, an American Red Cross Youth Development Workshop yesterday affirmed gathering some 40 participants from the islands of Saipan, Rota, and Guam.

The ongoing workshop features discussions on two of the most common diseases known to man: HIV and AIDS, from a teenager’s point of view.

Visiting Red Cross Facilitator Nanelle Patrocik from Orange County California said today’s youths are usually more inclined to openly share sentiments on sensitive issues such as HIV, AIDS, or sex to members of their own generation.

“Most of the time, they’ll give their own peers more respect and cooperate with them more,” said Ms. Patrocik.

One of the workshop’s main thrusts is to shape its youth participants into becoming peer educators who will be tasked to disseminate vital information on the causes and consequences of the said diseases to fellow teens.

“We’re underscoring on youths teaching other youths versus adults coming in and teaching it,” Ms. Patrocik said.

Guam’s Simon Sanchez High School senior class president Theresa Manibusan expressed more confidence in the way American Red Cross facilitators conduct discussions on certain essential topics such as HIV, AIDS, and sex as opposed to the method of instruction performed in schools.

“It depends on the teachers but some of them tend to just go by the book. With the Red Cross, they let us use slang when we describe everything. By doing that, everyone understands from the youths’ point of view as well as the adults’ point of view,” said 17-year-old Ms. Manibusan.

She added that health and sex education in schools are not exactly done in a manner that stirs interest among youths to dig deeper into the subject.

All over the world, teenagers are deemed the largest growing population likely to get infected with HIV and AIDS, according to Ms. Patrocik.

“The problem is that we don’t see that they are infected until after ten or so years because they don’t come in to get tested. And they don’t know that they are at risk of HIV because they’re not educated enough about it,” she said.

The four-day workshop also attempted to dispel common misconceptions regarding HIV and AIDS.

“We want to get rid of the common notion that AIDS is spread through mosquitoes, or they can get it by touching somebody. . .,” said Ms. Patrocik,

The facilitator added that Micronesian youths are very much aware of the basic facts about HIV and AIDS.

Marianas High School student Paul Magcalas said he is learning new details from attending the youth workshop.

“Our role as teens is to act as a team in counteracting the spread of these dreaded diseases,” said 14-year-old Magcalas.

Ms. Manibusan echoed her fellow youth’s concern saying that their generation can further assist the community by taking part in an information dissemination drive.

“This workshop has made us more cautious of everything — how to be safe, and how to do everything correctly, how to be sterile, and how to deal with situations leading to sex,” said Ms. Manibusan.