Report on State Level Traning of Trainers Workshop Held at Chennai From 21.01.2009 TO 23.01.2009.

Introduction:

The Indian Red Cross Society through its branches in various States have been involved in a larger number of HIV/AIDS prevention activities through YPEP. The purpose of taking up Youth Peer Education Programme in educational institutions is that it has been found that youth between the age of 15-24 years are the fastest growing segment of the newly infected HIV/AIDS population with one youth get infected every 15 seconds. The YPEP aims at life skill promotion to create awareness and prevent HIV/AIDS among young people. 

The Indian Red Cross Society, Tamil Nadu Branch organized three days State level Training of trainers Workshop for the Programme personnel of Youth Peer Education Programme supported by both Federation and Italian Red Cross from 21/01/2009 to 23.01.2009 at Red Cross premises.

The objectives of the workshop are as follows:

• Familiarize with IRCS HIV Project

• Enhance the capacity of the programme personnel in life skills.

• Create greater awareness and understanding on HIV/AIDS and relative issues.

• Provide conceptual clarity on Peer Education and Life Skills

• Equip the personnel  with skills to effectively address the issue of life skills amongst students

• Orientation to prevention education on Violence against Children

Inagural Function

The Programme was inaugurated by Dr. Vimala Ramalingam, President, IRCS-TNB. Mrs. Shantha Diaz, Secretary, IRCS-TNB, Mr. Matteo Ciarli, Italian Red Cross Representative, Dr. Das, NHQ, New Delhi also participated.

Venue And Duration

The workshop was organized in IRCS Training hall. It was three-day residential workshop from 21st January 2009 to 23rd January 2009.

Participants

The workshop was attended by 27 participants from five districts (Villupuram, Perambalur, Trichy, Thanjavur and Tirunelveli) and 3 ‘S’ Link Tambaram Hospital project, Tambaram

Break-Up of Topics

The first two sessions consisted of introduction to YPEP, knowledge on HIV/AIDS, sex & sexuality, Blood Donation, Counseling & Testing and knowledge on Life Skills.

The last day session was about orientation to prevention education on Violence against Children. This topic focused on definition of child, definition of violence, types of violence, definition and types of child abuse and impact of child abuse.

The interaction with PLWHA from Chennai Network of Positive People was very useful and able to know the life of PLWHA. It was a good opportunity for the participants to understand the difficulties faced by the PLWHA and their subsequent challenges faced by them with the community.

Methodology

The sessions were interactive and based on adult learning principles. The participants were encouraged to share their experiences and ideas. The session methodology consisted of presentation-discussion, group work, role plays and games.

Facilitators

Most of the facilitators were from various departments of IRCS TNB having experience in HIV/AIDS field. The team briefed the facilitators in advance on the session requirements and contents. Facilitators were invited from Chennai District Positive network and IRCS NHQ. Workshop sessions were delivered in English and Tamil.

Knowledge Gain

At the time of registration, each participant was given a questionnaire to establish knowledge benchmark before the workshop (pre test). This questionnaire consisted of 20 multiple choice questions on various issues to be discussed in the workshop. On the last day of the workshop, the same questionnaire was given to participants to assess the change in the knowledge (post test).

Workshop Evaluation

To solicit participant’s views about the workshop, they were given an evaluation form. This exercise was done with a view to improve future YPEP workshops. The participants were asked to use a ten-point scale, 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest, to rate each topic.