HIV/AIDS Youth Peer Education Training

My father woke me up to attend what I thought to be an excursion. I prepared for half an hour to catch the carpool service waiting at the City Hall fully clad in summer beach attire only to find out blindfolded that it was going to be a 2-day-and-one-night training program. Though it looked like I was completely out-of-place to be attending something that I am not even a member of, I am now considering everything to be an unusual struck of fate that opened my eyes to so much.

Young participants of the Red Cross Youth - HIV/AIDS Youth Peer Education Training

It was like a spontaneous weekend encounter retreat. The venue was awesome, the mountainous vistas were breathtaking, the food was simply great, the facilitators were very approachable and accommodating and the topics discussed were quenching and easy to digest. It was truly and simply awesome.

From the backdrop of the beautiful Boso Boso Highland Resort in Antipolo, the Philippine Red Cross Youth – Quezon City Chapter conducted the HIV/AIDS Youth Peer Education Training last weekend (June 11-12, 2011) to 22 young participants - mostly college nursing students from Fatima University and youth community volunteers from various barangays with an aim to spread the message and not the virus.

In a nutshell, here are some of the topics we delved in:

• I. A Brief Historical Background of the Red Cross
• II. Safer Access Framework
• III. Male and Female Reproductive Systems
• IV. HIV/AIDS
• V. Peer Education
• VI. Substance Abuse in relation to HIV/AIDS
• VII. Stigma and Discrimination

Though my presence in the training was very spontaneous, I would love to continue to be an advocate and agent of change to my peer group which what the training was all about. Even if it means making compromises to my already busy schedule, I would love to because this is it. A chance that I have been praying for, a chance to reach out to the marginalized in the society, the downtrodden, the hopeless, the poor and the stigmatized, all in the spirit of genuine love and volunteerism – a service to a non-government humanitarian advocacy independent from any established system of political intervention in the country.  I’ll take my chances here :) This could be my response to the long calling to serve God by serving my brothers and sisters. 

Group 3: ELIDA with Ma'm John Lloyd