Carrie and I went to the Student Health Engagement session and it was very interesting. A lot of the students were working on AIDS-related issues:
- AIDS awareness through soccer/sport: this raised an important point about the target group of such outreaches - ie. most soccer players are male, but the AIDS incidence is higher in females)
- AIDS in the transvestite community in India: Indian society does not recognize these transvestites, consequently, they turn to prostitution etc. for livelihood and spread AIDS. India also doesn't recognize AIDS all that much. Thus, they fail to recognize AIDS and one of the sources of its perpetuation
We discussed the gender dynamics of AIDS. In particular, in a lot of countries such as India, women have no power to even tell their husbands to use a condom. Thus they contract AIDS, and pass it onto their children (in India there is also a big negative stigma about being childless), and eventually the parents die and the child is left an orphan.
Also, in many African countries there are myths that if you are infected and have sex with a virgin, you are not only cured but also protected against future AIDS infections.
One of the takeaways here is that gender behaviors need to be shifted, and the importance of engaging men in discussions about AIDS and health.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Sunday, February 25, 2007
IYVS Workshop: Maximizing your study abroad experience for future action
On Saturday I went bright and early at 10 AM to an interesting discussion on ways maximize one's study abroad/service trip experience both while in the foreign country and upon returning.
We covered a broad range of topics within the study abroad experience, but one area we concentrated on was treating the experience as two-fold and beyond just academic goals:
1) Having a meaningful impact in the community in your host country (getting to the know the people, volunteering, learning about what issues are most prevalent there)
2) Bringing your experiences back to the United States AND using them to promote issues, raise awareness, take action, etc.
We discussed the challenge of coming to a country as an American and the stereotypes that accompany this label. One possible way of dealing with this challenge is to enter the country with an open mind and willingness to learn, no matter others have said about the region or what's shown in the news. The basic idea is to learn the culture first, THEN try to engage in the community and work towards substantive change that the community members themselves want.
There's this group the facilitator talked about, Exchange, that is devoted to gathering students recently arrived from study abroad trips and interested in channeling their experiences into something tangible and proactive. I don't have their website on me now, but I'll try to find it soon and post it.
Anyway, it was a cool workshop and I found it pretty helpful. I also went to one on Microfinance, but I'll leave that description for another time.
C'est tout!
Jon
We covered a broad range of topics within the study abroad experience, but one area we concentrated on was treating the experience as two-fold and beyond just academic goals:
1) Having a meaningful impact in the community in your host country (getting to the know the people, volunteering, learning about what issues are most prevalent there)
2) Bringing your experiences back to the United States AND using them to promote issues, raise awareness, take action, etc.
We discussed the challenge of coming to a country as an American and the stereotypes that accompany this label. One possible way of dealing with this challenge is to enter the country with an open mind and willingness to learn, no matter others have said about the region or what's shown in the news. The basic idea is to learn the culture first, THEN try to engage in the community and work towards substantive change that the community members themselves want.
There's this group the facilitator talked about, Exchange, that is devoted to gathering students recently arrived from study abroad trips and interested in channeling their experiences into something tangible and proactive. I don't have their website on me now, but I'll try to find it soon and post it.
Anyway, it was a cool workshop and I found it pretty helpful. I also went to one on Microfinance, but I'll leave that description for another time.
C'est tout!
Jon
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