Hiv training with volunteers
This weekend I participated as a facilitator in a training of volunteer peer educators in our Time for Choice program; an educational program on HIV and safe sex, inspired from the Active Choice program in Norway. Out of 26 participants, only 3 or 4 spoke much english, so I ended up improvising with body language and the little armenian I know when I wanted to communicate to them. It works for simple practical instructions, but for more complex things I have to rely on Emma or Mary to translate for me, and they are doing a great job.
We also did a condom demonstration and a relay with four teams, where the task is to put on a condom correctly and tell the instructor what you’re doing. Before the demonstration we asked if they wanted to have this demonstration; some were against and a discussion evolved in armenian, unfortunatly I didn’t catch much of it. Some reactions were: “You are teaching us bad things” and “you should learn it from your husband”. In the end I argumented with: “It’s better to be fooling around now and doing it wrong, than to be fumbling about when you first need it.” It seemed like quite a few of them recogniced this argument.
I’m looking forward to work more with this subject and with the volunteers I’ve met this weekend, I hope to go to see some of them in their regions soon.
