Director's Notes on Project Adwa

The Adwa project was a great learning experience for the LIFESIGNS members and posed as a great value in regards to familiarizing ourselves with the target population. We chose 6 teens ages 16-18 from the local highschool. All 6 had extensive experience with HIV couseling. During our sessions we discussed ideas on how to change behavior in the community and the challenges of distributing information.

The group gave us a clearer idea of what the teens were thinking in regards to sex, education and AIDS. All of them agreed that the schools should provide sexual education. All of them agreed that the community was making efforts to raise awareness among the youth and adults, but they continued to disregard any safe precautions against HIV. The youth wanted to see more public visuals such as flyers and murals so that people can read and see that HIV is a deadly virus. They also advocated for a public park where the community congregate so that they had a venue to teach people of all ages.

Some of the members of the group disagreed upon educating people about HIV by raising awareness of safe sex. They believed, like their parents generation that advocating abstinence was the way to educate the community against AIDS. We agreed that abstinence would protect you from the AIDS virus, but eventually most people will marry and have families and will need to learn that infidelity and no condom use was the root cause of villagers contracting HIV.

I discovered from the teens that sex was a very private matter and very rarely spoken about between friends and family regardless of age. Most of them assumed that their peers (ages 16-19) were abstaining from sex which from studies prove false. Many teens from the early age of 14 are engaging in sexual activity. I observed a big discrepency between the idea and assumptions of the community and the reality of their behavior and habits. One should also recognize that the teens' parents generation married earlier (14-15 for females) and that in more rural areas females remained virgins until they were wed. Dating today is forbidden among most rural Ethiopian families. I spoke to some parents regarding communication between their teen children and relations with the opposite sex. They admitted that their children would probably meet their partners at school or afterschool without their permission as they had also done with their spouses.These parents agreed it was wrong to force their children to lie under their strict rules, but that they had no alternative because they would be condemned by their community of such liberal alternatives. Hence their is little to no discussion of sex education in the house or among siblings.

With no sex education even in the highschool and little communication amongst peers of sex, most teens will engage in sex with very little knowledge. The idea of addressing AIDS while speaking of sex, is difficult for the community to accept. Our teens knew this was the hardest part of counseling people on HIV.

A few tips we learned from our Adwa experience: Condom distribution was not a success because of our informal approach by walking around the town and giving condoms and pamphlets to people on the street. The youth group was inevitably mobbed by a group of children screaming and grabbing for what they thought was candy. Even pamphlets on STDs were being fought over among 6 and 7 year olds. We learned that distribution of pamphlets or condoms would be more effective in a formal gathering or assembly meeting.

During the execution of the mural the LIFESIGNS team painted on a public wall. Within minutes we would have a crowd of 100 children gathering at the affair. At times the children posed as a great distraction as they pushed their way closer and closer to the event. Eventually we would have to have a couple of our members 'stand guard' to prevent accidents.

Overall the Adwa project was a great learning experience for both sides. These teens proved that with enough AIDS education, they could save lives. In addition, the mural which was inspired from the local condom design resulted in a stunning visual attraction in the main town intersection. We knew that with this daily reminder for 7000 teens who attended the highschool across the street, protected sex would stay in their mind regardless of the lack of sex education in the school curriculum.

Angie Eng