More Than a Thousand Children Participate in HIV-AIDS Prevention Program in Santo Domingo Neighborhoods

More Than a Thousand Children Participate in HIV-AIDS Prevention Program in Santo Domingo Neighborhoods

With the implementation of Take Action for Life, the Guloya Theater is developing an intervention model based on methodology and tools of scenic art and creative education which encourages the active participation of children, reflection and dialogue about HIV and AIDS and the use of resources that stimulate creativity.

In the activity, 1,034 children between the ages of 3 and 12, 49 elementary school teachers, 755 parents, tutors and community leaders from the three neighborhoods participated.

“It is evident that there is a great deal of misinformation among the adult population of the neighborhoods in terms of healthy behavior and the risk of AIDS,” said Viena González, Director of Take Action for Life. “There are still many myths about how the disease is transmitted…in the workshops we try to make available the correct information to people,” she emphasized.

She added that parents “are not aware how vulnerable their children are and that there are ways to protect them.” She added Take Action for Life workshops are providing knowledge for their protection.

Part of the project’s activities have been to gather community leaders and socialize them in order to form alliances that will help with the dissemination of information. They are also providing information and training about HIV-AIDS to community leaders who can then pass the knowledge and training on to organizations and other leaders.

They also managed to get children to understand and to pass on the information themselves.

They worked with parents and children from the perspective that information and knowledge about HIV-AIDS would ultimately help the children in the future and secure their rights. The idea was to offer guidance to the children while their parents discuss sexuality issues in a confidential atmosphere. This method afforded the parents an opportunity to discuss their role in protecting their children and to recognize forms of violence that can affect their offspring. They also discussed the importance of assuming appropriate behavior with people who have HIV-AIDS in order to contribute to an atmosphere of respect and acceptance.

The program involved working with professors from public and private schools with the idea of giving them the necessary tools to educate on the issue of HIV-AIDS and to include the topic in the school curriculum through exercises involving body language, oral expression, paintings and dramatic presentations.