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"Tackling issues in a fun way"
The
Star (www.thestar.com.my)
(07/12/05)
THEY hail from eight different countries from all over the world, and are
here to accomplish a noble mission – to help educate Malaysian youth on the
dangers of HIV and AIDS.
The most remarkable part is that they are youth themselves, who have as much
to learn about the subject as the people they are organising the conference
for.
Meet the 10 international AIESEC trainees who are here to organise the
Standard Chartered-AIESEC HIV/AIDS Youth Conference, to be held on Dec 10
and 11 at the Universiti Malaya Arts and Social Sciences Faculty auditorium.
The conference is the highlight of the AIESEC Malaysia-Standard Chartered
HIV/AIDS Learning Network, a project that sees AIESEC in Malaysia (which is
the largest student-run organisation in the world) partnering Standard
Chartered Malaysia for the second year running to spread awareness regarding
HIV and AIDS among the youth of Malaysia.
While the word “conference” usually invokes images of boring lectures by
droning speakers armed with thousands of transparency slides; this
particular event is set to be a completely different type of conference
altogether.
For one, it’s a conference organised by youth for the youth, and secondly,
it’s going to be F-U-N, according to their team leader Zdenka Haukova, who
hails from the Czech Republic.
“This is going to be a very fun and interactive conference,” assured Zdenka,
27. “It’s not going to be a lecture-style conference where the participants
just sit down and listen to someone giving a speech.
“There will be more interactive, fun sessions where everyone can take part
in open discussions and debates among participants, a screening of a movie
on AIDS, a session that teaches participants how to use a condom and even
parties!”
Fun and games aside, the organisers have not forgotten their primary
objective – the considerably more serious business of creating awareness and
providing the participants with much needed information regarding HIV/AIDS.
“Many of the youth we have talked to during our promotional campaigns do
have some basic information about AIDS, but there are still many
misconceptions regarding the disease, like whether the virus can spread
through kissing,” said Dutch communications graduate Martijn Holter, 26. It
doesn’t, by the way.
They also observed that youth here are very reluctant to talk openly about
the issue, especially when it comes to talking about sex, and hope that the
conference will encourage youth to open up and talk about a subject that
they may be too shy to talk about normally.
“Youth tend to be more comfortable talking about the issue when we are
amongst their peers, because we can understand each other better,” said
Zdenka.
The main target group for the conference are Malaysian young adults between
the ages of 18 and 30 because statistics show that this is the age group
which has the highest risk of exposure to HIV and AIDS.
“We hope to be able to reach out to a couple of hundred of these youth, and
provide them with all the factual information they need about AIDS,” said
Martijn. “Our job here is to dispense information so that they are aware of
the dangers and how to prevent infection. Ultimately though, whether they
choose to use the information or not is up to them.”
Besides Zdenka and Martijn, the rest of the team consists of Anne Dubelaar
(The Netherlands), Hedda Skotland (Norway), Melani Jarrett (England), Masami
Suzuki (Japan), Kristina Kloss (Germany), Jennifer Wilson (Canada), Lora
Anquinde (The Philippines) and Jop Voorhoeve (The Netherlands), all aged
between 21 and 27.
All 10 of them were selected through AIESEC’s international student exchange
programme, in which the organisation facilitates the international exchange
of thousands of students and recent graduates annually, whether in a paid
traineeship or as volunteers for non-profit organisations.
For this particular exchange, the candidates were put through a strict
selection process before being approved for the project. Before starting
work on the project, they were also taught basic skills and knowledge to
enable them to run similar training sessions and awareness campaigns in and
out of campus during a one-month campus level awareness campaign in various
colleges and universities all over Malaysia.
It is hoped that the involvement of these 10 international trainees would
add a different dimension to the activities at the conference. “With all the
different cultural backgrounds involved, we hope to add a different point of
view to the discussion later, and that both sides will be able to learn from
one another and get different ideas and perspectives regarding the issue as
well,” said Martijn.
“In our societies, it is compulsory to know about AIDS and HIV. Sex
education is also part of the education system in our countries, whereas
here, youth don’t get any sex education in schools, so many youth are still
uninformed about a lot of the facts regarding the disease.”
* The AIESEC HIV/AIDS Youth Conference is supported by Standard Chartered
Malaysia, and will be held on Dec 10 and 11 at the Arts and Social Sciences
Faculty auditorium, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. Registration for the
conference costs RM20, inclusive of meals, goodie bags and movie screening.
To register for the event or for more information, e-mail aidsconference @gmail.com,
or call % 03-7960 9007.
Notes: STF -: MICHAEL CHEANG finds out more about a bunch of young people
who have undertaken the serious business of creating awareness and providing
much needed information about HIV/AIDS to their peers.
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