Responsible Behaviour as Solution for Challenges faced by today’s youth imbibed at C- life training

[RAJESH KUMAR SOOD]

Kangra

Different aspects of the challenges being faced by the youth were discussed at a district level training on “C-life” organised by the HP Sate AIDS Control Society at Tandon Club Kangra.

With the hormonal and psychological changes, boys are more likely to exhibit behavioural problems like aggressive behaviour, such as fighting and bullying; and girls are more likely to suffer emotional problems such as anxiety and depression.

Young people are more vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections than adults & girls more than boys. Misconceptions, tendency to experiment and an environment which makes discussing issues around sexuality taboo adds to their vulnerability.

Youth is the phase of career building, lack of responsible behaviour and tendency to experiment, inability to cope with stress can lead to experimentation with drugs and loss of vision in life.

In the present era, we are witnessing a phenomenal advancement in technology. Technology has influenced the way we think about life and threatened interpersonal human relations. Friends are now inside the computer, chatting on the net, creating society with growing numbers of self-centred individuals oblivious to the society around.

At the “Celebrating Life” Training workshop for peer educators of Red Ribbon Clubs youth were engaged in creating solutions to the challenges they face, incorporating youth development through approaches like self-awareness, promoting responsible behaviour, building capacity of the youth through open dialogue.

Red Ribbon Club training aims to empower youth with knowledge, skills, resources & opportunities to enhance life-skills, so that youth can take informed & responsible healthy choices.

The trained youth will become role models among the youth and further communicate with their peers to promote informed & responsible choices, setting one boundaries, gender sensitivity, be Bold” to talk about HIV AIDS & say “NO” to negative peer pressures & thus lead the HIV prevention revolution.

A mega banner featuring Red Ribbon with message of Zero Discrimination Zero New infections among youth, Zero Discrimination by youth was hosted. Over 80 youth peer educators from colleges around the district wore Red Ribbons as mark of “commitment” to practice “responsible behaviour” for protecting themselves from HIV and STI, and to “Celebrate life”.

HIV/AIDS is a problem of youth and leading cause of death among age group of 15-49 years worldwide. With 3000 youth being infected everyday, and half of the new infections globally being among young people; there is a need to step up efforts and increase the sense of urgency in addressing the problem through Red Ribbon Clubs and youth Development Centres.

[Marie Lamboray]

Hi Rajesh,

 

Bellow are links to some experiences of members of The Constellation. I hope they will be inspiring.

 

Please read Prince’s contribution to the discussion “How to encourage communities to take action?” http://aidscompetence.ning.com/forum/topics/comment-encourager-les-...

 

Here are some blogs and comments on Youth Competence and HIV:

Wiwin Winarni: http://aidscompetence.ning.com/profiles/blogs/with-love-from-manonjaya

Kalana: http://aidscompetence.ning.com/profiles/blogs/tuktuk-drivers-in-mat...

Ashanta Osborne-Moses: http://aidscompetence.ning.com/profiles/blogs/salt-in-action-peer-e...

 

The first discussion of the Youth Competence Group is “How do we ensure sustainability in Youth led organizations?” http://aidscompetence.ning.com/group/youthcompetence/forum/topics/h...

 

Regards,

 

Marie

[RAJESH KUMAR SOOD]

Yes, I totally agree with Archana Rao.

The only problem is that while we are able to sensitise some the youth; there is no structured follow up designed to sustain the enthusiasm of youth. Also we need to impart communication skills and training skills to youth- so that they can effectively convey the message further. What and how the trained youth will do after training, and what support is to be provided is another area which requires clarity, and formalisation.

[Archana Rao]

I would like to share an experience of mine. When I worked for short term project as a district resource faculty in 2009, I had to conduct workshops for all line departments in Mahbubnagar District in AP. The purpose of these workshops was to sensitize government officials, private officials and other stakeholders on HIV and the need of mainstreaming HIV with the support of District AIDS Prevention control unit(DAPCU) During one of the workshops with education department officials, girl students of junior colleges were also present. The lecturers of their colleges were apprehensive about their students attending the workshop. At lunch time, I was surrounded by nearly ten adolescent girls asking me lot of questions related to modes of transmission, sex and sexuality, sexually transmitted infections etc. Some even inquired about follow up workshop.Many of them shared about their own experiences of molestation and abuse by their peers, friends and relatives. The discussion started with one query which was followed by series of questions. I think red ribbon clubs and adolescent education programs are essential for our colleges as our families hardly facilitate and enabling environment to discuss such issues. Red ribbon clubs will not only generate discussions, debates among youth and help in sharing ideas for protecting themselves but also make them feel more responsible.

[RAJESH KUMAR SOOD]

Thank you for showing interest. I am sharing my brief perspective on my experience of establishing and mentoring the Red Ribbon Clubs [RRCs]. The RRCs are established in educational and technical institutions by health department in collaboration with the institutes. An offer letter about the scheme and potential benefits is given to the new colleges/ institutions and those who express willingness are added to the scheme. We have not established RRC in schools yet. We also have to delete non responder (defaulter) clubs.

There is nodal officer- a teacher who is designated by the principal. He invites the student youth to join, the youth fill membership forms, and they maintain club activity registers. We train 5 peers from each club, and they are expected to further spread the message among their peers.

However, we are not able to regularly support the RRCs and the content and quality of communication activities conducted. [ is the energy and time wasted on debating mosquito transmission , chimp origin OR are the issues of responsible choice actually discussed]. Communication support will require at least one full time dedicated staff per district, or at least quarterly get together, but unfortunately this has not been supported till date. 

Also, all clubs are not equally active. Of the 58 odd clubs in my district; there are 10-15 outstanding with good leadership and management, who are proactive and innovative. Others need repeated visits/ calls by the counselors of ICTCs. My personal experience is that most of the private colleges have better management support and these clubs are more active.

A paltry amount of 2500 INR is given by NACO/SACS to the RRC as annual grant. This amount is too meager to support activities, but the movement is driven by self motivation and zero budget activities coupled with stimulation from our end. there is high media visibility which also adds impetus to the movement.

The challenges to sustainability are frequent transfers of teachers, Recently we have been trying to enhance the e skills of nodal officers for faster communication. Another challenge to sustainability is one year courses in B Ed etc, where the next year there is totally new batch of students and we need to start afresh.

However, these is still no formal structure. We propose to have an elected body among the students with secretary, president etc..and strengthen the organisation. This will also lead to participatory planning of activities increased space fro trained peer educators  Also a club manual needs to be developed. We are trying to develop a manual with voluntary efforts, to improve the sustainability of the club activities. 

However, the system of objective appraisal and rewards and recognition from SACS/ NACO can go a long way sustaining the enthusiasm (given the low financial support).

We had proposed to further strengthen the RRC by mainstreaming them with NRHM, where the peer educators of RRCs would be trained in all health issues and act as health ambassadors  We even passed the resolution in distirct health mission to support the good RRCs with a matching grant of 2500 PA, but the proposal was sent to Mission Director (MD) NRHM Himachal Pradesh for approval. The MD NRHM on repeated reminders turned down the proposal with a one line statement that "Health department alone is sufficient for the IEC & involvement of RRCs is not needed".

Meanwhile, we have a facebook page www.facebook.com/redribbonclub dedicated to mutual sharing and learning from each other- till now sharing has been limited from few good clubs only.. 

In addition the out of college youth are covered through NYK & Youth & Sports RRCs, however, these are relatively inactive/ dormant.

Dr RK Sood

[Rituu B. Nanda]

Thanks for your blog. Who sets up Red ribbon clubs? How do you encourage youth to join them? what makes these clubs sustainable? We could learn so much from your experience and share with others.